Pitch
with Purpose!
by Ideas Worth Doing
www.IdeasWorthDoing.org Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) Not to be posted online
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Delivering a presentation that gets
you great impact and impression is
one of the most important skills
Pitch you’ll have
with Purpose! There are numerous tips and
techniques on how to do so.
Here’s some that you should never
forget + some great videos

Three Key Questions
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1 2 HOW?
WHAT?
WHY?

Three Key Questions
3
1 2 HOW?
WHAT?
WHY?
How can you best
do this?
What do you want
to achieve?
Why should your
audience listen to you?

#1
It’s not about you,
it’s about them.
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“Pitching is about your product, your business, you.”
Wrong! It’s all about the people you’re pitching to: Your
potential partners, customers, or investors.
You need to know: What do they want? What are their
concerns? What excites them? What turns them off?
Spend lots of time thinking about this deeply.
Then craft your presentation to fit their needs and interests
first, not yours.

#2
Focus, Flow,
Form and Finish.
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Focus: Decide what are the most important elements your
audience need to know.
Flow: Make sure there is a logical, natural flow from one
part of your presentation to the next.
Form: Help your audience keep track of your what you’re
saying. When you start, provide a “road map” content page
and re-show this before you start each new part of your
presentation.
Finish well with summary of your key points and a specific
call-to-action (What you want from your audience?)

#3
Not too much,
not too little,
but just right...
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“When you’re given a short time to present, try to
cover as much as possible.”
NO! This is never, ever a good idea. The human brain can only
absorb a limited amount of information at one time.
LESS IS MORE: Focus on most critical elements. In a short
pitch, the objective is to interest your audience enough, so that they
be captivated and want to spend more time with you to learn more,
later.
1 slide=1 min minimum is a useful rule-of-thumb. If you have a
15 minutes, you should have a maximum of 15 slides, ideally fewer
(Remember, don’t cramp lots of information on each slide either.)

#4
ENERGISE
your audience!
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One of the main things you are ‘selling’ is
YOURSELF!
People like to associate with people who have energy
and enthusiasm.
Show your passion, what your story and vision is, what
drives you and your team, not just the facts and figures.
People will reflexively respond to you during your
presentation. Be mindful of this always.

#5
Watch
these 4 great
short videos...
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#1 Nancy Duarte from Duarte Design
Her firm helps coach TED Speakers and designed
Al Gore’s Academy-Award winning presentation,
The Inconvenient Truth.
Search online for “Nancy Duarte” and refer to her books:
Resonate and Slide-ology
Click to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT9GGmundag

#2 TED Talk “Start With Why?”
by Simon Sinek
Powerful idea about how to influence and inspire,
with examples from Apple, Wright brothers...
Click to watch: http://www.ted.com/talks/
simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

#3 Stanford e-Corner: Make a Great Pitch,
by Guy Kawasaki
Plus many short video talks and lessons here that are very
insightful, related to growing businesses, raising funding,
building teams and so on.
Click to watch: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1177

#4 TED Talk video on Pitching
by David Rose
There are many excellent videos on TED.com you can
learn from, showing you how to introduce new ideas,
technologies, all of them are no longer than 18
minutes.
Click to watch: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_s_rose_on_pitching_to_vcs.html

Wish you all
the success
ahead!
Dave, Ideas Worth Doing
dave@IdeasWorthDoing.org
Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) Not to be posted online 18