Imagine you have great ideas for your new business and want to get started, but that’s not enough. What you need to do next is to get money from investors with pitch templates.

You can give them a presentation or pitch about your business. If this works, they will give you the money. In business, the pitch is more like the hook that will get people interested in your product or service.

And this is important because whether you get investments or not, will determine whether your business will do well or not. But how can you persuade the investors to fund your business?

In this article, you’ll discover different types of pitch templates you can use when meeting with possible investors.

Types of Pitch Templates

Elevator Pitch Template

The main thing about a pitch template is that it’s short, like a ride in an elevator. It lasts between 20 and 2 minutes. This short pitch will get the client interested and make them want to know more. Time is important and you should watch it.

This strategy helps you be fast. Studies show that the first 60 seconds of a pitch are very important. If an entrepreneur can’t get the attention of their audience in 60 seconds, they’re already lost. In the first minute, the entrepreneur needs to be lively, quick, and on point.

The importance of time is even more obvious in Carmine Galo’s “Clock’s Ticking: A Simple Tool to Pitch Your Idea in 15 Seconds”. He says that the best message map is a picture of the business or product that can be understood in 15 seconds or less. The rest of the pitch should include three key benefits, a story, and a few statistics to back up your claims.

Live Plan

The Live Plan pitch is a great way to get your business off the ground and in front of investors.

In live plan pitches, visual aids are more important than words. A plan with good graphics and visuals will show potential investors how great your idea could be, making them want to learn more.

Here, you give each customer important information, like a summary of the market. It is an overview for investors. It has a mission statement, a proposed problem, a target market, financial projections, and facts that back up claims. This works well with accounting firms, financial planners, and banks, all of which like empirical data.

One-Word and Rhyming

You want to present short, catchy phrases about your product or service that attract your investors’ attention. Slogans like “Just do it!”, “I’m lovin’ it”, and “Think different” are examples of One-Word pitches. They are short, which makes them catchy and easy to remember.

Also, a one-word sales pitch is closely tied to the concept of a good brand. Using a one-word sales pitch to build a popular item attracts investors and people who want to use the brand’s reach to market their products.

Another memorable pitch is the rhyming pitch. Rhyming makes it easier for investors to remember the product and its importance. Daniel H. Pink, in his book, To Sell is Human, talks about an experiment in which rhyming helps people to understand more deeply. This helps them grasp the idea more easily. “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux,” is an example of the successful use of rhyming in advertising for a vacuum cleaner called Electrolux. 

Interrogative

These are questions that make investors anticipate the solution before you even describe it. When the right question is asked, investors become interested in the answer and how it relates to the product. The interactive aspect of it makes the investors more involved and integrated into the issue. This often has a positive effect on the pitching process.

Questions grab the attention of the audience right away. In 2009, inventor Michael Pritchard gave a TED talk about new nanotechnology for cleaning water. He started his talk by asking, “Do you know where the water in the bottle in front of you comes from?” Then, Pritchard showed a very powerful picture of an African child dipping a small cup into a small, muddy stream.

Mystery

Another type of integrative pitch template is a mystery. Here, the audience should figure out the answer based on what the presenter says. For example, you could start to show a video, pause it, and then ask what they would do to solve the problem shown in the video. One of the answers could be a solution that your company offers. Or if it isn’t one of them, you could still brag about how innovative your strategy is.

Competitor

You should use words in your pitch that show you know a lot about your competitors, their products and services, and why your company is better. But there should never be anything in the pitch that is a direct attack on a competitor.

Audience 

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that almost every business is about people. Showing how you make the human condition better should be your main goal on the pitch. You can tell a story about how the product or service makes people’s lives better, just like Michael Pritchard’s cleaning water invention!

Also, a good pitch always says a few words about the customer you want to reach. This helps everyone in the room see how well your business suits their needs.

To make a strong pitch, then, you need to know what the customer needs. You will lose an investor if you ask them to listen to a pitch that shows you don’t understand your market’s needs.

Obstacles

A convincing pitch template can start by figuring out the customer’s need and then explaining how the problem is solvable. When the problem the potential client is having comes up, a good pitch will take the opportunity to remind the investor how to solve the problem.

Final Words

It’s always a good idea to end a sales pitch with a few of the company’s best features, even if this part of the pitch should be very short. A few well-placed lines about the company’s history can make a customer more trusting and even more sympathetic.

And one more thing: a good sales speech should never try to force someone to buy something. So, you should be sure of your product or service, but don’t sound rude. Be confident and do not beg your potential investors for investment.

Practise

Last but not least, because pitching is so important, team members should always use role-playing to practise with each other. In this way, they can deal with any issue that might come up during their presentations.

A Wrap on Pitch Templates

The main goal of a business pitch is to get investors interested in the product and convince them to put money into it. When investors listen to an efficient business pitch, they give more and more money, and your business can grow.

So, depending on the audience and the situation, a pitch template could be one or a blend of several different types.

Make your pitch template catchy by using rhymes and one-word slogans. Be short and effective, like an elevator ride. You can also use questions and mystery as techniques to be more integrative with potential investors.

 Finally, prepare your pitch by practising several times with your teammates prior to meeting investors. This way, you can fill in any gaps beforehand.