Wow-ing an Audience with your new Idea

Last week I put up a blog post on what to include in a business plan. No person will ever attract funding on the business plan alone - if you want to sell your idea, you will need to get in front of people and sell the idea in a "pitch". Pitching a new business or product idea is an art and one of the masters of that art in Steve Jobs of Apple. He is recognized for his ability to be able to "wow" an audience and get people "juiced" about whatever he is proposing.

Here is a video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPod - watch this for some lessons on how to get an audience juiced.

Steve Jobs introducing the iPod


Some the the lessons from Steve Jobs in pitching a new product or business idea:

• Keep it simple - both the slides and the message should be clear and simple
• Clearly identify the benefits of the product or service and repeat them often
• Have something tangible to show the audience - a prototype, a demonstration or anything else that brings the idea to life
• Love what you selling - if you don't love it others will hate it
• Keep it short - very few people pay more attention as time passes, most are less and less attentive over time so a short high impact presentation is best.