Deconstructing Pitches - an Introduction on how to Pitch 🔥

Hi there,
after our last elevator pitch exchange I thought about sharing my experience over here. 💡
What qualifies me to talk about this? Over the last two years, I had a rather academical look on that topic. During my studies, I did focus on Data Science and Entrepreneurship. I dismantled pitches and hold a dozen different pitches each of them probably a hundred times. But again the audience was academical and not customers. Right now, I'm building up my startup and pitching a lot to different audiences.
All of this is based on personal experiences and research. I know there are hundreds of smart explanations out there. My goal is to contribute my knowledge to the best of my abilities.🤔

First of all, there is not that "one" pitch. It would be best if you had a couple of versions in place. Every idea is individual, so are their pitches. Talking about pitches, I like to qualify pitches in three dimensions. Those three mainly determine which pitch you should give. Of course, these dimensions are not strictly disjoint.

1. Audience
2. Goal
3. Location

The audience, in my view, is the most important one. It would help if you always keep your audience in mind. What does your audience want/think? Adapt your pitch, so you get the people in front of you exited. The most common audience types for you are probably going to be: customers, users (yes, there is a difference), investors, media, partners and sometimes even suppliers. In many cases, customers and users align; a counterexample might be Slack. That way, your users are the employees, but the customer would be the company (or rather the CEO). The different audience types might feel different about the pain points you are trying to solve, so it's your primary task to prove each of them that you're the perfect solution!
Hand in hand with your audience goes the goal of your pitch. What do you want to achieve at the end of this day? Is it feedback you want, Beta users or cooperation? Adapt your pitch accordingly to convince the audience to achieve your goals. And most important let them know so that they can help you.
The last point "location" figuratively represents in what occasion you're presenting yourself. Are you talking on a stage, is it a random meeting in a bar or are you having a planned meeting? Regarding the situation, your audience has different goals themself and will give you a leap of faith and listen to you more or less intensive. The more you expect a short attention span, you should adapt and keep it to the point. But if you're expecting close attention with stronger motivations, you should go more into detail.

For the content of your pitch, I always think about different building blocks with multiple variants. That way, I can quickly put a pitch together in any situation.

1. Pain (mandatory): The most important one! In general, this is your opener. Your first sentence is game-deciding, whether you get your audience hooked or not. If you are losing people at that point, the rest becomes irrelevant. Keep in mind that different audiences have different pain points or at least a different view on them. For example, might an investor not see the pain point immediately. Get your audience excited, by telling them a story, asking a rhetorical question or stating a wrong to which they can relate.
2. Solution (mandatory): Again quite important is, how you're going to solve this. You need to convince people that you are or have the perfect solution. Be precise and don't talk about the bush. State what makes you different, if there is apparent competition or substitutes. If there is time, give your audience an impression of how your product is working.
3. Vision (optional): You might go on claiming your future visions. Be aware of your audience again. Where an investor might be interested in how you conquer the market and what innovative product you might have in ten years, your customers might be more interested in the upcoming features.
4. Market (optional): This is an essential part for people not being into the market (of course there are varying degrees). And don't even start with "everyone could use my product". Where is your market, which attributes are describing your customers? For sure you want to give an outlook on how huge the potential is, but be realistic on whom you are going to reach. Otherwise, no one will believe you. Besides, this will make things much easier for yourself. Knowing exactly who your customers are, helps you find them and gives you much higher conversion rates. Over time your core market can change as you are evolving from targeting early adopters to maybe later stages.
5. Team (optional): This is especially for investors fundamental (but also for partners or suppliers, maybe even media). They are investing in you, as you're the ones realizing the visions. They need to be sure that you can pull this off! Telling about yourself also helps sometimes with customers, as it might give them something to relate with you and believe in you. Sharing your story is always nice.
6. Call for action (mandatory): Now it's getting important again! People are most likely to remember your closing sentences. Most often, it is the "call for action" I see missing. What do you want? Why did you tell all of this? Keep it short and be precise. The "call for action" is what helps you converting your audience regarding your goal. Some examples: "Tenfold your money, invest now in your Mage-Team.", "Get Mage for your app: app.getmage.io .", "Join the public beta, signup now at: getmage.io .", "Let's talk about how Mage can help with your app.".

The last advice I have in mind is practice. Creating a pitch is a continuous process, there is always room for improvement. Just pitch to everyone even if it's only for feedback. It helps to get a feeling for which things work and which don't work.

I really hope you appreciate my share! :)
I don't claim full knowledge, so feel free to add anything you like 😇

Happy pitching! 🔥