Top 5 rules to remember when pitching anythingWhether it’s your product, your startup, your strategy or even just an idea there are a few key rules to live by._1. _Have confidence in what you’re saying. _You’d be surprised how often professionals in any field will end up pitching something they don’t like or even agree with. If you don’t believe it, no one else in the room will. Don’t leave any room for doubt. Your audience will prey on this quicker than you can imagine.2. _Be able to back up every main point that you make with data. _Simple right? I’ve heard pitches for many different things, and there is no silence more haunting than when the speaker is asked a question he doesn’t have the answer to. If you can’t back a point up and give a good reason to why it adds value to the overall result—lose it.3. _Start with your best (and most interesting) foot forward. _When I saw Dave McClure speak about pitching startups during the Buenos Aires stop of GOAP, he put the complex psychology of selling very simply: _You spend the first 30 seconds with a person earning the next 2 minutes of their attention. You spend those 2 minutes earning the next 5 minutes. This is completely true. If you start with something lame, don’t be surprised if they’re looking inattentive.4. _Solve their problem and you’ll win them. _People, by nature, are self-serving. You’ll never be better received than when you can identify a problem (especially one afflicting your audience) and answer it with your product, idea business. The same way that people like to talk about themselves, they also enjoy hearing about themselves. Know your audience, what their concerns are, and what keeps them up at night. Address these and you’ve taken home the ball game.5. _Hit it hard, fast and intense. _And thus the title of this post. Cut your pitch down to the most competitive points that fulfill the previous rules requirements. Go over what you’re going to say beforehand in front of your biggest critics at the office, your most critical friends or whomever will be rough. It will help you shave off the extra and less attractive bullet points.Allow for questions at the end. Your audience, board room or potentials will ask for details if they’re interested. Have the data ready to feed the baby birds if you’ve truly captured them. Make sure you’re able to elaborate upon request, but don’t do so before you’ve been asked.