man points to a screen and presents to a crowded room

Three main types of persuasive pitches

An effective, professional pitch can the be key to reaching your goals. Whether you’re going in for a cap raise or need to build an incredible tool for your sales team, incorporating storytelling with powerful visuals can make all the difference.

Persuaders is a full-service agency that specialises in persuasive communications and professional design. As pitch development specialists, our pitch systems are one of the most effective tools we create for our clients.

We work with all types of businesses to create sales presentations and pitch decks that connect with the needs of your audience so you can win more deals.

In this article, we’ll explain a few different types of pitches that our team can help you build so you can always put your best foot forward.

Take your presentation to the next level and wow your audience with powerful content and spectacular designs that reflect your business’ style and demonstrate your value.

Three major pitch formats

There are three main types of pitches that everyone should have prepared: An elevator pitch, a short form pitch and a long form pitch.

Elevator pitch

An elevator pitch or 1-minute pitch is a short introduction that runs under sixty seconds. The main point is to generate interest, so the person or people you’re speaking to want to set up a meeting to learn more.

If the elevator pitch is a success, this opens doors to move to the short-form pitch. It should cover the problem, solution and benefits relating to your product or service.

While this sounds simple, it’s important to do the research and planning required to make sure it really hits home. Try bringing the team together for an Elevator Pitch Workshop to really hone in on the key elements and master your delivery.

Short-Form Pitch

The elevator pitch will often lead to the short-form pitch.

The short-form pitch is less than 20 minutes and should take your audience through a more in-depth narrative. This will enable you to dive into their pain points and explain how you can alleviate them in more detail.

By the end, your audience should have a clear picture of your purpose and value to them. The short-form pitch is often the first portion (roughly 1/3) of the long-form pitch.

Long-Form Pitch

The long-form pitch is standard for investor pitches, but also incredibly useful for large sales teams.

This pitch deck will use the short-form pitch to connect with the audience and generate interest. Then, you’ll move into the “back end” of the pitch, which is an interactive appendix including all the technical information required, such as financial projections, product demonstrations, case studies and distribution details.

This is the part of the pitch where your audience can get involved to drive the discussion. They decide what they’re interested in and you can easily navigate to the relevant slide. It’s visually impressive and shows that you’re professional and prepared!

Check out the interactive pitch we created for Navia Freight, which helped them win over their biggest client yet.

Know your audience

Delivering a powerful and effective pitch, regardless of length, means understanding your audience. Do some mind mapping or brainstorming with your team to understand their pain points, motivations and aspirations. Understanding what makes them tick – and what ticks them off – can really help you connect quickly.

Going through the seven steps of building a narrative are a great way to help you touch on all the key information you’ll need to understand your audience. You can also work with a professional narrative strategist to guide you through our Narrative Finding Workshop.

Before and after the pitch

When we create a full pitch system for our clients, we often include a teaser to build intrigue beforehand, and a leave behind, which gives the audience with something that reinforces key messages.

These can come in multiple formats, such as videos, infographics, or one pagers. Our team works closely with each client to understand their needs and those of their audience, so we can help them build the most impactful pitch systems possible.

To learn more and enquire, visit our pitch page.

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