Here’s a great post from the ever interesting ‘Idea Transplant’ blog by Jan Schultink, consultant, pitch guru and design enthusiast. It’s a post about the kind of things that inexprienced pitchers for finance do with their pitches and it has resonance for all of us doesn’t it? It’s relevant because mostlywhen we stand up to speak, we’re looking for an ‘investment’ from our audiences aren’t we? Be it cash, support, approval or simply feedback on an idea.
Jan suggests 10 things that people commonly do in error and they all make perfect sense. You could summarise the lot by saying that the pitfalls are caused by the presenter spending too much time thinking about their idea, product or service from their side of the table, and not enough from the potential investor’s side. And if we looked at our presentation from the moneyed side, we’d notice-
- The shortcuts taken by the presenter,
- the information skipped over,
- the risks under-represented,
- the things not said.
For the full post click here- Presentation design blog Idea Transplant: Common pitfalls in IPO presentations.
Great communicators, whether you’re pitching for investment, or explaining a product to a customer, tend to be artfully flexible. They can see their subject from all sides and create an argument that advances their agenda via the key needs and interests of the other interested parties. Thsi is the real secret to an effective presentation. I call this skill the ability to ‘FIT‘ and it’s followed by the ability of the speaker to ‘FOCUS‘ on the right things, then add ‘FLAIR‘ to help their relevant, punchy message stand out from the crowd. For more on ‘Fit, Focus & Flair‘ see here, and my video on why standing out is important for you- here.
