Pitching with a team or presenting to top executives – in crisis, from home – requires a new skillset.  What had been a tried and true process is suddenly a multi-camera production complete with unreliable-sound, at-home sets and lighting, casual wardrobe, on-screen props, polls, new roles, and online rehearsals.

Any other production this complex would have a director, someone behind the scenes who works with the pitch owners and principal players to deliver the best possible experience for the audience. 

Employers of teams pitching competitively online may want to enlist the support of a Zoom Director.  A Zoom Director will work to provide consistency, options, control and processes unique to pitching from home. Equally important, a Zoom Director must help the team stage their pitch with the skills, emotional intelligence, and audience insights that together win corporate pitches.

Previously in competitive B2B pitches or executive presentations, there was no home field advantage.  The setting was pretty much the same: a conference room or office. After all, it’s not about where you are, it’s your expertise, chemistry and empathy for your audience that counts, right?

But when that uniform and predictable stage is replaced by the best your colleagues can muster from home, all packed together like baseball cards on a screen, an undirected staging of your pitch can quickly become a liability.  After all, the audience will notice each setting your team has selected for themselves. They should all support your brand, like a stage for your great idea, service or opportunity – not distract from it.  

The timing, staging and roles for a pitch team apart at home are different from a pitch team together in the office.

The director of a Zoom pitch works with the leaders of the pitch to help make decisions about staging for each team member (wardrobe, backgrounds, lighting, camera-angle/framing) as well as their use of pitch skills training.  The director manages the rehearsal, supports with private sidebar tips through txt or chat, and helps smooth transitions from one speaker to another. The director records the rehearsals, then works to improve the team’s performance, control and resilience for the pitch.

The director also contacts in advance the technical experts for both pitch team and audience, to reduce the chances of technical gaffs during the pitch (camera, mic, frozen or dropped participants, etc.).  And in the absence of on-staff technical support, the director can work to anticipate and mitigate technical gaffs.   

The director can also be on the pitch call itself, as a silent co-host. Setting up the “Waiting Room” for the audience before the pitch begins, insuring scheduled speakers are not on mute and everyone else is, admitting audience members who join late, etc. During the pitch, the director can communicate with the team via text or WhatsApp with prompts for time, tone, to listen more or to engage with the audience. Since everyone else is on camera, the team pitching cannot communicate in chat or text without also breaking their focus on the speaker; a director can maintain that communication.

Directing pitches and executive presentations on Zoom is one of the services Minor Nobles offers. We can also train someone in your company to take on this responsibility.

At whatever level is best for you, the improvement in your pitch team’s performance together and your audience’s experience of it online will be significant, with a director.