The 6 biggest mistakes in pitching … or: how not to f*ck up your pitch.

This article is going to highlight some of the biggest and most common mistakes I have encountered in giving more than 300 pitch trainings and working on more than +5.000 pitches with clients ranging from unicorn-founders to c-level execs and school kids to university professors.

1. Spending ages talking about the problem

Literally the biggest mistake I see in pitching is people talking about the problem they are solving for too long. Solving a big problem? Sure you are — so why do you need to explain it for ages…can’t be that big of a problem after all. Your audience will know and loose interest quickly — rather tell us why and how you want to solve the problem, what your next steps are and what you actually need.

If you have 3 minutes time to pitch, then don't spend 2,5 minutes talking about the problem. Spend max. 30 seconds.

2. Loving your product too much

This sounds weird, but seriously, don’t ramble about your product. Of course you love your product. But the pitch is not about the product. Tell us how it solves the problem and briefly how it works (adjust the level of detail to your audience).…but don’t talk about all 27 features you have planned. Investors are less interested in the product but rather the opportunity and potential customers rather how it solves their problem.

Tell us why now! Why you! And how you intend to bring your product to market and what you need to make it work!

3. Not knowing your numbers

Seriously, you need to know your numbers in and out. If you are asked when you will reach your break-even-point or certain unit economics and you don’t have a sharp answer, that’s bad. Like really bad.

Know your numbers and learn how to deliver them with confidence.

4. Bad timekeeping

Always have an eye on the time. And understand, that time feels rather differently when your adrenaline is flowing! So if you have 3 minutes time, don’t aim for 02:59 but rather 02:30 … no one is going to mind if you end early, but being over time is a big no-no. And define a certain point in your pitch as a marker to know how you are doing.

Always set the stopwatch of your phone or even better, have someone giving you are clear sign once you have 30 seconds remaining — to speed things up and cut to the chase: your next steps and your request. Wouldn’t want to miss that!

5. Trying to bullsh*t

People literally sense when you are bullsh*tting. So don’t do it. Some people will confront you but in most cases they won’t let you know —in either case this is really bad. So do your homework and have confidence — but if you are asked something you aren’t 100% confident about, be honest and don’t bullshit. Remember the two pillars of pitching! Read more about them here.

A great way to handle a question you don’t know the answer to is to reply: “I don’t know. But I will find out and would be happy to shoot you an email within the next 48 hours — can you please give me your email?” People love honesty and dealing with someone happy to go the extra mile.

6. Not having a clear call to action

This happens a lot more than you would think. People having a great pitch and not ending with a clear request, without a clear call to action! I will never understand this! Always end with a clear request, telling your audience what you are looking for. And this should be the direct result of your entire pitch, afterall you have hopefully carefully crafted your pitch around this. If not, take a look here.

A pitch is a converstation starter and a funnel leading to a clear request tailored to your audience. If not, you are wasting your time and the time of your audience.

Thank you very much for reading this…in fact, if you found this helpful and want me to create more content around pitching, please take a second and follow me here on medium or clap on this article. Or both … this really helps me a lot!

And if you want to know more about me: www.daniel-cronin.com