How to deliver a great pitch

TL;DR

Summary

3 minutes to express a problem, show why it matters, and propose a solution with a promise of change.

Goal

Make sure your audience remembers your message, in a short time and with maximum impact.

What is a pitch?

A pitch is meant to answer the “WTF?” question. Its job is to explain an idea simply and concisely. The people listening want to know what your idea is and what it will change for them.

Definition: A pitch is a short presentation (1 to 5 minutes) that aims to convince an audience of the relevance of an idea by following a narrative structure: problem, tension, promise, and solution.

People aren’t interested in your idea, they’re interested in the promise of change it brings.

Nobody wants to hear about your technology, your process, or your org chart. What people want to know is: what changes in their life if your idea becomes reality?

Stay short and concise. The challenge isn’t attention, it’s memorization: the more you get to the point, the more your messages will stick. Cognitive neuroscience research shows that retention drops drastically after 3 to 4 minutes of continuous presentation. The rule I give: “You have 3 minutes max to present your result.”

The structure of a pitch

An effective pitch follows a 5-part structure. The first 4 parts make up the introduction (1 min 30 max), and the last part is the solution presentation (1 min 30 max).

Part 1: Hook the audience

The first sentence of your pitch determines whether your audience will listen or tune out. You have about 7 seconds to grab their attention.

Hook techniques

• The direct question: “How much time do you spend each week digging through your emails for information?”
• The personal anecdote: “Last week, I spent 45 minutes looking for a document a colleague had sent me 3 days earlier.”
• The shocking number: “73% of employees say they lose at least 1 hour a day because of poorly designed tools.”
• The scenario: “Imagine you arrive at the office on Monday morning and all your work tools have disappeared.”

Talk about yourself, your experience, something you actually observed. Authenticity beats spectacle.

To be even more effective in your delivery, work on your public speaking techniques: eye contact, voice, gestures.

Part 2: Frame the problem

After the hook, name the problem. This step is critical because it sets the frame for the rest of the pitch.

Framing rules

• One single problem: don’t try to address 3 topics at once. Pick the most painful one.
• Frame it from the user’s perspective, not yours. “Teams can’t coordinate” is better than “Our collaboration platform isn’t being used.”
• Stay on the “what”, not the “how”. Don’t talk about the solution yet.

You can introduce this part with: “So how might we…?”

Adapt the problem to the audience

The same project can be presented from different angles depending on the audience. In front of investors, the problem will be framed in terms of market. In front of users, in terms of daily frustrations. In front of an exec committee, in terms of cost and performance.

Before each pitch, take time to reframe your problem based on the people who will be listening. It’s an empathy exercise that connects to the mindset of active listening.

Part 3: Dramatize the situation

Dramatization is the key step of the pitch. It’s the moment when you turn an abstract problem into a tangible, urgent reality. Without dramatization, your problem stays theoretical and your audience feels nothing.

How to dramatize effectively

The goal is to create emotional tension. Your audience should think: “Yeah, that’s serious. Something has to be done.”

Several levers:

• Concrete numbers: “This problem costs the company 2.3 million euros a year” or “47% of users drop out of the journey at this step”
• The testimonial: “Here’s what a user told me last week…” (a real quote is much more powerful than a statistic)
• The negative projection: “If we do nothing in the next 6 months, here’s what will happen…”
• The comparison: “It’s like having to walk across Paris every morning to get to work, when there’s a subway”

The risk of an unshared feeling

You can build on a commonly held feeling (“We’ve all experienced that frustration of…”), but it’s risky. If the feeling isn’t shared by your audience, your pitch will flop. Stick to verifiable facts.

Part 4: Present the promise of change

The promise of change is the second pillar of the pitch. People aren’t interested in the solution, they’re interested in the change that solution brings.

Frame the promise

Two questions to guide you:

• What changes between the world without your solution and the world with it?
• What changes if the problem you addressed is solved?

The promise must be credible and measurable. “Everything will be better” isn’t a promise. “Your teams will save 3 hours a week on coordination” is one.

This promise is sometimes called the vision, even though a vision has a longer-term scope (4 years minimum). To dig into this distinction, see the article on the Mission / Vision workshop.

Part 5: Present the solution

Now, and only now, can you talk about your solution. Everything that came before sets the stage so that your solution arrives as a natural answer to a well-framed problem.

Mission and differentiation

Focus on 2 clear ideas:

• Your differentiator: what’s your unique angle on the topic? What sets you apart from existing alternatives?
• What you actually do: no jargon, no buzzwords. Tangible actions.

You can introduce this part with: “To deliver on this promise of change, we have a unique approach…” then “More concretely, here’s what we do.”

Wrap up

Keep your conclusion brief. A simple “Thank you” is enough. But still make sure you conclude: not knowing whether the speaker has finished is particularly painful for the audience.

Tip: if you have a call to action (“Contact me”, “Try our solution”, “Visit our website”), this is the moment, right before the thank you.

3 pitch examples

Example 1: Startup pitch (fundraising)

“Have you ever spent an hour looking for a document in your inbox, only to discover it was in a Slack folder?

Today, an employee uses an average of 9 different tools to work. The result: 28% of work time is lost searching for information. For a 100-person company, that means 1.2 million euros a year in lost productivity.

Imagine a world where all your company’s information is accessible in a single search, regardless of the source tool. Your teams would get back 5 hours a week.

That’s exactly what Nexus does. Our unified search engine indexes all your tools in real time and gives you the right answer in less than 3 seconds. We already have 40 enterprise customers and a 95% retention rate. Thank you.”

Example 2: Internal project pitch (exec committee)

“Last week, I asked 10 managers how much time they spend preparing the monthly report. The average answer: 2 days. Two full days when our managers aren’t managing, aren’t deciding, aren’t moving their projects forward.

Multiplied by 45 managers, that’s 90 person-days a month spent filling out Excel sheets. The equivalent of 4 full-time employees doing nothing but reporting.

We could cut that down to 2 hours per manager by automating data collection from our existing tools. Managers would get back time for what really matters: leading their teams and making decisions.

To get there, we propose connecting Salesforce, Jira, and our ERP to a single dashboard. The project takes 3 months and costs 80,000 euros, for an estimated gain of 400,000 euros per year. Thank you.”

Example 3: Freelance pitch (prospect)

“You told me your e-commerce conversion rate has been stuck at 1.2% for 6 months despite increased traffic. It’s frustrating: you’re investing in acquisition but visitors aren’t converting.

The problem is that your checkout flow has 7 steps. Industry benchmarks show that the best ones are at 4 steps. At every extra step, you lose between 15 and 20% of visitors.

My goal: bring your conversion rate to 2% in 3 months, which represents 150,000 euros in additional revenue per year on your current volume.

To do this, I’ll audit your checkout flow, identify friction points through user testing, and redesign the critical steps. I’ve done exactly this work for 3 e-commerce companies in your sector, with results between +40% and +80% conversion. Thank you.”

Delivery tips

The content of the pitch isn’t enough. The way you deliver it accounts for at least 50% of the impact.

Pace and pauses

• Start slowly: your hook sentence should be calm, not rushed
• Speed up slightly during the dramatization to create a sense of urgency
• Slow down on the promise of change: it’s your most important message
• Pause for 2 seconds between each part of the pitch

Eye contact

During a pitch, eye contact matters even more than during a long presentation. In 3 minutes, you have to create an immediate connection. Focus your gaze on 3 to 5 people in the audience and rotate between them. If you’re pitching to a panel, look each member in the eye at least once. To go deeper into these techniques, see the article on public speaking.

Posture

Stand tall, feet planted, hands free. A pitch is given standing if possible. Standing gives you more energy and presence than sitting.

Common mistakes

Going too long

If your pitch lasts more than 4 minutes, you’ve lost. Cut everything that isn’t essential. Every sentence has to serve one of the 5 parts. If a sentence serves none of them, delete it.

Being too technical

“Our solution uses a machine learning algorithm based on transformers with a microservices architecture deployed on Kubernetes.” That sentence only speaks to engineers. The pitch has to be understandable by anyone. Replace jargon with concrete benefits.

Skipping the dramatization

This is the most common mistake. Many speakers go straight from the problem to the solution. Without dramatization, the problem stays abstract and the solution has no perceived value.

Not preparing a promise of change

Some pitches chain problem, dramatization… then solution. The promise of change is the pivot between the two. Without it, the audience doesn’t know why they should care about your solution.

Not adapting to the audience

A pitch isn’t a fixed text. You should have a base version, then adapt it to each context: who are the people in front of you? What are they worried about? What language do they use?

Reading your notes

A pitch is spoken, not read. If you need notes, you haven’t rehearsed enough. Period.

Rehearse (3 times minimum)

A pitch takes preparation, and most of all, repetition. Even to present a design concept or a tech choice, rehearse your pitch 3 to 4 times minimum.

The first run will be clumsy. That’s normal. The second will be better but too long. The third will be smoother. By the fourth, you’ll have found your rhythm.

If possible, rehearse in front of someone and ask for structured feedback: “What did you take away? When did you tune out? Was the promise of change clear?”

Video example of a great pitch

Heads up, this video may feel “harsh” because of its opening. The director chose tough words to grab our attention.

Watch this video up to 2 minutes 20. It shows all the elements covered above:

• hook
• problem framing
• dramatization
• promise of change
• mission

Going further

• Public speaking: the 4 organs of communication to improve your presence
• Active listening: understand your audience to better adapt your pitch
• The Mission / Vision workshop: structure the strategy of your solution
• Feedback: giving and receiving constructive feedback

Sources

• Le point sur le Pitch, Agence Zepresenters (excellent book that digs deep into the notion of pitching, in French): https://hubstory.io/lepointsurlepitch/
• Chris Anderson, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, 2016
• Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, 2010