Speaker’s Edge Day 2 Reflections:
Now about that market place pitch... Perhaps more difficult than the straight informative speech, the market place pitch relies on one’s ability to persuade the audience. As a class, we’ve been tasked to come up with a scenario to describe who we are, who our audience is, and why we are making our pitch. After that, it’s show time.
We used class time to present the basics of our pitch and then gather feedback from the audience. A lot of helpful suggestions surfaced during this time – and not just the basic point about public speaking (i.e. don’t pace, maintain eye contact with the audience) but actual critiques pertaining to the topics. Tomorrow we will break into small groups for more practice and critiquing.
Nonetheless, I found the following two points of emphasis especially helpful from today's session:
1. You can sell only if you yourself are convinced: If you are not sold on the product or service, it will be an uphill battle to sell someone on else. Your lack of conviction will scream through.
2. Be passionate and exciting: Most presentations are BORING! So create a show and make it exciting. Excitement is contagious – just like a yawn.
These two tips come from Tom Szaky, the Chief Executive of TerraCycle, a not for profit recycling concept business. In July of this year, Szaky posted his commentary on the New York Times' blog “You’re the Boss: The Art of Running a Small Business”.
I listened to 16 speech outlines today, and the market place pitches that stood out were the ones that followed Szaky’s suggestions. The most persuasive pitch ideas are the ones that leave the audience convinced of their value.
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