David Julian Price breaks down the four-part pitch: define your niche, name your ideal client, say what makes you different, then your name. A 20-30 second pitch beats a long one because people remember what's focused, not what's loaded with details.
When you run a business, you've got to network. And I know many people find it really awkward. Me, even me from time to time when I'm doing something new. But when you go along and you've got to, you know, pitch yourself in 20, 30 seconds, how do you do that? And what's important?
Well, I'm going to say something that might surprise you, Jo. Okay. But that is, within reason, the shorter the pitch, the better.
Okay.
Not the longer the pitch.
Yeah.
So I run 2 programs. The first is How to Design and Deliver a Winning Pitch. And the other one is Networking for People Who Hate Networking. I run those in organizations for people who go to networking events. So with the pitching, the first thing that people need to do is make crystal clear for their audience what I call their pigeonhole, what pigeonhole they're in.
Okay, yeah.
So if they're a plumber, it's the plumbing pigeonhole. If they're a printer, it's the printing pigeonhole. Whatever it is, for you it would be the LinkedIn pigeonhole, or maybe social media pigeonhole, it could be a slightly bigger one. Yeah. LinkedIn. For me, it's the speaking pigeonhole. So there has to be a pigeonhole because that's what people think about. And that's what people ask others, do you know someone who's a printer? So they go into their, you know, their internal hard drive and find their printer.
So it wouldn't be good to go, I do X, Y, Z, and ABC?
No, that's because the audience, particularly if they're meeting you for the first time, they walk away with absolutely no memory of what you do. They might remember you personally, but they won't remember what you do because you said too much. So the first thing is the pigeonhole. The second is who the ideal clients are. Are you aiming for SMEs? Are you aiming for state government, local government? Are you aiming for CEOs? They need to know who you're aiming for.
Yeah.
The third thing is what makes you different? Why are you different? If you're a plumber, what makes you different? It might be that you turn up within 15 minutes or you give a discount. It might be that you clean up after yourself.
Yeah.
It could be anything that makes you different. And then finally, your name and your business name. So it's the pigeonhole, ideal clients, what makes you different, and your name and your business name.
Sounds easy.
And the pitch is. And I coach people to do pitches that end up about 20 seconds, 30 seconds long, and they are much more memorable than the people who are still going after 2 minutes.
Yeah, excellent.
