Pitching terminology
Pitching terminology
A glossary of some of the terms and references used in pitching.
Created by Ben Graziano.
AIDA
This is a common acronym used in marketing communications and it stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. These terms relate to the responses you should aim to elicit from your audience whenever you communicate about your business.
Elevator Pitch
A short pitch of a product, service, or organization that can be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator (30 secs to 2 mins).
Pitch Deck
A set of presentation slides designed for your pitch.
Power Pose
Research popularised by the Harvard academic Amy Cuddy in 2012 showed that if you adopt a stance with your legs apart, your hands on your hips and your chin up, you can increase your testosterone levels, to feel more confident, and lower your cortisol levels, to lower your stress.
Magic Sauce
A term used in startup the startup community to describe the unique special thing that is the main source of value in your business. For example, it might relate to a technological invention, design, asset, process, brand, creative approach, network, etc.
Underlying Magic
See Magic Sauce.
USP
This is a common acronym used in marketing and it stands for Unique Selling Proposition. It describes a unique aspect of a product or service that differentiates it from competing products or services.
Value Proposition
A value proposition describes what is valuable to the customer about a business’s products or services. It defines what benefits the customer receives or problems can be overcome by using a business’s products or services to do a particular task. It is often used in the same way as USP, but it is subtly different because of its focus on what is valuable to the customer rather than what uniquely differentiates a product or service from competing products and services.
Dragons’ Den
A popular British TV show that features entrepreneurs pitching their businesses to investors.
Shark Tank
A popular U.S. TV show that features entrepreneurs pitching their businesses to investors.
Throughline
A term that refers to the narrative thread that should run through any story that you tell.
You might also be interested in:
