7 Clever ways to Capture Your Prospective Client Attention in 7 Second

Capture Your Prospective Client Attention with your first impression. You can not make it twice, creating a good first impression is very important as a business owner, whether you are a startup or already have a large company base.

And as a business owner, creating good first impressions within this crucial 7 seconds of meeting a prospective buyer or seller is a skill to be mastered. Especially when meeting investors or partners with your pitch.

And yes, I said 7 seconds. 

According to statistics, it takes seven seconds to create an impression and just a millisecond for an investor or client to determine his level of trust in you.

So you want to make those seven seconds count because it is within those seven seconds that your investors, partners, or clients will decide if your pitch presentation is worth listening to or investing in and partnering with. And in 7 steps, you will be learning just how to create a good first impression with a good pitch presentation enough to close that deal.

7 steps to Capture Your Prospective Client Attention

These seven steps can be followed in a sequence.

Step #1 Understand your audience:

You need to understand your audience to relate with them. To give them value and reciprocate it, you have to understand them. Be it clients, partners, or even investors, and you need to understand where they are coming from.

To achieve this, you have to understand what value you have to offer and why they are reaching out to you.

Ask yourself these questions;

•    Why does my client want to patronize me?
•     What exactly is the prospect looking forward to in our partnership?
•      And if I was an Investor, would I invest with this pitch?

Your answers to these questions will give you a great presentation.

With this information, you can carry your audience along and relate with them more personally during the pitch presentation. 

Mentioning a situation, they are more familiar with gives them a good impression of you.

To create a good pitch presentation, you must understand your audience by answering the questions. 

After building your pitch presentation, you need to take the next step at creating the perfect pitch to create a good first impression by;

Step #2 Building your confidence: 

Having a good presentation is one thing. Being able to present it to your audience is another.

And it takes more than just a good pitch presentation to close the deal because the sea of creating a good impression must be crossed first.

Considering that you have just one millisecond to come out as confident to your audience, you have to take these steps.

• Have an outline: an outline that contains both the point and explanation. Having just the points won’t take your pitch presentation any further than it already is.
• Practice: the quote “practice makes perfect” is true in every field. You must practice your pitch presentation to smooth sailing towards making a good impression in front of your audience. 

Read: The Top 10 Communication Skills to have to be a Successful-Entrepreneurs

This precedes the next step to making a good first impression;

Step #3 Look confident:

It is one thing to be confident, it is another to look it. This aspect is usually overlooked but holds much importance. Because, no matter how confident and assuring you you think you are, you lose it if you can’t look it. There are steps, however, to make you look like the confident and trustworthy person they want to buy from, partner with, or invest in. 

• Smile: Smiling gives a sense of security and confidence. Just being able to put up a confident smile solves half the problem of not looking confident.
• Dress the part: go shopping or iron out your suit. You don’t want to look like the one who is being discussed. You want to look like you own it(confidence), and they can trust you with your collaboration.

You have built a good impression with that confident smile and smart dress. However, a few things are still missing;

Step #4 Be punctual:

Lateness doesn’t always involve coming later than the scheduled date or time. It also involves your attitude towards your attendance. 

Aside from beating time, you should also have the wrong attitude towards it.

Avoid apologetics, as having nervous smiles and constantly checking your watch makes you look less confident, thus creating a bad impression.

Other things must be done to create a good impression for your pitch presentation.

Step #5 Maintain eye contact:

Your good impression suit gear is almost complete. Maintaining eye contact is another gear to add to this suit.

Maintaining eye contact contains more than just that. It must be coupled with your look of confidence, smart dressing, and smile to make a perfect impression.

A smile, a look of confidence, and eye contact help make a good impression on your audience. However, all the steps mentioned earlier only have to do with the behind the scene and the first sight of you.

What should you do after appearing in front of your client, partner, or investor?

Read:Why Eye contact is important

Step #6 Use gestures:

Public successful and influential speakers like dale Carnegie have proven the importance of gestures in a speech.

To make that good impression in front of your audience, you need to gesture by;

• waving as soon as your enter the room: this hand gesture immediately triggers a response from your audience, which will carry them along throughout the time you give your pitch presentation;
• Explaining hand movements: you don’t want to look like a log of wool spilling words when you could do much better. 

Using hand gestures during your pitch presentation carries your audience along as it also helps them visualize your presentation well, leaving them with no choice but to have a good impression of you immediately.

Step #7 Be positive:

The air you carry matters. You don’t want to walk into the room looking gloomy and negative.

You don’t want your audience to think you are incapable because you look like the world’s weight is on your shoulders. Rather, you want them to trust you the moment you walk in.

You want them to believe that you can solve their problems. And they can trust you.

Your use of words as well. Positivity evolves around your aura and your words. 

To create a good impression, you must let positivity radiate through your words and form of expression. 

Conclusion

Above all, you only have 7 seconds to make that good Impression with your pitch presentation. You should consider that you have only 7 seconds to close that deal. 

All you have to do is:

• Understand your audience
• Build your confidence
• Look confident
• Be punctual
• Use gestures, and 
• Be positive.