What is pitching EXACTLY?

by Pitching Basics

Pitching is an important communicative skill and discipline – and chances are it’s important for you too in your professional and personal life. Nevertheless, many people don’t even know what a pitch is. If that includes you, don’t worry. In this brief article, we look at what pitching actually is and why it’s important.

A Music, a Baseball, or a Presentation term?

The word ‘Pitch’ has different meanings in different contexts; in the world of music the pitch is an element of vocal pitch; in the world of baseball we pitch (throw) the ball; and finally, in a communicative setting and especially in the business world, a pitch is a short, time-limited presentation with the intention to convince an audience.

A pitch even has further meanings than the ones mentioned here, but let’s stick with them for now. When we use the word ‘pitch’ onwards in this article and on Pitcherific.com in general, we refer to the latter example above that benefits from a repetition: a pitch as a short, time-limited presentation with the intention to convince an audience.

Pitches for all occasions!

Pitching can be used under many different circumstances and for different occasions. We use pitching for our work when we must convince a colleague or business partner about a new idea or a certain way of doing things. We pitch ourselves before going out on a date with the beautiful girl or pitch the trip to Venice to our girlfriend.

We are often unaware that we are pitching under these everyday circumstances, but that changes substantially during special occasions. We use pitching when we; make a speech at our best friend’s wedding; present in an exam situation; or present an idea, concept, or product to a potential client or business partner.

A discipline of its own

They say that an idea is worth nothing without execution. A central part of the execution is to communicate your idea. In other words: it is not enough to have a good idea – you must also be able to sell it to others. You must convince, sell and communicate clearly and get your message across. That’s what pitching is about.

It is very easy on paper; you have a good idea, so you want to convince others that they should participate in the execution of it; you have a great product, so you want the customers to buy it. Often it isn’t as easy as it may sound. Therefore, it would be beneficial to consider pitching as a discipline of its own: as something you can practice and eventually master.

Pitching is a discipline that enables you to present your idea concisely and convincingly so that your idea, message, or product – no matter what it is – can reach the stars.

To jump right into creating your own pitches go to our dedicated pitch tool right here: https://app.pitcherific.com/signup

Feature image How to Master Pitching

How to Master Pitching

by Pitching Basics

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, where you thought that getting your message across was a piece of cake – but it turned out very difficult? In the following article, we take a look at why pitching can be difficult but also how to start mastering the art of Pitching.

So much to say – so little time

Winston Churchill has been quoted saying that “If you want me to speak for two minutes, I need three weeks of preparation, but if you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.” His point was that a short speech requires a lot of preparation time to make the two minutes count and get your message through in such a short time, while a long speech allowed him to find the points along the way, so less need for preparation time.

Let me tell you straightly; (!) nobody wants to listen to you or anybody else making up the points along the way. You need to know your message and priorities in advance and then be able to communicate them precisely. In short, you’ll need to prepare.

At the same time, there is only room for the most important aspects of a story or case in your pitch. There’s no room for less important aspects in a pitch: details and ‘nice to know’s‘ are for a later and longer meeting.

The pitch is about creating sufficient interest, understanding, and persuasion so that the receiver wants more. More info, more of the story, more of you presenting an interesting case. Therefore, you must only tell one message – the one that is absolutely ‘need-to-know’, not to you, but to one(s) in the receiving end of your communication.

Why most entrepreneurs fail when pitching

Let’s say your end goal for communicating is selling a product. What do you do? What will your pitch include, and how will it start and end?

The most common mistake for entrepreneurs pitching their idea is to focus first and directly on explaining the product or the solution. After all, that’s the most exciting thing and what’s bringing value, right? Well, not exactly. Not to the receiver of your pitch and at least not yet.

Instead, first, we need to begin with aspects that the potential customer can relate to. Don’t start with the solution; the unknown to the listener. Start in your customer’s world, in his or her known world. Show that you know and can relate to their existing world, their pain points, problems, or needs.

Søren Kirkegaard, the famous Danish philosopher said that “if one wants to really succeeds in leading a man to a certain place, one must first of all find him where he is, and begin there.”

In the same manner, the doctor doesn’t prescribe any medicine to the patient before he makes a reasonable diagnosis: understanding the patient’s world and current (problem-) situation is a prerequisite for helping. As an entrepreneur, you should use the same tactics as the doctor and the knowledge of the old philosopher.

Start with defining the problem, and then present the solution; the listener will then be able to make sense of your solution and understand what meaning and difference it makes in his or her life. Hence, the sequence of the things you tell in your pitch is of critical importance!

What you can do to master pitching

The few elements mentioned above are some important aspects of pitching and there’s plenty more to dive into to really learn how to create and deliver a great pitch.

Don’t worry. Everything is troublesome until we learn how to master it. Pitching is a discipline of its own and it can be mastered. It is difficult at first, but we will learn it eventually. Learning some basic mechanisms of pitching and following some simple principles will make you able to get a grip on pitching. And as you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time and practice, practice, practice to master the pitch discipline.

In order to make it easier for you and others to start pitching and succeeding easier and faster, we have built Pitcherific. Pitcherific is a dedicated pitch training tool built up around best-practice pitch templates, where the framework for content, the sequence of content, and the weight of the content are made in advance, so you can concentrate on phrasing the message and rehearsing the deliverance. By the way a tool that automatically incorporates some of the wisdom of Churchill and Kirkegaard.

If you haven’t already, you can try the tool for free here: https://app.pitcherific.com/signup