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Writer's pictureLev Mikulitski

Crafting the perfect pitch with an emotional connection.

You are facing an important presentation. There is an essential agenda that you want to promote, a product that you want to sell, money for a venture that you want to build. You have given your all and you have reached a critical point where everything seems perfect or almost perfect and you are ready... However, almost is big almost. Your success now comes down to how you connect with your audience emotionally, given that people make emotional decisions on the whole, and keep them engaged emotionally. This is where the following article comes in. The proposed approach so effective because it answers your audience's questions as they come up. it starts with an:



Invitation. Connect with your audience straight away with a story, article, or question. Your theme that you decided on earlier needs to feature in the opening of your presentation. This could be in the form of a story, a surprising fact, a news article, a quote, or some other way of inviting your audience into your world. Remember, it's your unique world. If you start with, "Hi, my name is, thanks for having me…, we are about to speak…. Let's leave it right there. You have such a short period of time to engage your audience. Don't waste it on information that the audience already knows or doesn't care about. Go straight to connecting emotionally with them by inviting them to your world. The reason why personal stories are the best way to start is that often at the beginning of a presentation you're nervous. I get worried if I don't feel anxious or excited. You need the adrenaline to connect with a big group of people. A presentation is a conversation, but it's a heightened one and needs more energy. Telling a story is the best way to find your rhythm quickly and easily. As you already know, it's also one of the most effective ways of connecting emotionally with your audience and it's your story. Hard to get wrong. As soon as you start telling your story, you relax. You're simply recounting what's happened, relieving it as you do so, and then linking it to the theme.


Impressed. Thank them and praise them. You're impressed. Once you've imaginatively connected with your audience and introduced the theme, now they need praise, audiences love it a lot. Different people want to be praised differently, however. Now this tool, the Process Communication Model, identifies the six styles we have within us. This is what can be said in order to appeal to each unique style:


1. For a thinker. Thanks for coming, I'm impressed you've taken the next hour, two hours, or day to find out how to make your conversations even more influential. I promised that by the end of this session, you will have structures you can implement immediately to improve your communication.

2. Persister. However, you're the expert, you know whom you're speaking to and what you need. Please share your opinions and feel free to ask questions. This session is to be as relevant as possible to what you need right now.

3. Rebel. A lot more fun. To make sure you've heard me, I may ask you to repeat things, to do what, please? Repeat things. I may even leave off the ends of my sentences so that you can fill in the, and from time to time, I may ask you a question to make sure you've understood everything. Is that okay?

4. Imaginer. If after this session you reflect on what you've heard and you have questions, please get in touch.

5. Harmoniser. You're wonderful people who want to get along with others and you deserve support.

6. Promoter. But let's get started so that you have the conversations that you need to get the results that you want now.


Issue. Name the three greatest issues the audience has right now. At this point, the audience says, "Okay, you've connected with us, you've praised us, you've shown us where we want to be, but it's hard, you don't know how hard it is." This is where you talk about their challenges, or the issue you're about to address. But it's challenging. I encourage you to use the word challenge. You identify the three top challenges they have from your brainstorm. Do not go too heavy on this one though.


Index. Three ways you will solve these issues. This is where you outline the three solutions to their three greatest issues. Can you see by doing the brainstorms and structuring your presentation this way, you're talking to what is relevant to them. If you've really identified their biggest issues, then they can't help but want to hear every word you say to help them solve them. Indicate expertise. Show how you solve these problems for others before. But hang on.

At this point, your audience asks, ''Who are you to give us this advice? What experience do you have in my field and what do you know?'' This is where you tell your story, but like a well-crafted CV, only tell what's relevant to that particular job description. Share the experience you've had solving the same issues for other people in other companies. If you've never solved these issues, show your experience with putting together processes that solve people's issues.


Information. Three ways of solving the issues. Now you get to the main part of the presentation where you spend 80 percent of your time. This is typically where your audience switches off. Make sure the solutions that you talk about are highly structured. Give a case study or tell a story with each solution. You can also use impromptu speaking techniques such as prep, point, reason, example, point, or past, present, future, or peace, problem, impact, solution.


Identify. Identify, summarize, and re-stress the main points. Summarize your points and stress the benefits. It's particularly important here that you really look at the pain and then the benefits, both tangible and intangible.


Interest. Show them how to proceed with you. Show them how to get the results they want now, what do they need to do? Make it simple. Implicate ideal. Remind them of their ideal outcome, their vision. Finish by reminding them of where they want to go, their ideal situation. It's always best to end on a high.




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