Every startup needs a strong sales pitch. After all, once you’ve filed the paperwork for your business and drawn up the business plan, you’ll be doing a lot of pitching to start making money.
Startups have many different audiences they’ll need to pitch to, which is why it’s important to nail down exactly what to include in their sales pitches. How much time should you spend talking about the history of the startup? Do you need to talk about competitors?
As it turns out, what you include in a startup sales pitch can vary, especially when you factor in different audiences.
What is a sales pitch for startups?
For startups, a sales pitch doesn’t always refer to selling a product to customers, as it may for older businesses. Instead, a sales pitch could also refer to a startup marketing itself to investors for funding to take the company to the next level.
Whether pitching to potential investors or an audience of buyers in your target market, startups should still focus on preparing a short-and-sweet sales pitch that is only about one to two minutes long. So, what should you include in this brief pitch, and what can you save for longer conversations? Here are some of the essential components of a sales pitch for startups.
8 startup sales pitch elements
You’ve got your first few investor meetings on the books and sales calls with potential clients penciled in the calendar. But before you can take these meetings, you need to prepare pitches to increase the chance of securing funding or closing sales.
Even if you don’t have a single call scheduled yet, nailing a sales pitch as a startup is a top priority. You never know when you’ll need to start an elevator pitch to someone interested in what you do.
When you’re passionate about your startup, it can be hard to narrow down all the information about what you’re selling—and why you started the company—into a pitch. But if you don’t build out at least a few enticing versions of a startup sales pitch, you risk boring potential investors and clients with excess details that don’t relate to your listeners.
That’s why knowing the essentials of what goes into a startup sales pitch can help you gain and hold the attention of your listeners and perhaps even convert them into funding your business or buying your products.
Here are eight elements to consider for a sales pitch:
1. Hook
As Entrepreneur reported, today's human attention span is only around 8 seconds, meaning you need to quickly and effectively grab your audience right from the start of your startup sales pitch.
There are several different ways to hook your listeners, but the tactic you choose will need to be tailored based on who you are pitching to. You may start with a powerful statistic about your business when pitching to investors. When speaking with potential clients, you may want to begin with an interesting question that speaks to the problem they have—a problem that your product will solve.
Keep this part particularly short, especially for an elevator pitch that you’re trying to keep within a one-minute timespan.
2. Startup story
According to Lyn Graft, founder of Storytelling for Entrepreneurs and author of "Start With Story," storytelling is a key element for pitching. Humans crave narrative, and sharing your startup’s story with the audience, whether investors or clients, can make listeners feel more emotion as they listen to the pitch.
As Forbes reported, storytelling can be as much as 22 times more memorable than facts. So, while it’s tempting to lead with business or product statistics to wow the crowd (and there may be a place for that information later in your pitch), the reality is that you can better captivate the audience with the story of why you started your company or what drove you to develop a specific product.
3. Problem or need
While a strong hook and a piece of company history will capture your audience’s attention, you also need to relate the pitch to the listener to keep them engaged.
When pitching to potential clients, that means defining a problem or need that they have that existing products or companies aren’t properly fulfilling.
For investors, you still need to present the clients’ needs so you can explain how your company will solve this problem in a way that no other companies are doing. Showcasing the clients’ problems before explaining how your startup will solve them will help you stand out from competitors and highlight the value of your startup, encouraging investors to get involved.
4. Market and audience information
You won’t need to include market and audience information when making a sales pitch to potential clients, but this information will be crucial if you’re pitching to investors. Investors will want to know how your product will fit into your proposed market and why your specific audience needs what your startup is offering.
Before you prepare a pitch to investors, make sure you nail product-market fit to prove that your solutions make sense for the target audience. Be sure to show examples of product-market fit in your pitch.
5. Solutions
Of course, there’s no sales pitch without identifying what you’re actually selling. But rather than just showing off a cool prototype, make sure you’re pitching your product or service in a way that explains how this specific offering will solve the problem outlined earlier in the pitch.
Avoid fluffy language or vague statements here. Instead, make it very clear as to how your product will fulfill the listener’s needs or solve their problems. Make use of facts and statistics, or pull in testimonials from any existing clients to help get the point across here.
6. Value proposition
No matter who you’re pitching to, they will want to know why they should stick with you over some other company offering similar products or services. That’s where a clear, strong value proposition comes into play. The value proposition explains how your company and its offerings differ from the competition.
Investors will want to know why your startup will succeed in the market when compared to other similar companies, and they will want to know why it’s worth it to invest in your company over others.
For clients, they need reasons to buy your product versus another company. As a startup, you may not be able to offer the lowest prices on the market, so it will be crucial to show a high-quality product and exemplary customer service that will set you apart.
If you’re not sure exactly how to define your value proposition within the sales pitch, you can use handy value proposition templates for guidance. Remember, a sales pitch tends to be short, so using templates and guides to help you identify the most essential details about your business can be the ultimate trick in building a strong yet concise pitch as a startup.
7. Goals
If you’re making a pitch to investors, it’s important to express the goals you have for the business and how you’ll use investor funding to help reach those goals. Whether you’re hoping to expand your retail space or launch a new product, it’s important to outline the goals, why they’ll work for your audience, and how they’ll lead to a positive ROI for investors.
8. Call to action
Finally, give your listeners a cue to take action in order to help close the sale. Maybe you’re offering special introductory pricing for early customer signups or higher equity amounts for your first investors. No matter the deal, make sure you present it in a short, clear way using action verbs and urgent descriptions to encourage the listeners to take advantage of the offer or deal sooner rather than later. For example, try phrases like “Get started today” to make the offer seem more urgent and enticing.
Another tip is to make the call-to-action more personal, especially for one-on-one meetings and calls with potential investors or clients. According to a HubSpot survey, personalized CTAs perform 202% better than more generic CTAs, making it clear that a more personalized approach is worth the added time and effort when it comes to closing deals.
How many sales pitch versions does a startup need?
As a startup, there are going to be multiple stakeholders to pitch to, whether that’s a vendor you want to partner with, an investor you hope to gain funding from, or new clients to propel your business forward.
Not everyone you pitch to needs to hear the exact same pitch. For instance, your potential clients don’t need to hear as much about your company’s future goals or the market information; they want to know how you’re going to alleviate their pain points for them.
Ultimately, you should have at least two different versions of a startup sales pitch. One should be a brief elevator pitch, and the other should be a longer option, around 20 minutes or less, for more in-depth meetings.
It’s also wise to have both short and long sales pitches for each audience, whether that’s an investor or potential customer. From there, you may also want to design different pitches for in-person presenting versus email presenting.
That may sound like a lot of research and planning to develop multiple pitches. However, it still wastes less time than giving unrefined pitches to broader audiences that may not feel inspired to close a sale or offer funding after listening. If you need help tailoring your pitches, you can check out examples of successful sales pitches and examples of strong elevator pitches for inspiration.
Close the deal with these sales pitch tips
Crafting a successful sales pitch is an art form. Not only do you need to incorporate narrative and statistics in a way that feels compelling and natural, but you also need to know how to evoke emotions from the crowd and edit your pitch to only the most robust details.
By knowing the most important elements to include in a sales pitch, you’ll have an easier time creating multiple pitch versions to meet the needs and interests of each person or crowd you’ll pitch to. With this personalization, you’re in a better position to start securing investor deals or selling your first products to clients, ultimately taking your startup to its next milestone and beyond.
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