When you start thinking about pitching your business models and ideas to strangers, you start to wonder how your pitches are going to be delivered. Researching this topic will bring up a ton of information about what you should do. Be passionate. Be direct. Be professional. Show your personality. It’s always the last one that people get stuck on, and even for myself when developing my pitches, I am a bit hesitant to drop my personality into a pitch. Especially when I’m doing it to a room of suits that don’t often use the word ‘mate’ to finish off their sentences.

So, how do you add your personality to your pitch successfully?

The first place you can add your personality in is demonstrating your passion for your project. You don’t have to use language to show how passionate you are. I find that adding in a handful of facts about industry trends and how your solution is in alignment with these demonstrates that you have done research. People don’t often do research for the fun of it, so demonstrating this can display your passion. The other way you can demonstrate passion is by being enthusiastic about questions that may come up in your pitch. Adding in statements like ‘I’m glad you asked that’ or ‘that’s a really great question’ shows that you are passionate about being able to answer questions posed to you.

Another great way to add your personality into your pitch is by telling stories. I don’t mean stories that go on without a purpose, or that are a good yarn with a great punchline. These stories need to be specific to your pitch, demonstrate that what you’re selling works, and has a little bit of colour added in. I find that if you think of the story, record yourself speaking it and then listen to it back, you can find the points that could be dropped from the story. Writing stories down and practising them is another great way of finding the right balance in adding these to your pitch.

One element that is often overlooked in pitching – but can add personality that is simple and easy to achieve – is smiling and making eye contact. Practising this with a partner or friend before a pitch can ensure that you can add these in smoothly, and it will go a long way to removing any appearance of nerves on the day of your pitch.

When you add your personality into your pitches you come off as being confident and that will sell your message to a room of people. The more confident you appear, the more focus is spent on your message, which will lead to the successful delivery of your pitch, and the outcome you are looking for with your audience.