How Much Time Do You Spend On Your Pitch?
My experience in a recent networking event.
Networking events are my favourite way of meeting new people and generating potential business partnerships. During which, you could practice and perfect your business pitch, pitching for funding and most importantly your elevator pitch. During a recent networking session, the organisers had dedicated a time for round the floor to have business owners to introduce themselves and what they do. In my head I went “Oh! Elevator Pitch Session!” and I started analysing what was going round the floor. It was very distinctive between those who had an elevator pitch prepared and those who think about it while they waited their turn.
Following The Guided Questions
The organisers knowing that some may not be as prepared, had a guide to help those who were unfamiliar with a 30 seconds introduction. So they assisted by informing the room on that they can start with the following:
Who are you?
What do you do?
Who would you like to connect with?
Many referenced to this and proceeded to answering the questions in that order whilst some repeated the questions and answering them. There’s nothing wrong with their answers, for me this is an opportunity to put the 30 seconds pitch to use. It was a great platform and best to stand out as people may not remember what you do. Here’s what I think would help! When you are at a networking event, know what your objective is for the event. To find new clients? To find investors? To find business partners? Albeit you may be going in a networking event and you want to find all three, you cannot be greedy because 30 seconds is not a lot of time.
They Started From The Other End
By chance, the organisers started from the other side of the room, so I was lucky enough to hear out majority of the participants’ answer to “Who would you like to connect with?”. When it was my turn, I switched my pitch to the profile of a fund provider. As there were several potential clients who would benefit greatly from that service of Omni Consultancy. Here’s one thing that I noticed, some tried to squeeze their prepared answer (that is longer than the allocated time) to “What do you do?” into 30 seconds. They started speaking very fast and I couldn’t remember what their businesses were about by the end of it.
My Thoughts
Truth be told, I would have done the same if I hadn’t allocated more time to improving my pitches. When I say pitches, I do not just mean the ONE, I improve all my pitches from funding to sales to elevator pitch. In my opinion, they should be different because they are meant for different audiences and different objectives. Hence the information and how it is presented will be differently highlighted. During the event, it seems like many did not put much thought into it but hoped to meet the right people. While you can’t control who attends the event, you can control who your business will shine to. It is an intentional effort instead of hoping I will meet the right people in the event. An intentional effort reduces your outcomes to relay less on chances and wishful thinking.
Preparation
To prepare, you need to know at what stage your company is in? What does it direly need at this point in time? Clients? Funding? Partner? Then prepare pitches for that particular audience first; an elevator pitch, a brief pitch that highlights the pain points, a detailed pitch and even a supplementary document for all the details, number and calculation. I would always remind myself this, a pitch is a presentation, not a business plan where details of budget, SWOT analysis and strategies are included.
Lastly, my experience in networking events has always been great because I enjoy meeting people of all walks of life while being able to improve my pitches continually. For your next networking, treat it as a place to practice your elevator pitch or to review what is it lacking. Good luck!