How do you win a Pitch Competition? The Blueprint.

In 2019, I won two competitions: Present Your Startup, and the Freelancer of the Year FOTY Awards. I’ve also coached more than 30 pitch comeptition winners, who have won more than €6 Million.

Here’s the exact process I coach, and which I follow myself.

 

Step #1. Start with your Audience: What are the judging criteria?

Tell a story that connects with the jury’s interests. I’ve been on competition juries – it’s a blur! You listen to pitch after pitch with limited time time to make notes. As a result, you simply complete a form with 5-6 criteria, and score the team accordingly.

In the FOTY Awards, one of the judges told me: ‘You were one of the few contestants to follow the criteria and include everything.’ The judging criteria are your north star.

 

Step #2. What’s your Objective?

Of course you want to win! But what if you don’t?

Are you looking to connect with investors, partners, journalists? Getting clear on your objective steers your call to action, and indeed parts of your content.

A simple QR code on the last slide is a smart way to get the audience to take action. Here’s my last slide of my upcoming pitch.

 

Step #3. How long have you got?

Now If like me you’re preparing for a 5-minute pitch – it means you can say a maximum of 150 words per minute, a total of 750 words. That equals around 40-45 sentences.

You don’t want to feel the stress of time pressure! So it’s best to target no more than 720 words, to know you’ll finish on time. Once you’ve got a draft of the story down, do a test run against the clock..

Running over? Just cut some sentences. More clarity on less information wins over hurrying through too many details.

 

Step #4. Don’t Open PowerPoint! Get out some Post-Its.

Forget opening previous pitch decks, shuffling slides, and trying to hack it from other pitches,. Start afresh. Based on the criteria and your objective, what do you really want to talk about?

First – brainstorm wide, for variety. What’s everything you could say?

Second – select for quality. What are the key topics, and key messages per topic.

 

Step #5. Make a script. Yes, really…

Based on the storyline you’ve developed in Post-its, make a script.

OK, we can debate this all day – ‘Won’t a script mean I’m robotic?’ – but your favourite actors, comedians and bands all learn the words to your favourite songs and films. I urge you to as well.

 

Step #6. Create slides with big headlines, limited text, visuals.

This is not a Pitch Deck! Or at least what people traditionally think of as a pitch deck – something you send to Investors and talk them through in a meeting.

We’re creating a set of visuals to support the story that we are presenting. When they listen, key messages should be highlighted on screen – and no more. Images, icons, a few words, strong headlines.

Clarity is the goal, not completeness.

 

Step #7. Get Some Feedback

Just practicing in your head, or imagining the pitch, is no use. We need to hear the story out loud for ourselves – that will already create some improvement points.

Along the way, share the story with somebody you trust. Say the pitch out loud and ask them 3 questions;

• What stood out for you?
• What did you not understand?
• Have you got any friendly advice, considering this audience, and my objective?

This way you give them a framework for what to look out for – and you’ll get structured feedback that you can do something with.

 

And finally… Practice Like Crazy!

OK, feedback in, slides & script complete: time to practice. And I mean – practice a lot! You’re not here to ‘give it a go’… You’re here to give it your best! As Lance Miller once taught me – one more runthrough… and then another one.

The day before the Present Your Startup final, I did 36 run-throughs of the story. It was a 3-minute pitch – so of course that takes a crazy amount of time.

But the work is forgotten when you deliver the story you really want to tell, and feel proud of what you have done.

And who knows – maybe you DO win? Or make new connections? Perhap syou;re just proud of the work you did? Let me know if any of these happen!

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