OPEN Silicon Valley’s Post

If you’re doing a Q&A onstage: (For a pitch or presentation) Make sure you REPEAT the question, out loud, that the investor or audience member asked. Here’s why: Most people asking question from the audience aren’t worried about being heard. (Cause it’s not their performance!) So they usually speak softly into the mic, and no one in the audience can hear their question. But then the speaker just starts answering without saying: “So the question was: …” This makes it much harder for the audience to follow and understand the answer (obviously!) So unless you’re SURE everyone heard it: Repeat the question before answering. Do you do this for your Q&As? P.S. Shoutout Ishaan Kohli (pictured) for a great job on the Collision PITCH stage 👏

Phew. That was a tough 60m book pitch shark tank while on my daily walk. An LLM can be a brutal judge. Bonus...I didn't need to bother a friend for the umpteenth time. And got exercise. Me: "What I want to do is to basically give you the title of the book and a brief outline, and then almost give me like a rapid fire pitch contest series of questions, almost like Shark Tank, where I'm supposed to pitch the book to you, and then make a commentary on my pitch, and then we move on to the next one. Sound good?" It: "I’ll be your Shark Tank panel, grilling you with questions to sharpen your pitch. Just give me the title and a brief outline, and I’ll hit you with rapid-fire questions to really test the concept. After your pitch, I’ll provide feedback and we’ll keep rolling to the next one. Let’s do it!"

I had the opportunity to participate in the Muslim Shark Tank event this weekend, where I delivered my first pitch. While I didn't secure a win, the experience was incredibly valuable. Key takeaways: - Time is precious; make the most of the 5 minutes you have to present by thorough preparation. - A clear and concise story is essential; even the simplest ideas can get lost in a confusing narrative about your product or services. - Make your pitch tangible; provide samples or walk the audience through your service to evoke that "A ha!" moment. Have you pitched before? I'd love to hear about your experiences and learn from them! Share your biggest takeaways!

Part One: How a Shark Tank Winner Delivers the Perfect Pitch I’m not a natural salesperson. I often fumble and miss opportunities. As an introvert, I used to attribute this to my personality. I attended a SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) session at a local library that said, “selling is just conversation.” This helped a bit, but I still struggled with selling. Everything changed when I attended SCORE’s “Elevate Your Pitch Game: Getting Clients, Customers and Funders to say ‘yes’.” This event happened just before my 70th lighthouse visit. Because Seven is the number of God, I knew it was no coincidence that this event was just before the lighthouse visit. However, I didn’t know what to expect. The promotional material featured a white male, so I was surprised to see a confident black woman as the presenter. Precious L. Williams is a champion pitch master. She shared stories of her successful pitches on “Shark Tank” and other platforms. She has used pitching events to fund and promote her business, “Curvy Girls.” Williams demonstrated her “Shark Tank” pitch and explained exactly what a pitch is: • A short introduction • A taste of more to come • Bait to spark interest • Something that should elicit follow-up She emphasized that there are different types of pitches: sales pitches, elevator pitches, media pitches. No pitch answers every question, and each audience requires a different pitch. Don’t miss the second part of this trilogy. Make sure to subscribe to Precious L. Williams Linkedin Newsletter. #sharktank #pitch #sales elainemariefineart.com SCORE.org

And how do you pitch news these days?

Ever wondered why some companies sell with ease while others struggle? It's all about the C.L.O.S.E.R framework. Focus on understanding and connecting with your prospect’s needs before diving into a pitch.

When your first pitch to someone fails, don't be scared to reach back out. Just make sure you add context the second time to frame up your next pitch. What's changed? What should they know now? What info can you give them? Who have you helped who's similar? Pitches land better with context. So give the context needed before you pitch again.

As promised, and in celebration of three months since airing, I'll be sharing some of our biggest Shark Tank Takeaways over the next few days! 🦈🎉🐝 SHARK TANK TAKEAWAY #1 – The importance of partnership 👯♀️ You’ll notice that most businesses on Shark Tank have two or three business partners pitching and presenting to the Sharks. And for the solopreneurs who make their debut on the show alone, more power to you! For us, having the support of another person shaped our entire experience for the best. Not only do you have someone to share in the excitement, pressure, and uncertainty, you also have someone to take some weight off in the Tank. Willow Sprague, wouldn't have wanted to do it without you by my side 🥹   We spent a lot of time researching the best approach for question-answering in the Tank. Ultimately, we decided that it was important for us to each know every answer to any question they may ask. We each knew and could adequately respond to questions about:   -          Year over year profit & revenue -          Sales & margin details from the last 12 months -          ALL of our weak points   Admittedly, both of us memorizing all of our data and talking points was more work. However, in the Tank, we took turns responding to questions, which gave the Sharks confidence that we were both competent and closely involved in business operations. And it gave us each confidence that if one of us blanked, the other had our back.

What’s it really like to pitch on Shark Tank? Candace Nelson & I got to spill some secrets together live. My favorite takeaways? ✅ the application process is long - for good reasons! ✅ be prepared to handle a massive influx of orders if you air ✅ the Sharks don’t know anything about you until you start to pitch ✅ you get 30 minutes with the Sharks ✅ negotiations can take weeks to months after the live pitch to seal the deal ✅ the Sharks buy more into the founder than what they’re pitching ✅ oversharing & not clearly answering questions is a huge turnoff If you joined us - what was your biggest takeaway? 🧁 Candace has overcome A LOT to get where she is so check out her book Sweet Success for more of her journey.