How to make a pitch that persuades, step by step

A good pitch does not look like a lecture. It looks like a well-played scene: you know where you are going, every line counts, and the audience wants to hear what comes next. Here is the complete method, in the order I work through it with the founders I coach.

Step 1: know what you want to get

Before you write a line, answer one question: what should your audience do right after hearing you? Book a second meeting, vote for you, sign, introduce you to someone. The whole pitch is built backwards from that answer.

Then define your audience: a specialist or generalist investor, a panel of experts or non-experts, a client in a hurry. You do not say the same thing to a deeptech fund and to a regional competition jury.

Step 2: build the story

An effective pitch tells a transformation: a world with a problem, a world where it is solved, and you as the bridge between the two. The basic structure:

1. The hook: a scene, a number, a question.
2. The problem: who suffers, from what, what it costs.
3. The solution: what you do, in one sentence, then shown.
4. The proof: what shows that it works.
5. The ask: what you want, precisely.

For an investor pitch, add the market, the business model and the team.

Step 3: write for the ear

A text written to be read does not sound good spoken. In the theatre, we write for the mouth and the ear. The same rules apply here:

• Short sentences, one idea each.
• Concrete words you can picture.
• Deliberate repetition of the central idea.
• Pauses written into the text, after numbers and before the ask.

Step 4: prepare the slides (if you need them)

Slides support your words; they do not replace them. One idea per slide, one strong visual, one big number. If the audience could understand your pitch by reading your slides without listening to you, they carry too much. For the numbers, see how many slides a pitch deck needs.

Step 5: rehearse, for real

This is the step almost everyone underestimates. Rehearsing is not rereading. It means saying it, standing up, out loud, in conditions close to the real day.

• Week one: rehearse every day, script in hand and then without.
• The last days: rehearse in front of someone, timed, filmed.
• The goal: the text disappears. You are no longer reciting, you are speaking. In the theatre, this is the moment when you stop "saying your lines" and start acting.

Step 6: work on your presence

The audience judges your presence as well as your content. Three levers cover most of it:

• Grounding: both feet on the floor, weight evenly spread, no swaying.
• Eye contact: rest on one person at a time, for the length of one sentence.
• Voice: a pace slower than natural, sentence endings that go down, pauses you own.

Step 7: prepare for questions

List the twenty most likely questions and prepare a thirty-second answer for each. Always start with the direct answer.

Step 8: handle your nerves

Nerves are normal, even among actors. You channel them through breathing (a longer exhale than inhale), grounding and a first sentence you know perfectly. The detailed techniques are in the guide to handling nerves before a pitch.

Pitch formats

For the shortest format, see the elevator pitch method, with examples. If you will pitch in a second language, read pitching in English as a non-native speaker.

If you want an outside eye on your pitch, I describe how I work on the pitch coaching page, and the programs are in the offers section.

To go further, read how to structure an investor pitch and the questions investors ask after a pitch.