How to 'Pitch' right ?

In a recent session on "How to 'Pitch' right?" by Ms. Madhurima Agarwal organised by TiE - Delhi NCR as part of the E - Conference "TiE Women - A Bootcamp for Women Entrepreneurs" held on 29th August, 2020 and hosted by Ms. Upasana Sharma, we not only learnt about targeting the audience but also about how to approach the investors as an entrepreneur. 

Speaker's Profile:

Ms. Madhurima Agarwal

Director - Engineering Programs & Leader,  NetApp Excellerator

With this as the theme "You have the power to change the world", Ms. Madhurima started off with her session asking her audience to sit and think back at some of the presentations that made an impression on your minds at some point of time in your life. 

She focused on the fact that we should focus on the target audience and should know our audience. For eg, when you are looking for fund raising or looking for investors. 

What are you pitching about ? 

Ms. Madhurima said that while she is speaking in the current session, she is talking about the women entrepreneurs so, it is about how you connect with your audience. 

There needs to be a complete understanding of what your audience is about. 

Introduction :-

Ms. Madhurima is an advisor to the WIT (Women in Technology) group at NetApp and focuses on professional development of women in the workplace.

Ms. Madhurima Agarwal works as the Director for Engineering Program with global responsibility for leading NetApps Start-up Accelerator called NetApp Excellerator. 

She has worked globally with renowned financial firms and has worked in the global capital markets as a stock picker. She has been an entrepreneur and currently dons the hats of a mentor and advisor to start-ups.

Source :

https://www.speakin.co/profile/madhurima-agarwal.html

The speaker shared her story that she started as an entrepreneur. Then she shifted to various other ventures and projects and then she again became an entrepreneur. 

She further went ahead to help other women entrepreneurs and at various points in her life, while in this process, she faced challenges.

Video Source : 

#NetAppAccelerator "Madhurima Agarwal on the journey of the accelerator program "

Several points that she highlighted are:

1.     Know your audience

She emphasized on the fact that we should know our audience and we should try if we can capture the attendance of the audience.

Talking about the investors, she said that as entrepreneurs when we approach the investors, the investors want to see how you are different yourself.

She said that whenever we are stuck at any point, we should take a moment and sit back and we need to check:

1.  What is the problem?

2.  How we are solving it ?

It creates that mindspace.

If you want to build up your story, you need to speak and address the audience.

The other thing you should do is Believe in the message you are giving.

Whatever you want your audience to hear, you tell that. 

You should be able to "pitch" right.

In online sessions as of happening in the current times, technical glitches do occur but still we should be determined to convey our messages.

2. Establish a personal connect with the audience

3. Deliver the most important message upfront.

4. Focus and model the messages you want your audience to take back.

5. Know your story (in and out) : what is that you want to talk about. Make sure you give your audience enough cues.

Example, the fairy tales, we do remember some of them. The story have some power, they stand over time. 

The speaker gave her own reference that when she was in 8th standard, she was good at computers. She loved it. Their teacher taught them a particular code which Ms. Madhurima wrote in some other way, using some other technique. Since she wrote it in some other manner, the teacher marked it wrong and she talked to her teacher about it. Ms. Madhurima was very convincing about what she did. 

So, the teacher gave the solution that they should try it on the system and check it. Having tried it, they saw that the code ran successfully on the system.

She said that she  had a very strong conviction. 

So, she explained the audience taking her own example that we should have a strong conviction and that can be developed only if we put in that much amount of hard work and effort. The same strategy goes with us if we are selling a product. We should be confident about it despite what others sell.

We should keep our eyes and ears open to check for the audience advice.

She further explained the Modes of Persuasion:

1. Ethos - Appeal to ethics.

Where does your differentiation lie ?

In the speaker's words, we need to have credibility upfront to create value to our product. We should have confidence in our value. The value which our product is creating in the mind or lives of people.

2. Pathos - Appeal to emotions

3. Logos - Appeal to logic

She said that while talking to investors our data points must be put in a manner that is logical. 

Our statements should be more powerful. 

She gave an example seeking an answer from the audience that which statement sounds better and would be clearly understood if we are speaking :

1. 1 out of every 3 women are assaulted

2. 3 out of  every 10 women are assaulted

3. 3 million out of 10 million women are assaulted.

So, she explained that "1 out of every 3 women are assaulted" this statement seems to be more relatable and people can understand it's seriousness faster.

She said that while talking to the investors, u need to explain that at the Idea stage what you are proposing. You need to show them the potential of your idea. 

One being asked by the host that how much important is the "Elevator Pitch" ?

She responded that the "Elevator Pitch" is very important. It should be always ready. It should be maximum of 1 minute. 

She gave an example of the President of Fidelity who was once travelling in the elevator of his company and along with him there was an employee of the company.

President : What you do ?

Employee : I am making Fidelity successful.

This the President found very interesting and was very much impressed. So, that one statement made such an impact that the person stayed back to listen to the whole thing.

So, the speaker concluded the session focusing on several points:

1. It's your idea. You need to pitch your idea right. 

2. You need to establish your credibility upfront.

3. You need to explain and focus that why you are best person to make this idea a grand success.

4. At early stage of a company, it allows for experimentation whereas at a later stage it is not allowed. 

Ms. Madhurima Agarwal further shared about her Data Accelerator Program which she started 3 years back. 

Official Website : https://startup.netapp.in/

They even started with their B to B Accelerator Program.

Source : https://yourstory.com/2020/07/netapp-excellerator-virtual-mega-demoday

Video Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8PVP1Ubdrg