{"id":8145,"date":"2015-08-30T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=8145"},"modified":"2015-08-24T13:09:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T19:09:30","slug":"perfect-pitch-how-to-avoid-common-presentation-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/general-business-advice\/perfect-pitch-how-to-avoid-common-presentation-pitfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect Pitch: How to Avoid Common Presentation Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"By<\/a>

By Finance New Mexico<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019ve ever had to pitch a business or product idea to an investor or potential partner, you know the presentation can make or break the deal.<\/p>\n

Because the stakes can be high, serious entrepreneurs quickly learn what to avoid when giving a presentation, whether it\u2019s a 30-minute speech before a peer group or six-minute proposal to Demo Day investors.<\/p>\n

Some of the presentation do\u2019s and don\u2019ts are intuitive: Think about what keeps you engaged when someone\u2019s talking and what makes your attention drift to your email in-box.<\/p>\n

Every presentation should be a story with a logical beginning and end and a narrative thread that connects these dots. In the business world, it often starts with a problem that your product or service ultimately solved.<\/p>\n

If your creation is interesting, the story of its genesis should be equally compelling. Once you\u2019ve framed the tale and decided what to emphasize in the allotted time, determine how you\u2019ll sidestep the most common public presentation minefields.<\/p>\n

Avoid jargon:<\/strong> Lingo or other coded language alienates people who don\u2019t speak it, and it even bores professionals who are fluent. Pretend you\u2019re explaining your product or service to an inquisitive 10-year-old and use words designed to draw her in rather than exclude her from the conversation.<\/p>\n

Too much information:<\/strong> If you try to cram excess material into a talk, overwhelmed listeners will tune out further input while their brains sort out what\u2019s important from what\u2019s not \u2014 which is really your job. Identify three or four essential points and embellish them with colorful examples.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all about you:<\/strong> Even if your company solved a critical problem with an invention you devised, your audience will be more receptive if \u2014 instead of boasting about what a genius you are \u2014 you approach the topic the way you approached the problem: as a mystery that needed to be solved and something everyone should care about. Use \u201cwe\u201d to involve the audience and bring listeners along on the journey through roadblocks and hurdles to the triumphant finale. Keep it personal rather than organizational.<\/p>\n

Toss the script:<\/strong> If you read your presentation from a script, Teleprompter or PowerPoint screen, you create distance between yourself and listeners. Commit a short presentation or pitch to memory by keeping it simple and straightforward. Even if you\u2019re able to memorize a longer talk, make sure it sounds unrehearsed. It\u2019s OK to jot essential talking points on notecards to jog your memory and keep you on track, but spend most of your presentation making eye contact with the audience, not with cue cards.<\/p>\n

Dial down the drama:<\/strong> Soaring oratory and flamboyant body language aren\u2019t the only ways to express passion or occupy center stage. The true masters of public speaking radiate energy in subtle ways: a relaxed stance, joyful facial expressions and natural gestures of the hands and head. But speakers who wander, fidget and use distracting hand gestures \u2014 like excessive chopping of the air or finger pointing \u2014 puts listeners off. Take a conversational, relaxed approach to your message, and save the theatrics for the post-deal celebration.<\/p>\n

Download 413_Perfect Pitch-How to Avoid Common Presentation Pitfalls<\/a>\u00a0PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever had to pitch a business or product idea to an investor or potential partner, you know the presentation can make or break the deal. Because the stakes can be high, serious entrepreneurs quickly learn what to avoid … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8149,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8145\/revisions\/8149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}