As a founder, you’re always selling. You’re selling yourself, your team, your product, your company. But your pitch is likely missing one of two key components.
A pitch needs to accomplish two goals to be effective. Most pitches solve the first, but omit the second. First, the pitch must convince the audience who might be investors, employees, recruits, or customers of some premise. Second, the pitch has to equip your champions, now convinced of your argument, to sell on your behalf.
No enterprise software is ever bought unilaterally. No candidate is ever hired in isolation. No investment decision is ever made by one person in a VC firm.
Whomever you’re pitching will need to convince another person or group of people. So your pitch should be structured to enable those champions to be effective by providing a be simple, relatable and intriguing argument to build momentum within whatever organization is making the decision whether a VC fund, a family or a business.
How do you structure such an argument? One approach I’ve found that works well is a three pronged argument delivered in less than a minute.
A change is inevitable, that change implies a big opportunity, and this is the right team or product to help us take advantage of that change.
In your sales pitch, ideally at the end of the pitch, equip your champion with an argument like this. It will empower your champion to be more effective and help you close that sale.