The 5 rules for creating your pitch

Every entrepreneur knows how important the pitch is, that speech in which you need to condense the most important aspects of the project that you are presenting. Writing it to internalize it before explaining it to interested parties is not easy: ideas pile up, they can become jumbled, so it’s necessary to provide structure and be concise while conveying everything we want to… Don’t panic because we’ve learned about five simple rules for writing your pitch, and we’re going to share them with you.

These are rules that Amazon has taught its employees, and they can actually be summarized in one: briefness is the key. Take a look and apply them to your pitch:

1. Use sentences with less than 30 words. These types of sentences help ensure that your audience doesn’t get lost (and you don’t either when delivering them). Additionally, they break down information into easily digestible pieces, making it easier to assimilate. To achieve this:

- Focus on one idea per sentence.

- Avoid expressions like “I think” or “we should consider.” These imply an option where your interlocutor may disagree. Replace them with “we must,” which indicates a firm stance.

- Remove anything that is stylistic; don’t use your pitch to promote your personal brand. There will be time for that later.

1. Replace adjectives with data. Words like “fantastic” or “impressive” work well in advertising, but pitch-writing rules suggest talking about numbers, as they indicate real results and are more specific. For example, instead of saying “we have observed a significant increase in demand for our product,” try stating “demand for our product has increased by 40%.” Do you see the difference? This way, you let your interlocutors reach the conclusion themselves that it’s indeed impressive.
2. Use the “So What?” test. If the person listening to you can’t identify what you want from them, they’ll start thinking, “So what?” (meaning, “What’s my role here?”). This implies eliminating the superfluous: your audience wants to know who does what, for how long, and what results it will bring.
3. Avoid acronyms, jargon, and trendy expressions. For some people, jargon and acronyms are abbreviations. But are you sure your audience understands them, knows what you’re talking about? If you’re unsure whether your audience knows the terms you use, explain them the first time you mention them (especially if they involve acronyms from another language), and then use the acronym for the rest of the speech. For example, let’s say you’re talking about KPIs. You would need to structure your pitch somewhat like this: “KPIs, which stands for Key Performance Indicators in English, indicate…”

As for trendy expressions, apply the same principle we mentioned regarding adjectives. Instead of “our project will create a cutting-edge, dynamic, and disruptive app that will revolutionize the world,” your listener will understand much better something like “we’re launching an app that will enable (explanation of what it does).” It’s much clearer, and you leave the listener the freedom to judge how disruptive, dynamic, and revolutionary it is.

1. Use sentences with a simple structure: subject (who or what you’re talking about) - verb (what it does) - predicate (on whom or what it acts). This has a double advantage: it makes things clear, without room for misunderstandings, and it also forces you to use fewer words.

There you have it! All set to create your pitch, which, thanks to these rules, will be clear, concise, and easily understandable for those who will listen to it. And we haven’t even mentioned the advantage it offers you: it will be much easier to remember the key points and present it naturally because the structure will be well-established.

Source: Inc.com, from Alex Garcia’s X account.