As a small business owner, we’re constantly ‘pitching’ our businesses to potential clients. When time is money, we often don’t get very long to sell ourselves. You’d think a quick pitch would be much easier than a long presentation, but then you’d realize it’s actually the opposite.
While kept attention is an obvious benefit to a short presentation, a 5-minute pitch forces to you be short, sweet, and to the point. It’s hard to narrow everything you do down to a concise, 5-minute presentation. So here are the 4 necessary slides to help you rock a short presentation.
Introduction
Keep your introduction short and sweet. Use a short, concise title as to not lose your audience’s attention. You shouldn’t waste much time on your introduction slide. In almost all circumstances, your audience already knows what you’re going to present; no need to waste time over-explaining what you will be talking about.
Problem
What is the point of your business? Hopefully you’ve already figured this out before you started your business. Simply state the problem you have solved, or are solving. Assuming you’re pitching to the right audience, they should be able to connect the dots fairly quickly.
Solution
This will probably be your longest section. State how your specific business has solved the above problem (or is solving). Why are you the business they should choose? What can you specifically do for them. Be careful to avoid a lot of fluff here; what do they need to know vs supporting details. Remember, you can always follow up with more information in an email after the presentation.
Conclusion
Reinforce the information you have provided while choosing words carefully. The conclusion is what your audience will remember the most. So keep it light yet thorough.
Keep in mind, the average person speaks about 120-160 words per minute. Multiply that by 5 and we’re looking at a total of 600-800 words for the whole pitch. Everything you say needs to focus on your main point. Keep a tight scope and choose your words carefully. Done successfully, you’ll leave your audience with a clear takeaway, before you ever had a chance to loose their interest.
Lastly, practice and relax. Run through your presentation as many times as it takes to feel comfortable. It’s hard to make a connection with the room when you’re trying to remember the right words. When presentation time comes, breath and relax. You’ve prepared for this. You got this. Go get ’em tiger!