How to stay on time with your pitch?

At a tech event recently, I watched over twenty 3-minute pitches.

13 of the teams didn’t finish on time – and the moderator had to walk on stage and stop them.What an opportunity lost!

Two simple pieces of information, and 3 steps, will help anyone who is pitching under time pressure avoid running out of time.

The clock is ticking every time we pitch.

As a startup, or working in an innovation program at a company, you’ll often have a physical clock.

1 , 3 , 5 minutes… these are typical pitch competition, event and demo day pitch lengths.

So how many words can you say in one minute – and remain understandable? (Note the second part of that sentence! You can speed up, but if they can’t follow, it’s no use.)

I researched this deeply and concluded:

150 words per minute.

If you speak faster than this, the audience can’t keep up with your message, and the value of your pitch is missed.

.What’s interesting about this number? It’s higher than most people think.

I’ve asked thousands of people in my workshops this question – and the majority come to numbers between 40 and 80.

Yet while we consistently underestimate how many words we can say in a minute – we also consistently underestimate how much content we have in our pitch! That’s why presenters over-run their time.

I have found it’s more useful to know how many sentences you can say per minute. The answer?

9 short sentences per minute.

This helps a lot when building your storyline, according to the time available. Because now we know how many words and sentences we have for the pitch, we can adapt the content to finish on time.

There are three steps to doing this;

Step #1 Use Post-Its to map your story out visually

Post-Its work well with creating the structure of your story, and how much you’ll tell on different aspects of your proposition.

First, decide the topics you will talk about in your pitch. If you’re struggling with this, you can check ​The Pitch Canvas©​ video.

Typical ‘chapters’ of the pitch include; Pain, Product, Traction/Validation, Investment Ask, Next Steps, Team.

You can write each of these chapters on an individual post-it note.

How much time is available. 3 minutes? That’s a maximum of 27 sentences. (And stick to short sentences – no more than 20 words per sentence, and an average of 17 for each. Short sentences make it easier for the audience to follow your story.)

Next, think about where the emphasis is.

Do you need to spend more time explaining the Pain? Or is it familiar and you can summarise it in a couple of sentences? Is the Product complicated and needs a bit more time – or can you capture the value of what it does in 3-4 sentences?

Write down on new individual Post-Its what you will tell about each topic – one idea, one Post-It.

As you build this up, you’ll get an idea of how much content you want to tell. Keep cutting down to the essentials so that you’re not over-explaining anything. Focus on the most powerful aspects of your proposition.

Step #2. Use a text editor (Word, Docs etc) and word count

To be really sure about the length, write a full script in Word, Google Docs or any other software that has a word count.

This will be a lot easier if you have mapped it out first with Post-Its

As you type your idea of the script, keep an eye on the word count. Check it every few minutes; if you’ve already used 200 words to explain the Pain, and you’ve only got 3 minutes/450 words, you’ll need to cut content.

Build up the script, and after a few sentences…

Step #3. Say what you’ve written out loud, and time it.

Now you have a full plan of what to say: can you finish within the time available? Once again – if you’re running out of time, cut some phrases, or full sentences.

I know that’s easier said than done! Once you’ve written something down, it’s hard to get rid of it. But this is ‘kill your darlings’ time.

Bonus: time stress is a big chunk of why we get nervous when making a pitch. Following these three steps will make sure you finish on time – and that means you get rid of one of the pain points of pitching.

Good luck with the practicing your pitch – see you next week!