A Successful Structure for Short Sales Pitches: Insights from a Finnish Pitching Competition

Presentation skills play a major role when entrepreneurs aim to attract investors’ interest. Although previous studies provide insights into important structural elements of sales pitches, research has not focused on investigating an effective sales pitch structure and entrepreneurs’ rhetorical strategies in a Finnish context. The aim of this study is to identify how short sales pitches are structured in a pitching competition in Finland. Entrepreneurs’ effective rhetorical strategies and judges’ perceptions of effective sales pitches are examined. The research data consist of twenty videotaped sales pitches and semi-structured interviews with four judges, which are analyzed according to structure, rhetoric, and theme. Based on the findings, we present a modification of Monroe's motivated sequence model (ANSVA)—the ANSTAF model.