In the presentation world, knowing all competitive advantages and where you are uniquely positioned within your market is key. Your listeners want to hear how you stack up. It’s important not to shy away from the fact that there may be others out there doing what you are doing. Are they doing it the same way you are? Hopefully not! It is paramount to your success to lay out your competitive advantages in a way that is moving to your audience. Knowing which advantages will successfully speak to your listeners is a great place to start. Let’s touch on a few factors your audience is sure to seek in your pitch.
Pricing
Ah, pricing. Researching your total addressable market (TAM) is a great baseline for establishing fair pricing. This can be laid out many different ways and should be one of the most exciting parts of your pitch. Knowing who can benefit from your product or idea, who is attracted to what you have to offer, and who you will be working to impress is powerful. Qualify your market. Quantify your market. Selling to everyone is selling to no one. Unless you have taken the time to understand your market, your pricing is a gamble. Stabilize this competitive advantage by understanding to whom you are selling in order to capture their ideal price range. Once you have done that, making your market research clear in your presentation will come much more easily.
Durability
Durability speaks to both your market and your product or idea itself. Can the market sustain your product for years to come? Will your TAM be searching for what you have to offer in 5, 10, or 20 years? If not, how will you adapt to the inevitable change? Looking forward in your presentation will generate sturdiness within your pitch. If your listeners know that your product or idea can last, they will start to see the investment as sound, and therefore continue to listen. Outlining your durability solidifies your competitive advantage by hopefully telling the audience something the rest of the market isn’t. Without that differentiation, your listeners have cause to continue their search.
Speed
Time is money. No one wants their time to be wasted. So many of us are consistently short on time. A point of great significance to your audience is effectively highlighting the speed in which your product will change their way-of-life. Is it speed of service? Speed of delivery? Speed of results? Hopefully it is all three! If your product is something that takes time to yield value, it’s important to highlight that too! Setting manageable expectations gives you the competitive advantage of trust and honesty. It is of utmost importance to represent their time investment (or lack thereof) well in your presentation.
Ultimately, you know your product and you believe in its competitive advantages or you wouldn’t be representing it. The devil is in the details, as they say. Lean into your TAM and really hear what they are looking for. Understand their pain points. Speak to their desires. Once you’ve done your research on what makes your audience truly listen, you can build your presentation around those points. Need help narrowing it down? Our content strategists work with diverse audiences every day. Reach out to allow us to help you understand yours!
