Yesterday we had organised a workshop on ‘Making the perfect pitch‘. The objective of the session, conducted by Vivek Srinivasan, was to cover the things that one needs to keep in mind when making their pitch. How do you grab the attention of the person you are pitching and how do you influence them. There were several techniques that were discussed as a part of this workshop, we would like to highlight some of them.
Halo Effect
Halo Effect afflicts almost all people and influences them to see things one way or another. If you look at the image below, you will see two individuals being described – Alan and Ben. The question is – If you have to pick one a co-founder, would you prefer Alan or Ben?
Most people would pick Alan, but they both are essentially the same. The exact same characteristics. The only change is in the order in which it has been presented. In the case of Alan, a positive Halo was created by the mention of intelligent and industrious at the beginning. In the latter case, a negative Halo was created by the mention of envious and stubborn at the beginning.
When pitching put all the good things upfront. It creates a positive Halo and then all the negatives will be measured in the halo of the positive. This was one of amongst 15 different aspects that were discussed as a part of this workshop. Techniques that involved setting the context for the listener and then making them see it from your perspective rather than their own.
At the end of it, a couple of startup founders volunteered for an activity where their pitches were also dissected and measured against various techniques and we also tried to redraw them to see how they could be made better. The participants found the workshop extremely useful.
Next time for the aspiring entrepreneurs we are conducting a workshop on Cofounding. Titled ‘Unravel Cofounding – From Dating to Marriage’ will be held on the 6th of June 2020 by me. For those looking out to find their co-founders, this is a session that you do not want to miss!
