Nailing The Pitch

In the Harvard Business Review article, “How Venture Capitalists Really Assess a Pitch,” researcher Lakshmi Balachandr sheds light on why an individual’s presence matters even more than his or her business acumen. Balachandr offers four insights into what qualities and behaviors lead to statistically more successful presentations:

• Calm trumps passion: Competition judges and potential investors respond to presenters who project a calm demeanor; connected studies show that “people equate calmness with leadership strength.”
• Trustworthiness beats competency: An investor’s decision to fund the entrepreneur depends far more on the entrepreneur’s perceived level of trustworthiness than his/her level of competency.
• Coachability/active listening skills matter: Balachandr notes that many investors yearn to be seen as more than cash flow. They want to be seen as mentors who can offer advice and expertise. Therefore, investors evaluate entrepreneurs’ listening skills and determine whether or not they have the desire/ability to be coached.
• Authority outranks approachability: Balachandr’s work shows that although gender alone does not influence success, people with a high degree of stereotypically male behavior (such as forcefulness, dominance, aggressiveness, and assertiveness) are more likely to be successful than those with a high degree of stereotypically female behavior (such as warmth, sensitivity, expressiveness, and emotionality).

The article underlines what we at SpeechSkills hold to be true: It’s important to be informed, it’s crucial to be prepared, but the ability to get your message across and have others invest in your ideas requires strong communication skills above all else.