The business landscape has changed immensely since early 2020. Suddenly we were thrown into Zoom rooms and the like. The advantages of this, is we are suddenly able to attend a networking event in Africa in the morning, Australia in the afternoon and America in the evening – the opportunities are HUGE and we haven’t even had to leave our homes!

I have never experienced as many networking opportunities as I have over the last few months and although this comes with its perks, I am also well aware of how “noisy” the networking scene has become…..

We all have the chance to pitch, sometimes it’s to a group, sometimes there are breakout rooms.

How do you ensure that you stand out?

How do you ensure you deliver a pitch that resonates with as many potential prospects as possible? How do you ensure that you don’t get “lost” in the Zoom Room? There are various ways to ensure that you message is heard, that you connect with the right people at the right time and that you create engagement that leads to meaningful conversations.

When pitching in a large online group:

  1. If you have been allocated 30 seconds stick to it! Generally speaking, those who go over time just irritate everyone else. True Story!
  2. If it is a niche market audience (i.e. a room on investors) then ensure that you use a pitch that is relevant to that audience.
  3. If it’s a group of folk from mixed market segments, from various cities / countries around the world, ensure that you use a pitch that is “general” and may attract the attention of “your ideal” client.

If you are allocated to 1 on 1 breakout rooms:

  1. Allow the other person to start! The reason for this is simple – if they have spoken about their business and what they do, you are able to tailor your pitch dependant on their direct needs! You DO need to actively listen for this to be effective!
  2. Watch the time to make sure that if they are going over their allocated time that you are able to (respectfully) say “I see the clock is ticking, may I introduce my business to you?” With a powerful 30 second pitch on hand you are then able to open up a short discussion or have an open-ended question to lead the conversation forward.
  3. If need be, allow a couple of minutes at the end and suggest a collaboration with the person you are with. Everyone is there to do business and with the world in its “strange state” there are more collaboration opportunities than ever before. A strong pitch allows the person on the other side to consider what you are suggesting!

The Networking landscape has changed, I honestly do not believe we could have anticipated that this is HOW we would be doing business, pitching to our prospects and creating collaborations and partnerships – but here we are doing it every day!

Ensure that you are Pitch Ready so that you are ready to look for and create opportunities!