When delivering Your Perfect Pitch the most important thing is that you prospect hears and engages with what you are saying!
Pace is the tempo or speed at which you deliver your pitch.
There are 3 elements to consider: 1) Are you too slow? 2) Are you too fast 3) Are you “just right”?
Delivering a pitch too fast: Often we think we need to speak fast as there is so much information to be shared in that 30 seconds.
The problem with a fast delivery: Your prospect does not have time to absorb what you are saying; they may feel completely overwhelmed; and the truth is they will miss not only the important bits, they are likely to miss everything!
The Result: A prospect who stops listening; a waste of their time; and a waste of yours!
Delivering a pitch too slow: Delivering a pitch at a slow pace may be a result of you thinking “I need to make sure they hear every word.”
The problem with a slow delivery: Your prospect is likely to feel bored; you will come across as unsure about what you do; You will likely lack energy which can be misinterpreted as a lack of passion; and they may interrupt not giving you the chance to actually finished what you started!
The Result: A prospect who stops listening; a waste of their time; and a waste of yours!
The results of a fast and a slow delivery are the same: A prospect who stops listening; a waste of their time; and a waste of yours! What a wasted opportunity!
So what is the perfect pace?
A Medium pace, one that allows you to share information, maintaining good rhythm and making it not only easy to listen to, but making it easy to deliver!
How do I make my pace faster or slower depending on what side of the scale I am sitting on?
To slow things down: write your pitch with the relevant grammatical elements (commas, full stops, questions marks etc). Use these grammatical elements when delivering the pitch. A comma is a short pause; a full stop is a longer one; a questions mark is a tiny bit longer than a full stop. This will slow your pitch, allowing you to pause at the right moment, and stop words just tumbling out.
To speed things up: share your pitch as if you were speaking to someone you know well. The comfort of being able to say what you need to say with no fear of “getting it wrong” will often fix the “too slow, boring delivery” as you will be speaking naturally. If you naturally speak slowly you may want to emphasize certain words or key phrases and this will assist greatly in having a varied pace.
Pace allows you to hold your prospects attention; gives them the opportunity to absorb what you are sharing and peak their interest in what you do!
For more key concepts come back for more weekly blogs!
