One of the biggest things we have discovered is the importance of 'Pitching'. The pitch is EVERYTHING. It is what decides whether the customer will use you or your competitor. It is what decides whether the investor has faith in you or not. It is what decides whether the project gets the green light or not. IT IS EVERYTHING! With this harrowing realisation came the opportunity for us to grow and develop our knowledge and skills in this area of the business world- and believe us it is a skill worth learning. Initially when we approached pitching our focus was on 'What we do' and 'How we do it'. We spent days thinking of the best way to 'pretty it up' and make it sound as appealing as possible to those looking for production services- and I must say we were quite proud of ourselves in the end.
That was until we did a tested it out... Prior to our first major pitch for £3000 we enlisted the assistance of a start-up business pitching adviser called James Cracknell. He sat and listened to our pitch, laughed at our jokes, and nodded his head silently with a big smile as we came to the end of the presentation. Then he sat forward and asked: "What is your 'why'?"
Confused we responded "Excuse me?" "Why... You've said 'What' you do and 'How' you do it... now tell me 'Why' you do it?" WHY... HAD NEVER OCCURRED TO US. Such a simple question and it totally derailed our entire pitch! After 30 minutes of fumbling to discover our elusive 'why'- James went on to explain that when pitching, whilst you ARE pitching a product or service, the way to connect with people and potential investors is to tell them why you are doing it. Why will your product or service fix a problem. Why is fixing this problem important to you. Why should others see it as a problem needing to be fixed. Why you are the one who can be trusted to fix it.
WHY. The reveal of this wonderfully simple secret to pitching and its application to our business has contributed time and time again to our success in pitching for funds, pitching for work and pitching for collaborators. Understanding your businesses 'Why' shows an understanding of why and how you are able to fix a need/demand/problem and make the world a better because of it.
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