Here's the Pitch: How to Pitch Your Business to Anyone, Get Funded, and Win Clients

CHAPTER4

The Power of Stories

“The problem is that nobody knows how to tell a story. And what's worse, nobody knows that they don't know how to tell a story.”

—Don Valentine, Founding Partner, Sequoia Capital

In this chapter I will show you how to use the power and magic of story in your pitch so that you can inspire and motivate your audience to take the action you want them to.

Although entrepreneurs know they should use stories in their pitch, very few succeed in doing it effectively. When preparing a pitch, people typically focus on the facts and figures, then add some images, and finally might think about their delivery. This process usually occurs in a rush at the eleventh hour.

The end result is a data dump that neither inspires nor moves the audience to take action. Yet the very same information could be used to form the basis of a successful pitch, if only it were embedded in a compelling story. You will be more effective when you lead from the heart than when you lead from the head.

In part the facts-and-figures approach is driven by a mistaken belief that audiences, particularly investors, are only interested in the numbers. Everyone, including investors, prefers that their information be packaged in an inspirational human story, rather than as a dry data dump.

You can ...