Pitch like a pro – you’ve got 1-minute!

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You've got 1-minute, make it count.[/caption]Pitching is the bottom line for every business. Without pitching there is no business, so there's no time like the present to brush up on your skills. We've had a look at presentations before (Here and Here) but do you know what is the most important part of your pitch? The first 60 seconds.Now you may be thinking 'hang on a minute, I don't need to know my pitch, I'm not in sales.'Wrong.Indeed some of you may be pitching for new business, but in reality you are pitching all the time: you're pitching new ideas to current clients, you're pitching ideas to investors, you're pitching the idea of passing your work on to someone else, you're pitching the lunch menu to the in-house social club. So it behooves you to get used to pitching to make it in this business world.So what do you do? When it comes to a Powerpoint presentation (or any verbal presentation) you need to have everything that's relevant and sexy said within the first 60 seconds, otherwise you're dead in the water. If you haven't said: Gourmet pizza, A cheeky chardonnay, and chocolate caramel slice for afters - within seconds, then you've lost them! (Lunch anyone?)You have to be able to squeeze 5 things into your 60 second pitch, you know what they are:

1. Your name or the company's area of expertise. It's only polite to introduce yourself.
2. How you can help - make sure you tell a story here. Make it as interesting and relevant as possible. People will remember your story about iguanas more than they will remember your name.
3. What you actually do. This way they know if you are qualified for the task.
4. Why are you different and why it's so important to you. How do you stand apart from the others. Share another story here, maybe something spectacular you do
5. The call to action. What do you want them to do and why. It's the WIFM principle - What's In It For Me.
6. Added Bonus: If you have slides, don't stare at them, you should know them by heart. This is especially important if projected on a screen behind you. If you look around to read you'll lose the eye contact with your audience, and no matter what sort of chardonnay you may be offering, they won't be listening.

This 30 seconds of information is vital to all presentations. It is how you should start all presentations, giving your (new) audience an introduction to you and a reason why they should listen to you. If you don't get that information across at the beginning and have it condensed down into 30 seconds, you will lose your audience and the rest is for naught.Your pitch and the slides need to be short and snappy. If your verbal pitch is slick, but your slides are a little sad and you need some love, we can help. We're fantastic at getting all the good juicy stuff whittled down into a tight format. Don't believe me? The proof of the pudding is in our portfolio…