Business pitch: What is it and what kinds exist? | Genially Blog

If you work at a company, whether it’s a startup or a large corporation, you’re sure to be more than familiar with the word “pitch”. As of several years ago, it has been the replacement for the traditional business presentation.

What is a pitch?

Basically, a company pitch is: a short presentation where we describe a company, regardless of the type of business it does and the degree to which its central business idea has been developed.

Before you begin creating your business pitch model, you’ll need to focus on:

1. Who you’re directing your presentation to – Who’s my audience?
2. What the objectives of this pitch are – What do I want to achieve with this presentation?
3. How this presentation will be given – Will I present it in person or will I be sending it over email? Will I use audiovisual components?

Asking yourself these three questions is key, given that they will decide what kind of pitch you create. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all model for a pitch. Instead, your pitch’s structure and content will depend fundamentally on how you answer the three questions.

To start diving into the world of pitches or business presentations, we’ll start by describing the most commonly used types of pitches. 

Types of Pitches:

Elevator Pitch

For when you need to present your business idea quickly before a specialized group of judges or investors or even just to your FFF(Family, Friends and Fools).

This kind of pitch is characterized by a total duration a duration of 3 to 5 minutes. You won’t always have visual material when giving it, so we recommend you create a script and tell a story that moves your audience to take action. The structure is simple and as Simon Sinek tells us in his Golden Circle model:

1. Start with what inspires you, with the why of what you do.
2. Then, you can talk about how you do it.
3. And finally, explain what you do.

Pitch Deck or Pitch for Investors

You’ll also find what’s called a Pitch Deck, which has the objective of presenting a business idea to add investors to your project as partners or to attract investment. This type of pitch is a business presentation of about 15-20 slides.

In this case, the visual components will be crucial so that you can communicate your idea clearly and in a way that motivates your viewers. They are especially essential given that you will send this presentation time and time again to potential clients, investors, accelerators or incubators, innovation programs, etc.

Some tips for your pitch deck are:

1. Prepare the visual components you are going to use,
2. Review Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle to use as a guide,
3. Show that there’s value in what you’re doing and proposing.
4. Don’t forget to clearly present who your potential clients are, what the problem you’re solving is and what solution you’re proposing.

Sales Pitch

If your goal is to sell your product or service to one or more clients, it’s time to create a sales pitch.

You should keep in mind your possible client’s goals, problems and needs when designing your presentation to offer them solutions. To do so, along with introducing them to your business, don’t forget to:

1. Appeal to emotions,
2. Tell a story,
3. Highlight success cases,
4. Introduce Call-To-Actions that you can follow up on.

Here, visual components will be key for getting the attention of your leads.

Bonus: Tweet Pitch

We live in the era of concise communication. If we’re already counting characters, why not measure our spoken communication as well?

The Twitter or Tweet Pitch is a short presentation that you can use when starting any of the kinds of pitches mentioned above, but it should be able to stand alone as well. Try saying in one or two phrases why you do what you do, how you do it and what it is you do. Do you accept the challenge?

The key lies in moving your audience to action

As we’ve seen, there are many different kinds of pitches, and little by little more types will emerge. If we had to summarize the general objective of a pitch, we’d say it’s “to move to action”, and you’ll only be able to get your audience to take action if you are able to get their attention in the first seconds of your Twitter Pitch.

Then, you’ll need to follow that up by achieving and maintaining the WoW effect throughout your presentation.

Look for a good start and a good ending, and take your pitch to the next level. Take a look at the interactive pitch templates we have for you. Put your knowledge into practice and communicate effectively with your audience. Now, it’s time to get started!