Mastering the Pitch

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Mastering the Pitch

• By Justin DaviesVice President Marketing / Sales

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The 5 Keys

• Know your solution and be able to express its
  value succinctly
• Understand how your prospect buys
• Influence the decision makers thinking
• Build the compelling presentation and over
  practice - you have 10 minutes to change the
  world
• Creating the compelling conclusion
• If you are pitching for capitalthe same
  thinking applies

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Key 1 Desire Creates the Power

• Develop the compelling proposition and vision
• Features, advantage and benefits
• Analyse your market
• Answer the questionwhy is your solution the
  best solution? .in a single sentence
• A is the B that does C for me

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Proposition and Features

• GoPC uses a new generation technology called
  Cloud Computing to provide a fully functional
  web based PC desktop with standard desktop
  applications, data storage and security - without
  the need for hardware
• GoPC has
• the desktop and applications to rival Microsoft
• the delivery mechanism to rival Google Apps
• the online storage to rival X-drive
• .... and runs 500x times faster.
• Features
• Looks like a Windows desktop with users,
  applications and data
• Supports common file formats of Microsoft Office
  and others
• Nothing is stored on the local machine. No setup
  costs or logistics issues
• Access your desktop from any PC whether at uni or
  from home privately and securely
• Collaborate across class groups with lecturer
  participation
• Content can be restricted through University
  firewalls
• You can try it for free

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Kevin 07 meet GoPC
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Key 2 Understand how your client buys

• Are there investment thresholds eg. gt250k...
• What are the investment criteria?
• Customers?
• Cashflow?
• Green benfit?
• Social benefit?
• Is a proof of concept a good way to start (may be
  paid for)
• Is a business case required?
• Who will drive procurement?
• Who will be involved in the decision?

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Key 3 Influence the Decision Makers thinking

• You must map the decision makers, the people that
  influence them and understand the people that are
  affected within the client
• Friendly ear gives you the inside information
• Decision makers
• The Person in Pain
• The Person in Power
• The Person with money
• The Technical Advisor
• They comprise the decision committee

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The Person in Pain

• Person that will be positively impacted by the
  technology
• Explain the impacts
• Show the product in action
• Make the intangible tangible

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The Person in Power

• Will have more strategic perspective
• Will also have a good sense of how to make this
  work and potential pitfalls
• You may not meet them until your final pitch
• You can only build rapport during the
  presentation
• They assess whether their Person in Pain trusts
  you

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Technical Advisor

• Looks for traps
• Rarely has power to say yes
• Definitely has power to say no
• Needs to understand technical environment fit,
  business risks, and support requirements
• Sometimes has vested interests

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The Person with Money

• Return on Investment (ROI) critical
• May use unique measure or series of measures to
  work this out
• Needs to understand assumptions upon which you
  base your figures
• Intangibles are often considered worthless in a
  business case

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Key 4 Building the compelling presentation

• Tell them what you are going to tell them
• Brief summary of benefits
• Agenda
• Timing
• Tell them
• Tell them what you told them
• Brief summary
• Recap the most compelling points
• What specifically do you want them to do next?

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The 3 Big Questions

• Why this?
• Why you?
• Why now?

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Agenda for gopc pitch

• Set the scene
• Cloud Computing is on everyones lips - it is the
  next BIG thing
• Product demo - they must get it very quickly
• Any more than two minutes on the product and you
  are dead
• Markets
• Maturity (risks removed)
• The deal
• About 12 to 15 minutes for the above
• Question time is where you get engagement

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Using Presentation Tools

• Inexperienced presenters often rely too much on
  their presentation software. They stand and read
  their slides, with their backs to you, and forget
  their head is not made of glass.
• People read at around 300 to 400 words per minute
  on average. A good speed for a presenter to talk
  is 120 words per minute. Therefore on average
  your audience can read three times faster than
  you can speak. This means by now you will have
  read to the bottom of this slide and are waiting
  for me to hurry up and finish reading it. You are
  also quite worried that the rest of the
  presentation is going to go like this.
• A better way is to talk about the issues that
  each slide addresses and use the slide to bring
  together a summary of the key points. You might
  be simply addressing each point in more depth
  than you have on the slide. If you illustrate a
  concept with a diagram so much the better.

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Dealing with questions

• Hold them until the end
• If they insist, acknowledge the issue, write the
  question down and ask if you can hold it to the
  end
• If they really insist, stop and deal with it

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Over practice

• Success before work only occurs in the dictionary
• Practice your presentation, handovers between
  speakers, answering questions, role playing
• Get someone to play devils advocate and ask you
  hard questions
• Practice negotiating to a deal

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Key 5 Compelling Conclusion

• The key, most important benefits
• Align to corporate strategy
• Make reference points for each buyer
• Summarise ROI

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Courage is the capacity to confront what can be
imagined.

• Leo Rosten

Thank you...and go get em! Justin Davies Blog
www.justindavies.com.augopc.net