How do you practice your pitch?

Thought I'd put up a fun post as we're just over a month away from the Global Tables Games Conference. What do you do to rehearse your pitch? What about rehearsing your how-to-play explanation? Do you go over it in front of the mirror, on your layout? Do you do so alone or with a friend or family member? What have you gotten your pitch down to?

I tend to borrow my fiance's ear unless I worry I've been taking up too much of their time, then I just practice alone. I prefer to go over it on my layout or at least with a picture of it in front of me, but sometimes just going through a drill on the couch is nice. I've got my pitch down to between 15-20 seconds, give or take based on how fast I'm speaking/how thoroughly I need to annunciate.

When it comes to teaching new players, naturally practicing with the layout is much easier for their sake, but I'm working on getting better at it without even needing my rack card.

My delayed response is because I've been thinking about a reply to this for a while.

Quote: SphinxOfCups

... I've got my pitch down to between 15-20 seconds, ...link to original post

Frankly, despite the conventional wisdom of the 30 second 'elevator speech", I think even 15 seconds is too long.

A quick, get their attention at an expo speech, should only be a sentence or two. Then, once you have their attention, you can go more into your pitch.

For example, for my Poker For Roulette game, my quick pitch is, "Have you ever looked at a roulette history and said, 'Wow, look at that?' Now you can bet on that." Sometimes I'll add, "And zeroes are wild!" 11 seconds.

For my Pick A Card game, my pitch is, "It's like the 'Pick a Number' game from that weird casino in Vegas Vacation, but better." 6 seconds.

Full disclosure: I've never had a booth at the Games Conferences or G2E, so maybe I'm talking out of my ass. But I have talked to people in the aisles at those events.

For more info on my games, go to: http://DaveMillerGaming.com

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Frankly, despite the conventional wisdom of the 30 second 'elevator speech", I think even 15 seconds is too long.

A quick, get their attention at an expo speech, should only be a sentence or two. Then, once you have their attention, you can go more into your pitch.
link to original post

An interesting take! I would consider what you're describing more like a hook than a pitch. One or two sentences to grab their interest, the 15-30 second pitch to hold and pique it, then move to the explanation if you've succeeded. But I also haven't exhibited before. Interested to see what others think.

I like the distinction being made between the hook and the explanation. The one sentence hook seems consistent in games that have been successful, "its blackjack where splits and doubles are free", or "its Pai Gow without the commission", or "its Texas Hold'em only played against a dealer". With a successful hook the 15-30 seconds (leaning more towards 15 than 30) are earned to explain the game.

I am new at this as well, but for me what has been helpful is putting it in writing, reading it aloud, removing as many words as possible, and simplifying as much as possible, then wash, rinse, repeat...

For example, the game I am working on is called Pick a Hand Poker

It's poker where the player picks one of two hands to play against the dealer

The hook intentionally does not explain any of the mechanisms as to how the player gets to pick their hand (as that gets very wordy), nor does it need to. It is simply intended to capture interest long enough to explain the game and answer the questions the listener is likely thinking after hearing the hook, at least I hope...

How do you answer questions during a pitch about win/hold/drop, etc for new games when placements have not occurred yet...? I am curious how others have answered that without data readily available. Do you just estimate based on similar games? Is there somewhere this data is published? I saw UNLV publishes some data for the main games, but could not find it broken down at the carnival game level...

I'm a firm believer in the shotgun approach. Knock on enough doors and you'll eventually get some sales

Quote: Ace2

I'm a firm believer in the shotgun approach. Knock on enough doors and you'll eventually get some sales
link to original post

I'm not sure you understood the prompt or the discussion at hand 😅

i was just poking around and saw this…

Quote: zbrownson

How do you answer questions during a pitch about win/hold/drop, etc for new games when placements have not occurred yet...? ...
link to original post

I think they will first ask if you have/had a field trial / any installs. If the answer is no, they won’t ask about win or hold, etc. but focus on the edge and math report.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

i was just poking around and saw this…

Quote: zbrownson

How do you answer questions during a pitch about win/hold/drop, etc for new games when placements have not occurred yet...? ...
link to original post

I think they will first ask if you have/had a field trial / any installs. If the answer is no, they won’t ask about win or hold, etc. but focus on the edge and math report.
link to original post

You are spot on, had my first pitch a couple months ago and literally the first question I was asked was where this game has been placed at. I think any answer other than "nowhere" would have been a very different pitch. I had a presentation prepped, but he just wanted to see the game played, so on a small corner of his desk (because I was too afraid to move any of his stuff) we played several hands and he asked all sorts of questions around how the game worked, some basic math questions, and a lot of fun questions around why I designed decisions in a certain way. Most of the focus was not on the player's perspective, but rather how easy is it to operate, deal, and explain. That was the biggest epiphany to me (although I have heard a lot of it in this forum before, it becomes more real when you do it).

Quote: zbrownson

Quote: DJTeddyBear

i was just poking around and saw this…

Quote: zbrownson

How do you answer questions during a pitch about win/hold/drop, etc for new games when placements have not occurred yet...? ...
link to original post

I think they will first ask if you have/had a field trial / any installs. If the answer is no, they won’t ask about win or hold, etc. but focus on the edge and math report.
link to original post

You are spot on, had my first pitch a couple months ago and literally the first question I was asked was where this game has been placed at. I think any answer other than "nowhere" would have been a very different pitch. I had a presentation prepped, but he just wanted to see the game played, so on a small corner of his desk (because I was too afraid to move any of his stuff) we played several hands and he asked all sorts of questions around how the game worked, some basic math questions, and a lot of fun questions around why I designed decisions in a certain way. Most of the focus was not on the player's perspective, but rather how easy is it to operate, deal, and explain. That was the biggest epiphany to me (although I have heard a lot of it in this forum before, it becomes more real when you do it).
link to original post

Incredible insight, and congratulations on the big step! Hopefully great news around the corner.

Excited to see your game in person in June.