Whether you are pitching a customer on your product or service or pitching to investors, there is no doubt that doing it virtually over video conferencing software is the new normal. Yet it can be hard to make a human connection, transition smoothly, and anticipate technical challenges that you or your recipient will face when making your pitch. This can lead to awkward moments and communication failures. We asked folks in our startup ecosystem for any tips they had for pitching over video conferencing software.
- Plan for Digital Murphy’s Law
From JC Gray, Diatech Diabetic Technologies: “Assume that whatever can go wrong for you that is unique to pitching over the internet will go wrong at some point. Is your Bluetooth reliable? Is your internet fast enough for multiple video streams? Do you need an account to use the conference app platform? Make sure you have a couple of backups and plan Bs ready to go so you can hot swap with no show-stopping glitches to plague you. And then have grace when they do!”
- Dry Runs are a Must
From Lia Winter, Winter Innovations: “Get familiar with the platform you will be using before the pitch or meeting. Work with one of your teammates to do a dry run so that you’ll be a pro at screen sharing and switching between documents for the live session.”
- Making eye contact virtually
From Amber Hayes, SecondKeys: “It is hard to make eye contact through a virtual setting but there is a way to make it seem as if you are presenting and looking directly at the viewers. On your desk, place a book or small box between 2 to 4 inches under your computer. Turn on the camera application for the computer to make the following adjustments: Make sure that the viewer can see about 3 inches below your shoulders and leave about 3 inches from the top of your head to the frame. Place the screen for the video conference at the center of your screen at the top near your camera. This will then make it easier to look into the camera to create a connection and will give the illusion of the viewer that you are at your eye level making eye contact. For an extra bonus, have natural lighting behind your computer screen coming toward you to give you a natural warmth.”
- Have other team members support presenters during the call — the back channel
From Ken Sills, Preteckt: ”I had a virtual pitch in which the most senior person on the call could barely be heard because there was an audio issue. During the call, but via a backchannel, my team connected with someone on their team to let them know that we were all experiencing the same issue and that one of them should let that person know that a fix was needed.”
- Dress right for the occasion
From Esra Roan, SOMAVAC: “Don’t over or underdress for the occasion. It is certainly really simple to say, but hard to figure out the right balance. We all are spending a lot of time at home and forget we used to brush our hair or shave some time ago. Being clean and tidy, having a tidy environment sets the context for you and also conveys to your audience that you take the time and effort to be prepared for the call.”
- Be Human
From Sneh Parmar, Lucky: “It’s easy to make conversations all about work when you schedule something in your calendar and have an agenda; however, with everyone under quarantine people want to just talk. Let people open up to you, and do the same to build a real relationship before diving right into the work. What was true in the past is true in the present: people want to talk about their weekend or hobbies and letting them do so makes you a lot more personable. Virtual meetings are now the modern day coffee shop meetings, so treat it as such.”
- The Digital Clicker Pass Can Be Hard
From Preston Dishner, Winter Innovations: “If multiple people are presenting, how do you handle passing the presentation control over to the next speaker smoothly? Stop screen sharing to let the next presenter screen share? This is time consuming. Ask the screen sharer to advance the slide? This is distracting. On some video conferencing software solutions you can make the transition process more seamless, if one person does the screen sharing and gives Remote Control access to the next person presenting. This is the best way.”
(Image: Zoom Remote Control)
- Mute All Notifications During Screen Sharing
From John Wilcox, Diatech Diabetic Technologies: “Be sure to mute all notifications to prevent unnecessary distractions during conversations/pitches when you are sharing your screen. The last thing you need is an email notification or a text notification to pop up in the corner of the screen in the middle of your screen sharing let alone have an audio notification disrupt your listeners’ attention and yours.”
- Be Careful With Videos in Your Pitch
From Meka Egwuekwe, CodeCrew: “If planning to include a video in your pitch, you would be wise not to do so. While you may have great bandwidth, odds are someone on the call will only get a choppy experience that won’t do your video justice. It would be wise to omit a video altogether, or at least share a link to it that can be viewed later by those interested. Bonus tip: Use a creatively named bit.ly link if sharing a link to video (or anything else), so you can track hits and by date.”
- Everyone Logs On
From Eric Mathews, Start Co.: “Even if you and your co-founder are in the same building or room it is better for you each to login into the meeting separately so your face is fully visible and as big as possible. You will likely need to share the same audio feed though to reduce the possibility for feedback etc.”