Pitching a Product
What is pitching a product?
Pitching a product definition
Pitching a product is just like a sales pitch but with a focus on the product, similar to Shark Tank or Dragons’ Den. During a sales pitch, the idea is to pitch the entire business, whereas a product pitch is specific to that product, allowing you to discuss it in detail. You can explain what the product does, any features it includes, and how it will solve a customer’s pain point or problem.
You can pitch products to potential investors and stakeholders if you’re looking for extra funding, senior management for a new product launch, or your marketing team so they can understand the product better.
These days, product pitches happen online as well as in person. With the rise in video calling, Zoom and Microsoft Teams have made it much easier to pitch to multiple people. Plus, with phone calls, emails, and direct messaging on social media, you have plenty of different ways to pitch a product.
How do you pitch a product?
Preparation is key
You need to know as much as possible about your product. That includes budgets, sales, marketing and distribution, product features, and competitive analysis. Write down any potential topics that might come up during your pitch and create a cheat sheet to refer to.
Potential investors care about return on investment and market share, so make sure your figures are as accurate as possible.
Use the KISS method
Keep it simple, stupid is a framework that has been used in all forms of business dealings, but it is ideal for pitching. Include only the most essential details, keep any visuals easy to interpret, and avoid using too much technical jargon. Many investors are so busy that they may only want to hear an elevator pitch, which means summing everything up in a sentence or two. Adam Goldstein, the former CEO of Hipmunk, a travel search engine, is famous for his two-sentence pitches, believing that being concise and solving a problem are the easiest ways to get investment.
Pitch to the right person
This applies particularly to virtual pitches. Don’t just email a company's customer service or a generic email address. Find the employee in charge of investing online, and interact with them online before cold pitching. Personalize all communications and do not copy and paste previous pitches!
Pitching a product in sales vs. marketing
In sales, pitching a product is about showing how a product can make money by solving a customer's need. A marketing pitch focuses more on how you’ll make customers aware of your product to make that money.
Of course, the product should speak for itself, but marketing is what can make the difference between good and great sales. Marketing pitches emphasize the values of the business, the product's purpose, and how it will be marketed on each channel.
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