How To Avoid Your Pitch Going Pear Shaped!

“The pitch went pear shaped.”

My brilliant new client says this with his head in his hands. Help!

So I did!

He’s a top lawyer and has succeeded (and failed) at hundreds of ‘beauty parade’ pitches before.

He has a great personality and is more than capable of nailing it every time.

But this particular pitch was a nightmare (so he tells me).

His audience (BIG potential client) clearly had lost interest within the first 5 slides and he soldiered on with his beautifully planned and rehearsed pitch. (Yikes, first mistake!)

He knew it word for word. He had practiced and prepared it down to the last letter.

Would you say perhaps he was ‘over prepared’?

He thought he was ‘Pitch Perfect’.  And he was (poor guy).

HOWEVER – he didn’t do one thing that I advise all my clients to do and I’m going to share this extremely useful tip with you now…

You Must be Flexible on a Pitch

15 % flex is the key to a great pitch. Yes, you build in and plan for that unscripted leap-of-faith time where you think on your feet and respond to the audience.

A pitch is like a live radio show (and I’ve produced thousands of hours of live on-air chat for the BBC) or a meeting.

It has ebb and flow. The conversation sometimes goes off on a tangent (that’s OK as long as you know how to segue back to your planned running order).

Yes, you need a plan, and yes sometimes there is a place for slides and perfect scripts.

However, if you want to avoid your pitch going pear shaped, listen to these

4 Top Tips:

• Do – Be flexible
  If you have a wobble, take a pause, breathe, smile and ask your audience a question i.e. “What would you most like to focus on?”
• Don’t – Carry on with 152 slides
  And act like nothing has happened. You will make the audience HATE YOU.
• Do – Edit as you go
  Skip sections, jump to the interesting bit (your audience will appreciate it).
• Don’t – Be wedded to a script
  Your audience will spot bad acting if they feel you’re too scripted. They want you to be genuine, authentic and (seemingly) off the cuff.

Go on, build in 15% flexibility into your pitches and presentations and watch the transformation.

If you want more game changing tips and techniques to help you win more pitches Contact Me now and let me help you nail it!

Esther has Transformed Me!

“I learnt more in 2 hours one on one with Esther than I did in my whole career!”
Richard Holmes, Founder, The Job Post