Perfecting Your One Sentence Intro Pitch

Like how all communication professors would preach, the opening sentence of your pitch is the most crucial, especially when time is a constraint. And that usually happens when you bump onto an investor and have only 1 minute to impress. What would you say?

Having experienced that myself, I was quick to pull out the benefits of my idea but failed to communicate who my target audience is. The result was a smile and a typical pat on the back. It simply signaled to me that he wasn’t keen. I was disappointed and wonder how I could have pitched it better.

Surely, I must talk about the benefits but how deep should I go into? Or maybe I should identify the pain and target audience first? It’s a complex issue for an opening sentence but it deserves attention because it greatly affects the tone for the rest of your pitch.

When it comes to the one sentence pitch, Founder Institute’s Adeo Ressi says, “Most entrepreneurs manage to screw it up… How much better would the world be if every startup could explain their business well in one sentence?

Thankfully, unlike many who just kick and walk away, his criticism is accompanied by advice. Ressi created a template to help entrepreneurs sharpen their opening sentence:

My company, __(insert name of company)__, is developing __(a defined offering)__ to help __(a defined audience)__ __(solve a problem)__ with __(secret sauce)__.

Try this for yourself and you’ll realize that it helps you sharpen your entire communication process. The tone is set right and the four points (offering, audience, problem and secret) should help you seamlessly connect with the rest of your pitch.

[Via: TechCrunch]