Here’s what to do when your pitch goes wrong

For many startups and budding entrepreneurs, the pitch can be both a stressful and rewarding experience.

So you spend your time building your slide pack. You investigate, research, and make sure all reported numbers are just right. And on the day of the pitch, it all goes pear shaped.

What do you do?

Never fear! There is always a something you can do to make sure the odds are in your favour when things go wrong on the day of your pitch.

Before the pitch

Prep like you’ve never prepped before. Get ready to face the worst case scenario like a boss!

1. Do not over funky-fy your slide pack (no animation/ music). You can add the all flavour you want during your delivery instead.
2. Stick to 10 slides or less, depending on the time allocated for your pitch.
3. Keep a copy of your slide pack in the cloud and a USB.
4. Keep a PDF version of the slide pack as well.
5. Have two to three printed copies of the presentation with you (to pull out in case of emergency).
6. Practice your presentation with the slides.
7. Now practice your presentation without the slides. Remember the key points you make that require visual aids. For example, if you have a prediction of the market uptake or illustrations to emphasise your numbers against the competition, you will need to pull these out later.
8. Practice your pitch with and without a mic. Trust me on this.
   With a mic — you want to get comfortable with the sound of your voice with a mic.
   Without a mic — you want to get comfortable speaking in front of an audience where you might have to project your voice more in case your mic stops working.
9. Know your bottom line: What is your key message? Are you a differentiator? What is it that you came here to do? Get funded, get business guidance, get noticed, get advice?

During the pitch

Your slides stop working halfway

If your slides stop working during the pitch,  then you reap the benefits of your practice sessions without your slide deck, and can pull off a confident and comfortable delivery nonetheless.

You can hand out printouts of specific slides in the unlikely scenario that you are delivering your pitch without the slide deck. These should only be used to emphasise or justify a particular claim.

Note: Although you will have printed copies of your slide deck on hand, you don’t want to hand them out to your audience/ panel unless necessary. You want to keep their attention to you and what you are about to say. Giving them a printed copy risks your audience getting distracted with flicking through your deck and reading ahead.

You can’t get your slides to work at all

If your slide pack doesn’t work from the start and you are already standing on the stage, don’t fight the situation or keep fiddling with your laptop while making the audience/panel wait. Keeping to your time shows that you value yours and other people’s time. Be mindful, move on and just give the dang pitch. Screw the slide deck if it doesn’t work on the day.

Let’s put it in perspective here

After the pitch