When you boss your business plan and start sharing your vision, it can seem to be a little daunting and scary, especially if it’s your first ever attempt at the whole experience. Having faith in yourself and your own ideas is one thing, but trying to convince many others to feel the same way and have the same passion and faith for your vision can often feel like mission impossible.
However, with a little added self-confidence, passion and a whole heap of dedication you can work to put the right steps in place that will ensure that you master your pitch and have any potential buyers or investors also sharing your vision. Here are a few tips to help you adopt an empowering approach to sharing your vision…
First Impressions Count
You will be being accessed in every detail when you enter the room to face the audience and deliver your pitch. This is why it’s important you make sure you’re on best form in order to properly present yourself, your capabilities and make a great first impression.
Invest in a suitably empowering outfit for the day, something smart and sophisticated such as a sharp pressed suit to show you’re serious and completely committed to playing the whole business game.
Ensuring good personal hygiene is important, as shaking a hand that sports dirty nails or receiving a ‘hello’ with an unwanted whiff of garlic isn’t a great start to proceedings.
Have confidence in every word that leaves your mouth, and show to the audience that you are sure of your abilities. Allow them to see what you can create, provide and achieve, whilst having the ultimate self-belief to pursue your business to a successful and fruitful future.
Inspire Your Audience
If you’re naturally nervous, one way to play it is to ‘fake it til you make it’; Put on your best smile and force the enthusiasm out from within until it becomes more natural and easy as time progresses on. Eye contact is a key feature of the pitch from the moment you enter the stage, as it will make the experience more personal and relaxed for both parties. People naturally trust and believe in someone who can make and hold solid eye contact. You need to be confident in your vision and stay optimistic.
“The most successful entrepreneurs I know are optimistic. It’s part of the job description.” ― Caterina Fake
Do Your Research
You must ensure that you are ready with all of the necessary facts and figures to present at your sales pitch to speak with purpose and conviction. Be ready to command any awkward questions you may be asked by the audience.
Show them the hard work, time and effort you have spent in order to model yourself into the top class entrepreneur that you are today. Demonstrate how you can apply this knowledge you have gained to the real world in order to solve a problem or identify a gap in the market and an opportunity for profit.
Do your research and showcase everything you have found. Presenting it to them, as this way they can see your dedication, passion and knowledge for the subject. This will enable the audience to naturally have a greater trust in you and your product or service and ultimately help to share your vision successfully!
Let Them Visualise Your Idea
Facing your hopeful clientele in front of a blank wall to pour out words about your vision without any other kind of visual aid is simply not enough to win them over.
Be sure to have ways of getting information about your business vision across to them in a different form other than what you say. This will allow your audience to naturally have far more trust in your pitch’s potential capability and success.
The best accompaniment to any good speech is an even better Powerpoint presentation. It’s so simple to find a presentation software with hundreds of templates to try, so why not get a little creative and express your vision in another way.
You can add images and videos to keep them entertained and interested. Show that you are flexible in the sense that you are both confident and also in creating an amazingly designed presentation. A Powerpoint presentation is also a good way to prompt yourself if you have a vulnerability to go blank mid-sentence and forget what it is you are communicating. A visual aid is great way of sharing your vision and their interpretation of your product.
“I’ve always been a bit of an introvert, but just because you don’t fit the classic mold doesn’t mean you can’t be a leader. You just need to find your own style and someone with a similar style who you can learn from.”― Jess Lee
Positivity is Power
If you’ve been able to test out your product or service already, document these experiences and ask users for their personal preferences. This way, you can give your potential investors or customers a little taster of what’s in store if they part with their money. Provide them with proven evidence of how positive and effective your business idea actually is.
You will also be able to give a visual and audio walkthrough by showing a video during your pitch. This is another great chance to appeal to every different individual.
The greater the number of reviews you have the better as it will show there’s potentially a huge market and demand and that you can easily solve the problem at hand.
If you don’t have the means to get information from a large number of customers, then gather some colleagues, friends or family members and ask them to be your ‘home tester group’.
Keep It Short And Sweet
Nobody will enjoy a three hour-long monotone and uninspiring lecture. The best way to harbour and hold the attention of your audience is by sticking to essential facts and statistics and making sure you speak in a straight-forward and simple language whilst still showing your own individual flair. Never speak quietly and face who ever you are addressing and be sure to make eye contact as much as possible throughout.
Engage with the audience if you feel you can, as involving them in your vision is a confident and unique move that could really work out in your favour. Allow your slides to visually summarise the main messages and cover the details in depth verbally during the presentation. Switching regularly between demonstrations and other visual methods to maintain their interest and appeal to everybody present.
With a little bit of planning and dedication you can feel empowered to share your vision. Hopefully these helpful tips and tricks, will help you to share your vision successfully. Be confident in yourself and what you have to offer.
‘Confidence is key. Sometimes you need to look like you’re confident even when you’re not.’ – Vanessa Hudgens
Stay fabulous
Christine
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