When you are a business, you always need to put your best foot forward. Whenever you’re setting out on a new project, a new task or meeting a client, you have to make sure you are financially secure, able to fund the project, meet your objectives and go the extra mile if you can. So when you’re pitching to a business, investor, or client, you must always be ready to impress. That is what pitch teams are for. These will comprise your most talented staff in the sales, marketing and research and development departments. Three different approaches, different disciplines and ways to pitch an idea is pretty much the industry standard. However, with them, they will have their own smaller teams. These people are also very good at what they do. You need everyone to work together, and here’s why and how.
What their primary role is
Pitching teams are created to sell a product or idea. They will be making presentations, which requires research, statistics, PowerPoint slides and a whole raft of other things such as in-person demonstrations. This means they need to do a number of things.
Know the product and or idea they are pitching. They must know why it is needed, what kind of gap in the market it is intended on plugging, why people would want it and what the design and development of it entail.
How much does it cost to research, make, product and improve? The finances are the most important thing of all. They must work with the financial team to know the costs of everything involved, including estimates.
Convince a client to invest or buy the product. They have to be great public speakers. They must be masters of brevity and yet, articulated speech as well. Be precise and concise, but be friendly and want to be as extroverted as possible.
Why do they matter?
Pitch teams are kind of like your special forces. They are rarely used, but when you need them, they have to be the best in the world. Bear in mind, when you're speaking with clients and making pitches, you’re most likely not the only one. There are countless other businesses all doing the same thing. So you have to bat it out of the park on your first go!
They matter because they will further your connections with professionals in the industry, convince rich clients to invest in your business or fund a project to get it off the ground. They will also be needed to mingle with potential clients at industry events and trade shows. They can be the difference between getting the backing you need both financially, professionally and publically, and not.
What they need to operate
Pitch teams need a lot of things to be able to function to a high standard. Firstly, each member of the team requires their own business phone. A mobile phone strictly for business is the best way to go about it, rather than asking them to rely on their personal phones. Don’t mix work and leisure, as they say.
They must have a phone network which is able to transfer a lot of data and be able to work speedily in order to send and receive documents. But 4G is kind of on the way out and 5G is going to revolutionize the pitch teams of the world. So, you’re probably thinking will 4G phones work on the 5G network? Yes, they will. All 5G networks will continue to provide 4G services into the 2030s. They will provide a mixture of 4G and 5G network services, as the new technology is phased in and the old is phased out. You can expect to buy smartphones, which have both 5G and 4G technology already present, so you don’t need to buy one or the other.
Do you need them?
If you are a business in search for partners, you'd definitely need a pitch team. If you are a small business owner, seeking to expand and merge with another business, you need a pitch team that can show the best side of your company. Maybe you are looking for some extra investment because the investment you got from their previous client has dried up. You will need to put together a professional pitch team.
If you are a business that wants to get into the export/import markets, you will need a pitch team that can relate to different cultures, and nations. It's vital that you have a pitch team to enter new markets, as they can convince foreign companies to see you as a risk worth taking.
Are they limited?
Yes, pitch teams by their nature are limited in their roles. They are however able to be used in different ways.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
It's not all about the products! If you need to merge with another company to survive, then you can train a pitch team to make a presentation that shows how your business has been performing. They can be utilized to present to clients that want to buy a business too.
Distributors will almost always want to demonstrate the product they're going to be selling. So a small pitch team to meet with distributors like Amazon, Walmart and Kroger etc, can be given a presentation on what they are going to be buying and why.
They can also be used to present to industry experts and professionals at industry events. If you have booked time on the stage, your pitch team will be speaking to the media, live stream audiences and the general consumer, all in one.
How much do they cost?
Well, they are not a permanent fixture, so they actually can’t be cost unless they have a project to meet. Again, your pitch team is made up of full-time employees, C-suite ranks and their closets aids, advisors and or workers. They might also be composed of other workers that are key to the product or idea.
However, they are not a body in a company, thus they don’t have an annual expense or expenditure sheet. They may not be needed every year, and just formed when you need it. A pitch team will have expenses costs, however.
Travel. The most important thing is meeting clients outside of the office. Therefore, plane tickets, taxi rides, coaches, trains, etc. All of this needs to be accounted for.
Food. Your pitch teams need to eat while on the go. This will require a daily food budget for each person. It could be $30 each or more if you can afford it, but that is the average.
Special costs. These will be things like hidden border-crossing fees. It could also be for things like emergency flights back home when a close relative has died. Special costs can also be for things such as buying things at the location, that could help the pitch. Maybe a tablet has broken and they need to buy a new one to make the pitch as effective as it was supposed to be.
On average, the cost will be determined by the number of people, the scale of their travels and how long they will be away on pitch meetings.
How have they evolved?
Pitch teams have evolved to include junior members as well. Before, business owners would not want low-level employees to be involved in the pitches when meeting high-level clients. However, junior employees that have proved instrumental in the development of an idea or product are required to be part of the team.
It's also good to have junior employees be part of the pitch team because you want to project an image of having confidence in your young talent and allowing them to be more involved in key decisions. Investors will want to know you’re in it for the long haul and your relationship is set to last. So having multiple generations present when making a pitch, is a good idea for showing continuity potential of an idea.
New technology
Rather than just relying on pitching skills, utilizing modern tech to get your posting across is very welcome. For example, implement a virtual reality headset demonstration into your pitch. Allow clients to put on a VR headset to experience the product or idea.
If your plan is to build a new attraction, the client would be able to walk through it just by virtue of the VR headset.
Other tech you could implement is video journeys with multiple choice answers and pre-recorded results. This can lead clients down multiple possibilities and show them how well you have researched the various outcomes.
Pitch teams are very useful and versatile. They can be used to present to large consumer crowds, to potential clients, and investors. They are needed when you want to merge your business and equally as great when you want someone to buy your business during financial difficulties.
You need a top pitch team to be able to connect with people. They need to be factual and information, educational and patient. This is their primary role and point for existing as pitch teams.