The concept of this book is that most people are too close to their product to create a pitch that doesn’t lose their audience.
An effective pitch can and should be around 3 minutes.
Brant Pinvidic, the author does a great job of mixing information with stories backing up his claim.
The book guides you step-by-step through the creation of your 3-minute presentation, starting with bullet points that are made into statements. I have two photos below showing both steps.
The statements are then categorized into 4 categories Brand calls W-H-A-C. He then explains what portion of your 3-minute pitch should come from each of the 4 categories.
At that point, I was already impressed with how much the presentation of my product had improved, but he has another 5 chapters that increase the effectiveness of your pitch, as well two chapters on the presentation of the pitch.
To be honest, the additional 5 chapters were more than I could handle at the time of reading this book. I will include a link to my 3-minute presentation (which I now have on the home page of my website using an embedded YouTube video) and you’ll notice I’m missing some key elements of the book such as the “hook” and “butt-funnel” (you have to read the book to get that one). I still find it to be largely improved over what I had though.
This is the best marketing book I’ve read concerning presentations, and I would highly recommend reading it. I would also encourage you not to get too upset if you can’t feasibly include every item he covers in your pitch. I hope with time to revisit this book and refine my 3-minute presentation, but for now, I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish.
What this book does not cover is other aspects of marketing. The narrow scope of this book is what makes it so powerful. It’s doesn’t address how to organize your website, it doesn’t explain where to find leads, or how to network effectively. What it does do, and very well, is walk you through creating a 3-minute pitch that will engage the listeners and be effective in presenting your product.