1. Balance Entertaining and Pitching

Tania noted that if you dont have an entertaining pitch you may get the eyes on you but no ears to hear you out. When you are on national television in a show known for its high intensity and dramatic approaches you cant just be an entrepreneur, you got to be an entertaining entrepreneur.

You need to strike a balance between connecting with the mass audience you are pitching to with flair and animation while also getting down into the technical details for the sharks themselves.

2. Seize The Opportunity to Iterate Better!

Shark Tank helps you get in front of 12 million eyeballs that include customers, investors, and more at once. This is one of the greatest ways to market yourself as a startup without emptying your pocket.

For both Tania and Maneesh, it was an opportunity big enough to be the driving force for a lot of the business operations, such as when the team at Pavlok accelerated and shifted priorities in developing a focused product that appealed to a mass audience. For both Pavlok and PMS Bites, Shark Tank presented a wonderful opportunity to move forward in a positive direction.

3. Activate Your Brand

Maneesh emphasized 2 out of 3 shark tank pitches that go on TV were not pitched to the show, the show found them. The more people that are talking about you and your brand, the more likely you are to gain recognition.

Tania credited her recognition to her Kickstarter video as a contributing factor of her selection, the producers she interacted with at the production house were well aware about her campaign. Continue to be active on social media and keep pushing out content through channel partners and more to maximize your reach and get the attention of a discerning producer.

4. Youre the Hottest Person in the Room

For Pavlok, Shark Tank isnt the end goal for their business. Its important to realize a high-profile media appearance is just one of many opportunities for an entrepreneur. You need to make sure the sharks are aware of this. This helped their CEO Maneesh deliver a pitch that oozed with confidence and charm. They need you, you dont need them.

5. Get Feedback. Lots of Feedback.

Feedback is the best way to get close to perfection! To get the feedback she needed to prepare for her pitch, Tania contacted a range of people which included investors, business owners, life coaches, attorneys, and many others who gave her constant feedback and improvements every time she pitched. She selectively chose people who could point out and help her improve her body language and overall appeal as a speaker.

Green highlighted that MassChallenge was a valuable resource in her preparation since she received a lot of feedback from mentors she worked with. In the end, the purpose of pitching is how well you communicate the value provided by your company.

6. Youre Judged for More than Your Pitch.

Before the director says action there is absolute silence for a whole minute, so capitalize it in striking a connect with the judges. Tania made use of this by striking an eye contact with each of the judges and conveying that she is confident and ready through her body language.

This is important since it determined the mood and the tone of the pitch itself. In the short amount of time you have, you need to establish a relationship with the judges before the pitch even starts to get ahead of the game.

7. Prepare for the worst

Maneesh and Tania both warned us about the rapid-fire rate of questions from judges. There is little to no gap between questions and at that point it is a challenge to effectively communicate a complete answer while managing the relationships between the Sharks. This makes it important to meticulously develop the skill of answering multiple questions at the same time through all your preparation.