[MUSIC] So, now hopefully you are well on your way to completing your Capstone Project. For this milestone, you'll be giving your rough presentation pitching your product or service. Here are the objectives. You will identify appropriate content and organization for short pitches. You will review guidelines for effective presentation techniques. And finally, you will submit your rough presentation for review by other learners in the course. Let's start by talking about short pitches. These are sometimes called elevator pitches, because you are supposed to be able to give it in the time it takes to get from the ground floor to the top floor in an office building, usually about a minute. An elevator pitch can be used to persuade someone to buy your product or service, to adopt a new idea or sometimes to give you a job. In this project however, you will give a slightly longer pitch, three to five minutes long. And the purpose of your pitch, is to persuade someone to invest in your product or service. The keys to a successful pitch are that it is short, clear and persuasive. By the way you might have noticed that we have used these words several times during the specialization. That's because time is very important in business communication. The first thing that you can do we you give your pitch, is introduce yourself with your name and company. You've practiced that with an earlier milestone. However, as you learned before, it's also often common to first get your audiences attention with a hook and then introduce yourself. So let's quickly review what you learned about hooks and list some examples of how you can use hooks in a presentation to pitch a product or service. First, you should use a hook in the first ten seconds or so. Very often, you will say something that is related to the problem or need that your product or service addresses. One technique is a question. You can use simple yes no questions, starting with have you ever? And connect it with a problem or need. If it engages the audience on a personal or emotional level, that makes it even better. For example, have you ever drunk bad tasting water? Or have you ever gotten sick by drinking contaminated water? You can also ask, do you ever wish questions. For example, do you ever wish you could just come home from work, get right in the car and drive out to a beautiful campsite on the ocean? Another kind of question is a negative question. For example, don't you think we spend too much time getting lunch? When we ask these kinds of questions, you're expecting the audience to agree with you. Here are some more examples. Aren't you frustrated by how late the buses are? Isn't it hard to decide what to have for lunch everyday? You can also use rhetorical questions. Remember, these are questions you will ask the audience, but you don't expect them to answer. You will give the answer. Here's an example. What's the number one item left in hotel rooms? Remember that you should pause for a second before answering it yourself. What's the number one item left in hotel rooms? Phone chargers. Second, you can use a personal story, either about yourself or someone else, especially if it connects with the audience on an emotional level. For example, three years ago i spent a month in the hospital from drinking contaminated water. Third, you can provide a surprising statistic. You can do this as a statement. Each year Americans throw away 14 million tons of clothing. Or as a question. Did you know Americans throw away 14 million tons of clothing a year? Okay, let’s talk about repetition here. If you really want to make an impact with your statistic, you can repeat it. Did you know Americans throw away 14 million tons of clothing a year? 14 million tons. Did you notice that when I repeated those words, I stressed each one? 14 million tons. Okay, once you've given your hook and introduced yourself, you should explain what the problem or need is. And how your product or service will solve the problem or fill that need. When you describe your product and service, keep it short and simple and avoid technical vocabulary. Then give some brief information about you, your experience and your company. You can then talk about marketing, the target market, your marketing plan and price. Remember to emphasize how your product or service will be different from your competitors. Finally, you can talk about financial information and your sales prediction, and whether you predict you will be successful. Now, remember the main goal is to ask for investment in your product or service. You can do this right at the start. For example, hello, my name is Ann Tait and I'm requesting $100,000 for a 10% share in my company Box Camp. Or near the end. So I'm asking for $100,000 to help us expand into Canada in exchange for a 10% share. Okay, so that's the organization. Let's quickly review some guidelines from presentations scores to make your pitch effective. Give clear signposts when you move from topic to another. Draw attention to any charts and give the main point that they show. Make sure everything is clear and simple. Practice your presentation several times so that you feel confident. Record your voice and then listen to it. Make sure you don't use too many fillers, hm or in the wrong places. Make sure you're not speaking too quickly. Also make sure you sound enthusiastic and are emphasizing the important points. All right, so that's it for this mIlestone. When you're ready, submit your presentation and then you can give and get feedback from other learners. You can then revise your presentation based on this feedback for the final submission. Again, good luck completing this milestone, you're getting there. [MUSIC]
