While you have their attention, get to the point. The “ah-ha” moment. Connect them with what you’re doing and why it matters, preferably on an emotional or visceral level.The winner of a May Entrepreneur Idol pitching contest at Stanford swats it out of the park:

Linus Liang, 25, a first-year graduate student in computer science, held up a diapered baby doll. “What if I could tell you how you can save 4 million babies a year?” he asked.

Liang’s idea is to create “a low-cost incubator that could help infants in developing countries.” But put that way, how much of your attention does it grab? How motivated are you to learn more? Is that easy to grasp and file away in your memory? Do you already have opinions and emotional buy-in around low-cost incubators in developing countries, or do they just sound like they would probably be a good thing?

What about saving babies? Better yet, millions of them.

That answers “what’s in it for me” and gets right to the benefits, it connects something we know nothing about (low cost incubators) to something we value highly (saving babies), it contains an easily understood problem statement (babies are dying), and it’s all supported by a clear visual aid, the baby doll.

I saw a startup pitch a technology to “fine tune” chemotherapy — and minimize its harmful side effects — a couple of years ago. Their grabber? A young mother who beat Breast Cancer only to die because chemo destroyed her heart. That entrepreneur didn’t have to waste pitching minutes convincing us that chemo needs to be fine-tuned.

The “Rule of Thumb” (ROT) goes: you get a 30 second “free ride” of audience attention. How are you using it?

UPDATE: You really can help save babies today, please support the March of Dimes be a hero for babies…

UPDATE 2: The Google Reader Oracle coughed up this gem on pitching, via Seth Levine’s VC Adventure blog.

In honor of Mother’s Day… Knowing who exactly you help and what problems you solve can be used to “mom-proof” your networking spiel. These points apply equally to your presentations.

Would your mom, or any given relative, understand what you do? Does your family understand it? If your answer is “well, it’s much too technical,” brush up on features vs. benefits. Keep pushing until you find the real-world reason underlying the technicalities. Express it well enough that you and the people who know you can get it out briefly and easily.

I’m not suggesting you enlist the family for bus. dev., BUT since opportunity can arise anywhere, you need to keep your network conversant in “just what it is that you do”. Make it easy for the connectors in your life to think of you when they meet someone potentially interesting. Don’t make them do the figuring out.

If you can’t articulate what your contribution is, who will be able to repeat it on your behalf? If your audience can’t connect with your ideas, are they going to remember or pass them along?

Coincidentally perfect segue from yesterday’s post to this gem on Presentation Zen which asks

Why does it matter? What is your contribution?

Garr’s post covers it all — relevance, empathy, branding, contribution… Your job is to put all these into your next presentation.

Read John Windsor on the Value Proposition. “We help…” is a great opener. If it’s not all about the client, it’s not about the value you provide. Your efforts, your experiences, even your past successes are not the value you offer. Oh, and I’m not just talking to some of you. There’s no opting out, this applies to you whether you’re a maintenance worker or a VP of marketing. If you better understand the value you wish to sell in the marketplace, that selling will work out better for you.

Figure out exactly who you help, and what problems you solve for them.

Who do you help? Define this well, be specific. Be concise when you use it in your spiel, but first develop a detailed understanding of who they are and what is happening in their life at the time that they need you. I’m not saying you “have to niche” I’m saying think it through, and if uncertain, ask some current clients.

How? Directly, specifically state how you (your product, your service, etc.) improve their lives. What problems do you solve? What novel, good situations do you create? How exactly is their life better as a result? If you’re solving problems they don’t know they have yet, you’d better be especially good at this part.

Now go have fun out there

Circuitous, this. Caught this tip on Ben Casnocha’s blog and forwarded it to colleagues including Gina who blogged it. Now that my blog’s up I’m back-filling some entries I had been writing offline for the past few weeks.

If you’ve heard me (or others) rant about features vs. benefits and you think you have it, but it’s still a little tricky to sort through them, use this phrase after your “features”

“Which means that…”

…And then finish the sentence. Those are your benefits. (and in the jargon below, your USP or unique selling proposition…)

Source is someone named TW on a message board:

Re: USP Help continued…
If you’re still out there…Here’s an easy way to convert (read: uncover) your features into benefits. It’s also a way to uncover your one GIANT/VITAL benefit — upon which you can (+ should) hang your ENTIRE mrktng (for example, as Verizon has wisely done with the “It’s the network” usp).
It’s just three simple words —
_____________________
… which means that…
_____________________
Just insert that after each of your known features, and complete the sentence. If you still end up with a feature, just keep adding that phrase (”which means that…”) until you convert that feature into a benefit (remember, a feature is what you do/provide — a benefit is what they GET – classic example: waterproof boots — dry feet) By doing this, you’ll end up with a list of customer-oriented benefits (not features).
To get (uncover) your ONE vital benefit, just take all the benefits you uncover, and keep reducing each of THOSE down too — using the “which means that” phrase — when you do that, you may find that all the benefits boil down to ONE (the same) CORE BENEFIT. If they do, you’re in luck! You’ve now discovered the cornerstone of all your marketing msgs! Your USP. Consider having your USPs begin with the word “Get,” — as in, “You get…” Enjoy!– TW