The trickiest part of presentations for most people is content. On the design front, most business professionals tend to be comfortable in PowerPoint. And as for the delivery side of presentations, they have been in front of enough people over the course of their career to say they are somewhat confident. It’s the creation of new material and structuring of that content that gets them frazzled.
The goal of this post is to help remedy that problem and offer up a pitch structure which helps when trying to showcase and pitch any new big idea. I call it “The Big Thing” approach to presenting and it consists of 6 stages to help you win the hearts and minds of any audience. Let’s dive in.
Stage 1: The Big Thing
In this first section of your presentation, you want to discuss the “big thing” in your space that has tremendous stakes and is creating a lot of noise. Let’s travel back in time and imagine a world before the cloud existed. Now, that we have that established let’s pretend our big idea is a company like DropBox. The “big thing” in this scenario is pointing out the potential growth of the cloud and how it will change the business landscape in substantial ways.
Stage 2: Successes and Failures
Once you have established that the cloud is a big deal, you want to use this section to address which current companies are migrating to it well or completing ignoring it. Since your idea is to create a cloud based storage platform, you’ll want to start setting yourself up for the next stage by teasing all the good things to come from those who are embracing the new technology. This is perfect transition to the next portion of your talk.
Stage 3: The “Happy Ever After”
Next, tease the idea of a “Happy Ever After” without discussing the details yet of your company, DropBox. You’ll want to tease that happiness is not guaranteed unless taking part or supporting this new venture. You’ll really want to push the whole idea of FOMO (fear of missing out) in this section.
Stage 4: Defeat the Challenges
Once you have laid down the appropriate foundation, this section is where you really dig into the details of what DropBox is at its core. You’ll want to package everything into three memorable talking points that address how the company will defeat the current challenges and maximize the current opportunity.
Stage 5: The Proof
Assuming you have some early test results of your product or service, you’ll want to use this next section to showcase the proof. In other words, highlight any evidence and testimonials to paint the success you have had and the more potential for growth which awaits on the other side.
Stage 6: The Close
And finally, we have the close. If you have showcased the “big thing” in a compelling way and have illustrated how you will capitalize on it, you should be an amazing shape to make the final ask.
Conclusion
There are obviously a number of different ways to make a pitch but if you are looking for a more creative and less stuffy approach, this is a great structure to add to your presentation toolbox.
