Effective opening lines and strategies to captivate your audience from the start

These days, attention spans are short. Everyone is being distracted by information abundance and technology devices. Senior leaders, investors, and decision-makers are exposed to hundreds of presentations, emails, and messages every week. According to insights shared by Gartner on executive information overload, audiences are constantly filtering what deserves their attention and what does not. This means that for those delivering a pitch presentation, it is no longer enough to simply present well.

We need to capture the audience’s attention from the very beginning and engage them throughout the pitch. Without doing that, influencing an audience towards investment, purchase, or decision-making becomes significantly more difficult. This is particularly true for investor pitch presentations, sales pitches, and leadership presentations, where the opening moments determine whether your audience leans in or mentally checks out.

For many individuals, the difficulty lies in familiarity. Presenters are often too close to their own subject matter. Without being able to view their offering from a fresh lens and external perspective, what feels logical to them may not be clear to someone without background knowledge. This is a well-documented cognitive bias in communication and leadership contexts, frequently discussed in Harvard Business Review articles on executive communication and persuasion.

This is where a Pitch Coach provides value by challenging assumptions and reframing ideas. As PitchCrafters, allow us to share with you some common and effective ways to kick off your pitch with clarity, confidence, and impact.

📊 Present a Compelling Statistic

Without doing a complete data presentation, begin your pitch with a single compelling statistic that immediately establishes relevance. This should be a number that pertains to everyone in the audience and highlights either the scale of a problem or the size of an opportunity. Ideally, it is something the audience has not heard before, or something framed in a way they have not considered.

Rather than presenting raw data, think about how to make numbers visual and relatable. Research on information processing from the Nielsen Norman Group shows that people comprehend and remember information more effectively when abstract figures are contextualised through familiar comparisons.

For example, instead of saying “USD 80 billion,” you could say, “That is equivalent to all of Facebook’s revenue for the year 2023.” When a number paints a clear picture in the audience’s mind, their ability to relate increases immediately.

When opening a pitch presentation, speed matters. You need to bring the audience in quickly. Simple, relatable information reduces cognitive effort and builds instant understanding. Remember, your audience may not be giving you full attention when you begin, so clarity is essential.

🗣️ Engage with a Story or Anecdote

Storytelling is a natural and powerful way to engage audiences, especially in persuasive presentations. But what kind of stories work best when opening a pitch?

If you begin with a story, it must be directly related to what you are pitching. You might talk about a similar situation, the challenges encountered, and how those challenges may still exist today. Another effective approach is to invite the audience to imagine a future scenario: “What if this organisation did not change? What would it look like in ten years’ time?”

Research shared by Stanford Graduate School of Business explains that storytelling activates emotional and cognitive engagement more effectively than facts alone, increasing both attention and recall.

One example from coaching practice involved a team opening their pitch by sharing a past client success story, then asking the audience whether the same approach would still work today. Although the answer was obvious, the framing encouraged the audience to think critically about change, relevance, and risk.

There are countless ways to use storytelling in a pitch presentation. Whichever approach you choose, keep the story concise. The story is only the opening, not the entire pitch. Storytelling should support your message, not overshadow it.

🧠 Leverage Team Dynamics

This is where we move beyond traditional presentation skills training.

Instead of relying solely on spoken words, consider opening with a short, relevant act:
A demonstration.
A short skit.
Music.
Etc.

Just no videos. Videos often introduce technical risk, take longer than expected, and disrupt momentum. Presentation experts at Duarte consistently advise against video-heavy openings for this reason.

The purpose of the opening is to capture attention and help the audience quickly relate to what you are presenting. Whatever you choose to do in the opening seconds must be clearly connected to your topic and recommendations. Pattern disruption, when used intentionally, can be highly effective. This is frequently discussed in innovation and creativity commentary by Fast Company, particularly in relation to standing out in crowded communication environments.

(A word of caution: I once saw a tech entrepreneur attempt to be “unique” by removing his jacket and shirt on stage. He was pitching a FinTech product. The action had no relevance to the message and distracted from credibility.)

Opening a pitch does not need to be long. It needs to be eye-opening. It should introduce a pattern that the audience is not currently experiencing. This could be a change in energy, a shift in perspective, or something unexpected that feels purposeful rather than performative.

Strategic framing plays a critical role here. According to MIT Sloan Management Review, how information is framed often influences decision-making more than the information itself.

Apart from what is shared here, there are many other creative ways to begin a pitch presentation. However, for the audience’s sake, try not to begin your pitch by asking the audience a question. While common, this approach carries risk.

I once coached an entrepreneur who insisted he had data showing that most people had spent a specific amount by the end of the Christmas holidays. He opened his pitch by asking, “How many people here have spent $xxx since Christmas ended?” When very few hands went up, he was visibly unsettled. He then showed a slide claiming that “most people” had spent that amount. The audience felt misaligned and confused. Buy-in was weak from the very beginning.

This aligns with insights discussed by Psychology Today and leadership commentary in Forbes Leadership, which highlight how early disagreement can undermine authority and trust in group settings.

If you decide to ask a question, keep it closed-ended and be prepared for multiple responses. More importantly, be ready with a confident and adaptable response regardless of how the audience reacts. As noted in leadership analysis by London Business School Review, influence begins with presence, not persuasion.

Ready to build your best sales pitch through connection, credibility, and confidence?

Explore tailored programmes from Growth Academy Asia that help you sharpen communication, strengthen influence, and win meaningful buy-in:

👉 Transform how you pitch with A.I. Pitch Lab — a high-impact workshop that teaches clarity, strategic alignment, and persuasive communication for executives and teams:

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