Effective Pitching: Key Tips for Successful Presentations

Effective presentations require understanding the audience's problems and engaging them emotionally.

### Mastering the Art of Pitching: Key Tips for Success
* 💡 Many talented individuals struggle to sell their great ideas due to **poor pitching skills**, while inferior ideas can succeed simply because they are **presented well**.
* 🔍 The first step to a successful pitch is **identifying the client's problem**; without this understanding, your product's value is **irrelevant**.
* 🎤 Engaging with your audience is crucial; show genuine interest through body language techniques like the **"empowering head angle"** and **"amplifying head movement"** to encourage dialogue.
* 💔 Remember that decisions are driven by emotions—either **moving away from pain** or **towards pleasure**; your pitch should **evoke these feelings** to motivate your audience.
* 🌟 A well-crafted narrative that highlights both **pain and pleasure** can make your solution compelling, as demonstrated by the example of transforming **dull PowerPoint presentations** into **engaging experiences**.
* 🖥 Avoid relying solely on PowerPoint; instead, incorporate various presentation methods, such as **discussions and storytelling**, to maintain **interest and engagement**.
* 📈 By applying these three essential tips—**identifying problems**, **creating emotional connections**, and **diversifying presentation styles**—you can significantly enhance your pitching effectiveness.
* 💬 For further learning, consider exploring **free resources on public speaking and presentation skills** available in the video's description.

few things piss me off more than this: a person presenting a shitty idea, a shitty product, and everybody buys into it, whilst a person over here who's got a great product, a great service, but they're not able to pitch and present it, and nobody buys into it. So many ideas have been killed by not being able to pitch your business idea. So, I thought to myself, what are the three most important things I want to give from me to you, so the next time you go into that situation of pitching your ideal product or service, you succeed to a much greater extent. Number one is you have to figure out what their problem is. If you don't figure out what their problem is, your product does not matter. Like, literally, the worst thing you can do is this: Yeah, yes, hello, yeah, well, shall we just maybe get together and know each other? We can just do a company presentation. You can start first. Oh, wait, I'll start first. You got 20 slides? No, 30. You go click, click, click, and you can literally see the client going like, I wish I was

wherever but here at the end the client goes not to you but in their head. I could not care less Who You Are, but if you began the presentation by, of course, getting acquainted and figuring out their problem and saying, I have a solution to your problem, now they Wanna Know Who You Are. So, number one is figuring out what their problem is. There's a key to this when it comes to public speaking and presentation skills, and that is that it's core for you to show that you are interested, of course, be interested in what they do, in their products and services, but that's not enough. It's not enough that you can sing if you don't sing because nobody can hear you sing. You have to show them that you're interested. How do you do that? Easy. You apply skill number 61 and 64 out of the 110 skills. Have a look at this. Thank you. Number one is the beautiful empowering head angle, which means that you tilt your head when listening to the other person. This now shows a greater emotional connection.

Like if your hamster died and you said to me, Hey David, my hamster died. It's Saturday. I'm all heartbroken. I would naturally go, Oh, I feel so sad for you. Take the day off if you wish. Number 64, amplifying head movement. This shows that you are interested and you are confirming that what they're saying is out of interest. Combining these two, tilt ahead and head nod, now shows the other person that yes, you are truly interested. Yes, please do tell me more and buy, so they are motivated to speak to you more. The worst thing that you can do is straight head, no nod, because that gives no indication if you're interested or not. As I said, it doesn't matter if you can sing, if you don't sing. It doesn't matter if you're interested, if you don't show it. That was tip number one, a bit dual, I guess, because I said, Hey, define and figure out their problem and use these skills to get them to speak to you more. Tip number two is what moves you in life.

There are only two things that move you from A to B. It's either pain, moving away from pain, or moving toward pleasure. It's the only things, nothing else. You can make a list now of the last 100 decisions you've made. I promise you that every single one was driven by an emotion or an instinct, and it's the same thing for your clients. Every single decision they will take from when you leave that meeting, if they go to their boss and talk about it, if they pitch it to their colleagues, it's based on one thing and one thing only: emotional instinct, moving away from pain or towards pleasure. So, my second tip is truly this: you have to create an emotion in them when you're in that meeting. Before going into the meeting, ask yourself, Which emotion will move them towards where I want them to go? I like a combination of 30% pain and 70% pleasure. So, when I'm in a meeting and I'm going to pitch, for instance, my keynote, How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint, I first sit down and I say, Have you ever

been in a presentation where somebody pulled up their PowerPoint in your company, and you've literally felt that your soul wanted to leave your body. It was so boring that you were trying to just keep your brain alive by looking at your mobile phone under the corner of the table. Have you ever been in such a situation? And they go like, Yes, yes, it's horrible. You can't take it. I don't want to live in live anymore when I'm in this situation. Wouldn't it instead be just so beautiful that when you walk into your future meetings in this company, the PowerPoints are clear, they are concise, they are animated, they build dopamine, they make you desire the next slide? I know it sounds mad, but it's absolutely and entirely possible. My promise to you is this: my one-hour keynote on how to avoid Death by PowerPoint will make that happen because it's so crystal clear that they cannot carry on the way they've done it before. And you can see their eyes light up because I've just produced 30 pain

70 pleasure. I've truly listened. I've figured out their problem. I've come with a solution, and boom, they book it. This brings me now to my third and last tip, which is exactly what I just said: do not overuse PowerPoints. God damn it. My TED Talk on how to avoid Death by PowerPoint is close to 5 million views. It is the most viewed talk on that subject. Why? Because people desperately do not want bad PowerPoints or too much PowerPoint. So, the trick here is to combine your presentation with other kinds of aids. I'll give you an idea. During my study of 5,000 public speakers, I had this side hobby project of figuring out the kind of variations all speakers used. I found 136 different variations, and they look like this: foreign 36 variations. Number 46 is a PowerPoint that is a variation. So, if anyone ever tells you, Oh, can you please prepare a 40-minute presentation? and you go, Ah yes, I will build a 40-minute PowerPoint. Yes, and I

will deliver a 40-minute PowerPoint. No, no, no, that is not what a proper presentation looks like. A proper presentation looks like this: 40-minute presentation. I will start with a discussion, then I will add the variation of a whiteboard and draw something on that. Then I'll add the variation of a metaphor, then I will add the variation of a story, then I will add the variation of PowerPoint because it makes sense because the graph is too complicated to draw. And then I will add the variation of discussion again, then I will add the variation of interaction. You do that, that is a presentation worth looking at. I think this single tip, this third tip that I gave you, apply it, it will literally improve your presentations by a hundred percent. To summarize this: number one, find their problem, show that you are truly interested in order to get them to speak to you more by tilting your head and nodding affirmatively. Tip number two was create pain and pleasure because both of those are what moves us from A to B in any decision we take in life.

and the third tip is: do not produce a 40-minute PowerPoint and believe that that is a presentation. It is not a presentation; it is a combination of variations of the stuff that I showed you. Will this improve your presentations by a hundred percent? Yes. If you haven't done this before, I am absolutely confident it will. And if you have any questions at all, please post them in the comments. I'll be happy to answer them. And secondly, if you want to learn more, I have a brilliant free training on public speaking and presentation skills, which you can also find in the description below the video. I'll see you there or in the next YouTube video. Ciao.

How To Present Your Idea - Tips From A Professional Public Speaker

David JP Phillips

Presenting a great idea or product is often overshadowed by those with poor offerings who can pitch effectively.

The key to a successful pitch is identifying the client's problem and offering a solution.

Showing genuine interest and using body language, like tilting your head, can create a stronger emotional connection during the presentation.

Tips for Effective Communication and Influence

Showing interest through head movement and nodding encourages others to share more.

People's decisions are driven by emotional instincts, either moving away from pain or toward pleasure.

Creating the right emotion in a meeting is crucial for influencing others, with a balance of 30% pain and 70% pleasure being effective.

Boring PowerPoint presentations can make meetings unbearable, but engaging and animated slides can create a desire for the next slide.

The speaker's one-hour keynote promises to transform PowerPoints, offering clear and concise visuals to captivate the audience.

Overusing PowerPoints is a common mistake, and the speaker's TED Talk on the subject has gained nearly 5 million views, highlighting the need for varied presentation aids.

A proper presentation should include a variety of elements, such as discussion, whiteboard drawing, metaphors, stories, and PowerPoint slides.

Engaging the audience through interaction and varying the presentation style can significantly improve its effectiveness.

Key tips for engaging the audience include showing genuine interest and creating a balance between pain and pleasure to drive decision-making.

Avoid creating a lengthy PowerPoint as it doesn't constitute a presentation.

Implementing variations of the content shown can significantly improve your presentations.

For further guidance, a free training on public speaking and presentation skills is available in the video description.