Persuading vs Informing.
What's Wrong with Informing?
There is nothing wrong with informing. Informing works very well when the person on the receiving end is on the same page or of the same wavelength. More often than not, people may not share your opinion. Your pitch deck however, is meant for persuasion in my opinion. If it were an “FYI” it could have been a brochure sent digitally instead.
What’s the difference? In an informative setting, you are always telling people what it is, what’s the advantages and normally leave out disadvantages, and sometimes technical details. In a fund raising setting, you may tell them the R.O.I. based on some projections, where is the money being spent and a roadmap. Here’s something to consider, how are these persuasive? What are the chances that the receiver is already looking for something that you’re providing to invest or purchase. This works well when there already is a huge demand rather than an untapped market.
In the ever growing transition from employment to entrepreneurship, founders see an untapped market or are at the forefront of market where the idea or app is meant to be a disrupter or a game changer. Here’s where it gets tricky. A disrupter means you’re appealing to early adopters, which may be a small percentage of the market. Although they are early adopters, they may not share the same views or optimism that you are conveying during your informative pitch.
What happens in a persuasive setting? It is a conversation, an engaging experience that your clients/prospects look for answers to their problems through your solution/services. What I have found when I transitioned from “shoving my products or services down my clients’ throats” to a persuasive experience, the most obvious change in all my appointments were clients became more engaging, initial barriers broken down without having to do the ice breaking dance. They start to open up to you and build a meaningful and sustainable long term relationship in the process. This then allows you to showcase your value which a lot of business owners are looking forward to in your pitch. Value in this setting is then felt rather than informed of. We believe when you need to announce your value, it has failed in its delivery.
The methods that we share here are solely based on personal experience, while there’s no guarantee, it has increased the chances of engagement in an observable manner. In the coming posts, we are going to continue to talk about informative outlines and persuasive outlines.
Omni Consultancy specializes in Pitch Deck Development, Strategic Development for businesses. In its short experience, it has helped startups in different sectors to raise preseed funds and redirect business direction to unlock more value (and revenue).