Pitching… in the absence of the pitcher!

We spend a great deal of our lives delivering pitches. From cajoling parents to give us more money, begging teachers for more marks, haggling with the auto guy, requesting the cop to let us go, pleading with the maid to come on time and finally praying to god… everything is a Pitch.

Most of us are good at different kinds of pitches.

However with the advent of the great corporate Brahamastra ‘PowerPoint’, the pitch presentation has become an art in its own right. And most people suck at it.

Ironically, the reason why most of us can’t deliver effective pitches is because somehow the pitch has become more about the slides than about communicating what is required to convince someone to come aboard.

A pitch can be made

On the phone (Hello Sir I am calling from XYZ bank…)

On Email (My name is Odumbe Ombaka from Nigeria and I want to offer you a chance to make 1 Million $…)

On TV (This is the best abs machine in the market because you never need to exercise….)

Through Flash ads (Want to find hot friends in & around Delhi?….)

In a meeting (Sir this product will kill the competition….)

Non-Verbally (Wink Wink Smile Laugh….)

etc etc etc

This post is NOT on how to make effective presentations since I have already covered that somewhat (here). This post is about what you need to know before making effective pitches to various people using a PowerPoint or equivalent program.

But just to keep it simple and in the interest of those who (mercifully) take out time to read this blog, I will only be writing about Pitches from a Startup’s perspective.

Oh! And I write the below pointers assuming that you WON’T be present when the person views your pitch. Which means that he/she will be looking at the presentation and there will be no opportunity to razzle and dazzle with your mellifluous voice.

There are 4 different types of pitches for Startups

1. For Investors – They are interested in Your Idea/Product, The General Market Contours, The Profile of your Customers, The Pain you are trying to Solve, What you have achieved till now, How they can get in touch with you, Existing backers, partners and investors and most importantly Who are you and your team mates?

2. For Partners – They are interested in Your Idea/Product, The Profile of customers, What you have achieved till now, How they can get in touch with you, Profile of your team, What are the potential ways in which they can partner, Any Press coverage, Why is this so exciting and WIIFM (What’s in it for me).

3. For Customers – They are interested in the Product/Service, What makes your Product/Service so kick-ass, What you have achieved till now, The management profile, profile of some other clients, any press coverage, How to get in touch with you and the benefits of what you are selling.

4. For Employees– They are interested in knowing about how amazing your startup is, Why your Product/Service so kick-ass, What have you achieved till now, Management Profile, Your Backers/investors/partners, Profile of a few employees, Why this market so amazing to work in, What positions and skills you are looking for and finally How to get in touch with you.

10 Rules to follow while making a Startup Pitch

1. Keep it simple – Pushing in too many ideas, with too many flowcharts and too many details is going to kill your pitch. If you know what is the central Idea to your startup (I hope you do), use that as the common thread which binds all slides. Please note that the central idea may differ based on the category of viewers as given above. A tagline which encapsulates ‘what you do’, is very useful. Use only a few elements per slides. Don’t use too many animations, pictures or arrows. He/She will turn off really quick if you insist on being difficult to follow.

2. An Idea per slide – Ever tried reading 3 different subject books at the same time or even watching 3 movies. No? Well I hope not because it will be a waste of time. One idea/topic per slide makes it really easy to follow, register and digest in the mind of the viewer.

3. Colors and Graphics – Colors, Shape and Sizes affect the brain subconsciously. It’s a scientific fact. So even though Yellow font with a black background might sound like a GREAT idea, it usually isn’t. Please pick out easy colors, shapes, graphics and fonts for your presentation because the ‘Environment’ of your presentation really makes a lot of difference on how the content aka meat of your pitch is received. If the pitch is about a Startup making toys, then a black and white presentation devoid of any color is a bad idea, similarly a financial services startup may not want to use the rainbow as the presentation background. It will really help if the colors, fonts and graphics used in the pitch are part of your startup’s ‘creatives standards’. Finally, make sure that function comes before form. That is, the environment should support the content by making the presentation easy to read, pleasant to view and simple to remember.

4. Foot in Door – The pitch should not be written or made to communicate everything there is to know about you. You never mail a free mini-dictionary to someone in the hope that they might buy the extended 3 part volume series dictionary. You talk to them about the benefits owning a dictionary and how it will enrich their lives. The main purpose of a pitch is to introduce yourself, make yourself look interesting and to get a meeting! The final sale/decision/agreement etc will happen in that meeting. Your pitch must ensure that the person sitting across the table really wants to meet you.

5. Master Presentation for Material – Make a master presentation for your startup which may be treated as source material for all further variants. I have seen too many people messing up on details and content by putting up different things on different presentation and pitch variants. To a detail oriented person it can be irritating and confusing especially when they call you for a follow up presentation after they have seen your pitch. A master presentation also makes it easy to keep updating other variant presentations whenever required.

6. Easy to search – Most investors, customers and people get hundreds of emails a day. Since your pitch will probably be going through email, make sure you put easy to remember and recognizable subject lines, email ids and file names. If your Pitch presentation is named ‘Pitch’ or ‘Presentation’ or just XYZ12rd4 or some such ambiguous term, then the probability is that your file will be lost in some hard-drive or email inbox for eternity. Make the email subject easy to search. Put your Startup’s name and the term ‘pitch presentation’ in it. Also name your file using “Startup Name Pitch Date” format. For example “CoffeeCup Pitch – 22 Mar 2012”. Personally I would like to also know how many slides I have to go through and how many minutes it will take. This helps most of us get mentally prepared for the time and attention commitment.

7. Easy to share – If you can also mail a link of the pitch on slideshare, youtube etc then not only will you make it easy for someone to access it across platforms, you will also make it easy for them to share the pitch with other interested parties and stakeholders.

8. Don’t insult his/her intelligence – Don’t dwell too hard on the basic info. Everyone knows that the internet market in India is growing, that eCommerce is growing, that food consumption is growing and that global warming is also growing. A few revealing and relevant statistics will be nice. If you know the profile of your potential investors, customers, partners etc then you must include info which is relevant to them and doesn’t dwell on the known. This helps save time, effort and eases communication.

9. Tease – The art of the pitch is to open the mind of the person in front to receive the sales information you want to provide to finally make the sale. Since the aim of the pitch presentation is to get you a meeting where the other party really wants to know what you have to offer hence it makes sense to not reveal everything there is to say. Keep the bang for the final meeting. But most importantly tease the person to make him/her really want to meet you.

10. Make it for Mobiles – Probably the biggest shift one has to understand while making a pitch presentation. If you go over the last 9 points you will realize that almost every point has been written with the Smart Phone medium in mind. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that most of us will soon be consuming media in a major way through our smartphones. Certain demographics (like VCs, Investors, high flying executives, ahead of the curve customers etc) already do so. Anyone who owns a blackberry or a better smartphone would know that most emails, messages and social media updates are viewed through the smartphone. So the probability that your email and presentation will be viewed on a phone is really high. And if you have ever gone through a presentation on a blackberry you would know how frustrating the experience can be with slides made for a projector i.e. lots of data, small fonts, lots of words, messy graphics etc). My advice – Make a presentation and see if others can understand it on a basic blackberry phone.

14 Startup Lessons from my time as a Teenage Bartender

I was fresh behind the ears and had an empty wallet.

Nay! I had no wallet.

My first few months at IHM Pusa were spent day dreaming about how kick-ass my future in the hotels is going to be.

As freshers, we all knew that life was going to be physically and mentally demanding. We all knew it wasn’t going to pay well. But somehow we all felt it was going to be epic.

During this time I was introduced to a bunch of seniors, looked upon with a mix of mystery & intrigue, due to a dark art practiced by them after college. This dark art is known as mixology… popularly called Bartending.

Delhi laws prohibit the consumption of hard liquor till the age of 25 and I went along for my first Bartending gig at 18. (Yes I was breaking a few laws) 

These gigs were almost always part of events & parties at farmhouses and lavish houses.

I was paid a sum of Rs. 300 per day, money which I really needed, in 2003 for 8-10 hours of work, which started after 6 p.m. and would go on till dawn. 

It was gruelling work, fast paced and intense. We (Me and another friend) would work against sleep deprivation knowing well that there was no place to go to after the gig, since the hostel was too far off from where we were. We routinely fell short on attendance, had no social lives and practically gave up college for those few intense winter ‘party’ months of October to February.

What this gave me, were indelible lessons on Work, Wealth and being Wasted. 

And while I don’t think this blog is the right place to talk about lessons on Wealth or on being Wasted, I would really love to write about what it taught me about work… and as an extension… about how to run a Startup. 

I did that gig for a year. But the sights, sounds and experiences of all those fat weddings, decked up women, cigar smoking men, alcohol frenzied dance floors, coke snorting teens, farmhouses gone crazy, DJ driven environments and glitter that glittered more than gold, taught me the same amount as the stuff happening on the other side of the Bar… our side of the Bar. 

 

Here are 13 Startup Lessons from my time as a Teenage Bartender

1. Backend operations matter – It was my first day at the Bar and I remember walking up just behind the main counter (Like a stud). The main boss, the owner of the company, walks up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. He asks me what I planned on doing, so I told him I was there to become a bartender. He then points me towards the back of the bar, near the waste bins and asks me to start from there. Once I was able to recover from crushed dreams, I realised that there was a lot of work that went on in the background, to which most customers we oblivious. Every good bar will have a number of people cleaning, stacking, wiping, lifting etc to make sure that the back-end operations are able to support the guys working up front. Every entrepreneur realises something similar with startups. Its usually the stuff that isn’t glamorous which is the most important. 

2. Substance before Style – Most people, when they hear of my brief experience as an amateur bartender, always ask me if I know how to flip bottles. Thats when I usually feel like flipping a bottle at them. It’s like asking a chef if he knows how to juggle knives. Movies, pop culture and perceptions make bartenders out be jugglers who also pour drinks. In reality, great bartenders always work on making great drinks, fulfilling orders, upselling alcohol and generally controlling waves of wasted people without using a stun gun. The DJ, the bartender and the Host are the Gods of ‘Have-A-Great-Time’. I learnt that no amount of flipping bottles and tricks can ever endear a customer if he doesn’t gets his drink well made and on-time. Substance always wins over style. (Yes, I did flip a lot of bottles, but never behind the bar. And I wasn’t a good bartender, I was an amateur at best)

3. The Value of incentives – Bartenders are like high performance athletes who can turn the sales of a place on its head. They are also the most highly incentivised set of people in F&B. But most of them don’t just do it for the money. A number of factors like the music, people, reputation, style etc come into play. The best guys can handle it all, including the stress and the long hours. Organizations, with high performance employees would do well to understand that financial incentives can only drive behavior to a certain extent. You will usually be surprised what works for them.

4. Listen to your customers! – Bartenders are great at listening to customers. Over thumping music, chiming voices, a  bar which is almost always on the verge of collapse, a constantly ringing phone and general chaos, they make and serve hundreds of drinks with little margin for error. How? I was taught long back, how to cut out the noise, when I am taking an order at the bar. For a bartender it is essential that he be aware of whats going on, but when a customer starts to move him mouth and you lock eyes with him and zone out for a few seconds to everything else, including the tens of others waiting to be heard. This really helps in getting things done. To be able to focus on one thing, when everything else is in motion, is the mark of an effective entrepreneur. 

5. Success is where the pain starts – It almost always cold, wet and stuffy behind the bar. To do it day after day, for all those long hours, especially when we were serving hundreds of people, with fingers numb from picking ice and opening bottles in the middle of the December cold in Delhi, was not easy at all. It was painful at a physical level and many of us would be sick long cold nights as sweaters would damp up due to all that water, leaving us feeling wrapped up in a cold blanket. But after we were able to get through those days, we really learnt what it meant to run a bar. Startups, though started by nice fluffy things like love &  passion, almost always have a period of intense pain. If you read ‘The Dip’ by Malcolm Gladwell, you will know why its important to take stuff like this, head on.

6. Develop relationships with those at the Top and the Bottom – Yup, we always shook hands with the owners of those farmhouses, the hosts and the important guests. It was important to be connected, known and respected for our work. But we always met the kitchen staff, the cleaners and the helpers. We were always nice to them, because we knew that when the shit hits the fan and we have to run around of ice, lemons, salt, dry wiping cloths, fruits, water, cleaning solution etc, it was the guys at the bottom who mattered most. The fact that you belong to a certain social strata should never blind you from realising the worth of every man & woman, you have to work with.

7. Understand Context to understand People – Most bartenders will never judge people based on what they see of them at a party. Especially when they are drunk. They develop a sense of judgement, which most others don’t because bartenders know how to understand context. Be fair and understanding of people and situations. It has always helped me make good decisions. 

8. Discipline exists for every art – Whatever you might think of bartenders, it is probably disconnected from reality. There is a lot of effort, discipline and time that goes into perfecting the art of mixology. Speak to a great bartender, not just any, and you will find a deeply focused, centered, character driven person rather than the trash talking, fake, drunk looney we all think he is. No matter what you do, discipline exists as a prerequisite for anything we wish to achieve.

9. The Basics matter – In my limited time at the bar I realised that knowing how to pour a drink, clean a glass, keeping the bar in order, stocking juices, prep, billing and listening are far more important than knowing how to flame a Vodka Shot by breathing fire like a circus act. First make your basics solid, then worry about the rest.

10. Differentiate yourself… always – A long pony tail, a great cocktail, a powerful network, an amazing collection of jokes, lots of good stories, a photographic memory, great service, a personal touch, inimitable style, attitude etc. All these go a long way in differentiating you for the others in the market. But a look at the lesson before this one, should let you know that I really believe in getting the basics right first.

11. Do something for “The Flow’ – Bartenders usually talk about getting into the ‘Zone’, when the crowd really picks up. Its when they cant keep track of time or think about anything else but the order at hand… and they feel satisfied in that moment without any external motivation egging them on or any feedback from a superior. That’s usually what software programmers, artists, athletes experience when they say that they love what they do. This condition is called a state of ‘Flow’ by  Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. I believe that if your Startup lets you get into that state of ‘Flow’, then you will probably do it with greater conviction and perseverance.

12. Know the law, the makers and the enforcers – Its amazing how this comes naturally to most guys at the Bar. In India, a bar is usually the scene of a crackdown by the cops and other authorities. Hence the guys make it a point to know most of the authorities and those who are in a position to effect their decision making. A Startup would do well to know people who make policy and legal decisions which effect them, rather than embracing the Head-In-Sand attitude, which unfortunately, is usually the norm.

13. Shit Happens! – Yes it does. And it is your business to be prepared for it, one way or another. And more importantly to empower people at your startup to deal with it, whenever and wherever possible. A broken mixer, a bleeding hand, a violent customer, a fight at the bar, crackdown by the cops, shortage of alcohol, a jammed bill printer, a broken draught beer machine etc are events that really can not be solved over a board meeting. Your bet is then to have an employee take initiative and solve the situation. 

Enjoy this! An amazing True Originals video by Bacardi. Really captures the essence of what it means to be a kick-ass bartender.

Saying ‘Bye Bye’ to Customers!

Ever since the first day I stepped into the marketing class of an exceptionally caustic professor, I was told that ‘A Customer is God’. In fact Peter Drucker, The Grand Father of Modern Marketing explicitly states that “The Purpose of a business is to create a customer”. Now that is all good and nice. In fact it’s one of those ideal, lofty ambitions which get lapped up by newbie B-School babas.

To be fair, it makes intrinsic sense to not only increase the number of customers but also revenue per customer, to increase overall revenue and profitability. Once we get to Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) we find it to be just one of those obvious universal truths. If you want to make more money and more profits, sell more to existing customers and create new ones. Basically aim for a bigger piece in the pie of market share. Or better yet, increase the pie.

But just like all ‘Universal Truths’ this one is simple… and yet complicated.

Customers aren’t only those who pick up soaps and toothpaste at the store. They are also those who subscribe to services, become clients and (in a way) are those serviced by social businesses or NGOs.

So our relationship with customers isn’t just based at the moment of transaction. It’s a much longer (and complicated) relationship since products and services have longer lasting benefits and effects than just the moment of transaction.

Sooner or later, your customers will demand more. Which is good since that’s the fuel for great innovation. Unfortunately all customers don’t want the same thing. They all want new features, services, add-ons, discounts etc but since our individual needs are different; our wants from our products/services are different too.

By the classical definition of Peter Drucker, a business should then go ahead and fulfil these demands to get new customers. Sounds a little difficult, if not absurd. Your costs of production, servicing, marketing etc will go through the roof. But the biggest hit will be on the image of your brand and your company. Because now no one knows what you stand for.

You are now Brand Confused. Diluted. Spread Thin. On your way down.

So what can startups do now?

1. Remember the 80/20 rule. 20% of customers lead to 80% of profits and revenues. My advice is to get rid of the last 20%. They are pulling you down.

2.  Take a Stand. Understand the future. Make products/service based on a good understanding of what people want and what they may want. Take a stand and refuse to go in any other direction, unless heavy evidence suggests otherwise.

3. Listen but don’t lose sleep. It takes a certain kind of entrepreneur to listen to criticism and take judgement on what to do and what not to. Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed by a hundred people telling you that they want a hundred different things. But it’s important to take a call on what you feel is right. Just remember, a carriage runs well only when all horses are pointed in the same direction.

4. Your top 10 list. Conventional wisdom states that one should make the top 10 customers by revenue as the top 10 most important people in the world for a company. I think while one should treat them well, it’s essential to talk to those 10 customers (potential or real) who are creating businesses for the future rather than just now. Your chances of creating a better product/service based on your goals increase drastically when you listen to them.

5. Analyze. Create systems and processes that let you analyze the true cost of doing business with your customers. You could be spending great resources on your customers without making much money. Hell, in most cases you could be losing money. Constantly analyze and try to revive unprofitable relationships. But if they are on the way down. Abort.

6. Don’t hesitate to say Bye. There is a certain hesitation in letting go of a source of income. These customers are usually the ones who give you a migraine and don’t pay you so much for it. What this does is that it takes the 2 most important resources of your company and makes them inefficient. Focus and Time. If there is more you can do with these finite non-scalable resources then one must learn to lose such customers.

7. Be Nice. Now that you are ready to make more revenues, profits, products etc after getting rid of dead weight customers, please note. Be nice to them even after they are no longer your customers. Not because you want to stay in their good books, your reputation might get sullied and that shifting executives may lead to major accounts not coming your way. This is all desirable. You do this because they deserve it and you should genuinely be nice to people who have ever done business with you.