If your salespeople think their prospects are hard to impress, try having them sell to venture capitalist David Wells of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Within the first eight words, I’ve decided whether or not to keep listening,” Wells told Allison M. Shapira of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Communication Program when asked what he’s thinking when he hears a startup pitch.
Shapira asked Wells what he’s looking for in those first eight words. “He replied (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘The core innovation. If it’s not in the first eight words, it’s probably not there. That’s when I either stop listening or interrupt the speaker to ask.’”
“When pitching a start-up idea, you need to get to the core innovation right out of the gate,” says Leslie Brokaw in a blog post for MIT Sloan Management Review(SloanReview.MIT.edu). “When making any kind of presentation, a counter-intuitive statement, surprising fact or arresting story can get people to put their phones down.”
“Brevity requires you to prepare, prioritizeand packageyour material,” adds communications coach Beth Noymer Levine (SmartMouthCommunications.com). She offers these brevity tips:
Serve dessert first. If you have a takeaway or call to action, don’t save it for the end, deliver it up front. It helps set context and expectations, which are important for holding onto audience attention.
Go modular. Build your presentation in chunks rather than in a narrative so you can remain adaptable. Chunks leave you prepared and nimble.
Know your big fish and little fish. Know your main points or “big fish” and your supporting information or “little fish.” (This requires you to…yep, prioritizeyour material.) Big fish come first. Leading or inundating with lots of little fish is overwhelming to the presenter and the audience.
