The final hack to a successful pitch opening is to grab their attention. Seems obvious enough but in my experience, too many people undervalue exactly what this means.
The most effective way to grab their attention during the start of your pitch is with a S.T.A.R moment or Something They’ll Always Remember.
There are several different ways to create a STAR moment. These include:
Ask a technical question
Tell a shocking statistic
Display a compelling visual
Recall a memorable anecdote
Say a repeatable soundbite
I tend to rely more on anecdotes to create my STAR moment. Anecdotes allow you to engage in storytelling that in itself can contain the other elements.
Your audience is always the most captive at the beginning of your presentation.
Starting with a well-crafted story that includes a suitable STAR moment allows you to set expectations and take control, establish credibility and begin to foster the key messages of your presentation.
Your story and introduction need to contain three parts, Situation, Catalyst and Challenge. Your STAR could be part of any of these.
Situation – This is about context and background. You need to set the scene and tell the audience information they probably already know. You can give a shocking or contrarian view of the market.
Catalyst – Describe the complication or thing that has gone wrong that needs to be addressed. Has something changed, or does it need to? What could be a strong point of view or statistic to share here.
Challenge – What’s the next step? What should the response be to the complication? Perhaps you can paint a seismic change vision that your potential investors will remember?
Setting up your presentation with a STAR moment, in the beginning, will help to create a captive audience and engage them for the rest of the presentation. When combined with my other 2 presentation opening hacks, to connect as humans and find your flow, you are almost certain to succeed.