How To Pitch Confidently

You can spend weeks perfecting your pitch deck, but in the room (real or virtual), connection matters more than perfection. Investors don’t want to see a robot, they want to like you and trust you know what you’re talking about.

When you leave the room they will remember how you listened, how you responded, and how you connected with them. The pitch deck matters, but not as much as your ease and confidence in presenting it. If that sounds like a tall order, here’s how to show up with confidence, authority and warmth when it counts.

Gravitas

When Newton coined the name for his universal force gravity he drew on that ancient Roman virtue Gravitas, strength, dignity, authority. And it contains within it the idea of balance. Gravitas has a balance of forces just like gravity, the up of your warmth and passion and the downward grounding force of your seriousness and strength. They need to see both.

The art is in the ratio. Are they high task people who need to see your strength and authority to win their trust? Or are they high warmth, and they need to see your ability to connect first?

If in doubt, think pilot of the plane. Build trust before take off with high credibility. If turbulence hits stay calm and at ease. Then when you’ve “landed” the meeting you can slow down and connect.

Get Ready – How to Prepare

The more you know about the person or people you’re going to meet, the better. Some clever research is a great way to spark your curiosity and interest. Do your due diligence, get to know their style so you can start where they are.

Find out who’s going to be interviewing you. If you can find any audio or video of them, even better. That way you get a sense of them being a real living, breathing person.

Tune into:

How you are similar. Find common ground. We like people like us, and we like finding things in common. What’s your common ground? What’s your common purpose? What do you have that they need? What fear or problem do you have the answer to?
Their style. How do they look, and what does that tell you about them? This might influence the way you dress on the day or even the way you choose to present yourself.
Their speech. Notice their voice tone and the words they use. Are they formal or informal? Fast or slow? Do they come across as long-winded and verbose or concise and succinct?
Their attitude. Are they enthusiastic or thoughtful, introvert or extrovert? Are they serious or do they smile a lot?
What they say. Do they talk about what they want or what they want to avoid? Listen out for the words they use about themselves and what others say about them too.
Their profile. Do they write a blog or have a website? What does it say about them? Have they been interviewed in the press?
Their preferences. What do they love? What do they hate? What’s important to them? Can you find out whom they admire and what they fear?

You’re not trying to be a carbon copy. It’s about tuning in to the things that inspire you when you read about them and zoning in on the parallels between you. If you discover that their style is wildly different to yours, don’t go all out to try to be like them. Don’t try to be something you’re not.

See Success

The brain is obedient. If you visualise the disaster scenario in the pitch (something many of us do when nerves hit) then your brain is likely to deliver it for you.

Instead, make like your favourite sports star and visualise success. See the vision of what it will look like to nail the pitch.

Sit back somewhere peaceful, close your eyes, sit back and make the dream movie of what it’s going to be like when you pitch like a pro.

Then having reverse-engineered to that ideal scenario, take your diary and carve out the time you need to get there.

Questions, Questions

What are they going to ask? Will you have the answers? Will they trick you? What if you go blank? The scary part about interviews and pitches is the uncertainty. The trick is to get inside their heads and think up all the possible questions they might ask.

Mastermind the Answers

The main challenge here is the expert problem. You are the ultimate expert here, your investors are not (yet). The risk for experts is that nerves make you shift into information overload.

Too much information is a turn off, concise is engaging. Don’t tell them everything, do them the honour of distilling your message. Handpick the most powerful stories, the most memorable ones. Then get them clear and pith, on the tip of your tongue if you need them.

Keep your answers simple and succinct. If the investors need more information they will ask for it. Say only what is essential and then zip it.

Get Set – Perfect Practice

Once you’ve got your head together psychologically it is time to think about how to practise to get your mind, voice and body working in perfect harmony.

Practising makes all the difference to gravitas under pressure. No performer ever goes on stage without having rehearsed. No sportsperson walks onto a field without hours and hours of training.

Perfectionists among you, a word of warning! Be careful because you can be too rehearsed and polished. You want to avoid learning things word for word. You want to be organised but not overscripted; that looks fake.

Practise in a loose way. Don’t fix everything. Practice is more about honing your awareness so that you know how you come across under pressure.

Sit Up

Your posture must be as crisp as your delivery:

Sit up and back with a straight spine, keeping your tailbone to the back of the chair.
Project your voice to the back of the room with relaxed energy.
Make your words work for you. Speak them clearly and with commitment.

Clear Your Diary

It’s easy to treat a pitch as just another date in your diary but it’s wise to allow yourself a quiet lead in to the day. Don’t cram your diary. Keep the hours or days before as clear as possible so that you can focus.

Block out time for rehearsal and also to relax. It’s an energy game; you need time to recharge.

Keep Things in Perspective

Gravitas requires an ability to keep things in perspective, to be the cool, calm pilot of the plane even when turbulence hits.

Pay real attention to how you’re currently feeling about the pitch. If you’re like most people you’re probably feeling that it is a great big looming threat. That’s mainly because things that feel threatening tend to be bigger than us, close to us and happening when it’s dark.

If you change the way you perceive the pitch you’ll start to feel more positive. Remember that you’re in control of your inner experience. Zoom out of the looming feeling and imagine looking down on it from NASA space station. Notice how when it doesn’t loom over you in your mind you breathe differently, your shoulders drop and you feel more positive.

Just Before You Go Through the Door

A very good piece of advice for making a good impression with gravitas is to be responsible for the energy you take into the room.

Set your intention. What do you dream of happening in the room? Take that energy in with you.

Use an emotional memory to help you through. It could be:

A place where you feel relaxed.
A person who makes you smile.
Something you do that makes you relaxed and happy.
A compliment you’ve received to boost your confidence.
The voice of someone who supports you.

Remember to breathe low and wide, ground your feet and be fascinated, think how you can help.

Good pitches are essentially great conversations. You need to be in a state of mind where you are prepped enough that you can walk in and be yourself. I’m very much of the belief that as long as you are on good form, if it’s right for you it will go your way.

Tune In

When you walk in, tune in. Stop. Take a moment. Breathe and connect with their energy and match it. Find the positive aspect of the energy. If it’s the beginning of the day match that energy, if they are tired at the end, meet them in calm and then energise them with your passion.

Listen

The absolute most important thing you must do in an interview is to be really fascinated by your potential investors.

Really, really, really listen. The kind of listening that you do when you are genuinely interested. It creates a great conversation.

Real listening makes things quiet inside your head because you’re paying full attention to the person you are talking to. Have 80 per cent attention out there in the room and 20 per cent attention in your head.

Finally, one piece of advice from the great Laurence Olivier, who told actors to “Relax your feet and always have more breath than you need.”

Your feet need to feel relaxed and comfortable for your system to feel truly safe.

Above all, Gravitas isn’t about being flawless; it’s about staying balanced. If something goes wrong, breathe and carry on. That composure is what people remember.

In both pitching and performing, chemistry matters. If it’s the right fit, it will go your way. You’ve done the work. Now trust yourself, and remember, they’d be lucky to have you and your business. Trust you are enough, show up as a respectful equal and then enjoy the conversation.

About the author

Caroline Goyder is a speaking coach and presentation expert. She has helped more than 20,000 people to speak with confidence, influence and authority, and her TED Talk 'The surprising secret to speaking with confidence' has been viewed more than 10 million times.