You must understand how to create an effective pitch for your business especially if you are an entrepreneur. Maybe, you don’t intend to seek funding.
However, having a powerful elevator pitch demonstrates that you have thorough knowledge about your company. This will prove useful when you finally resolve to seek funding.
A comprehensive business plan is the first step in developing a productive pitch. It is then essential to determine what elements make your brand lucrative and worth spending in.
You might well have a 10-page document of valid financial records and a deep review of how your business compares to competitors, but you definitely cannot cover everything.
When trying to pitch before investors as well as venture capitalists, you may just have a little time to make a good impression. Well, let’s see how you can make the best use of these few minutes.
10 expert tips on how to convince investors with a powerful business pitch
Here’s a rundown of 10 of the smartest tips, suggested by experts, which will help you in making a great first impression with your first business pitch before angel investors.
#1. Design a great presentation
First and foremost, prepare your slide deck. Your end objective is to generate a deck which is simple to work from and ends up getting investors enthused about your company.
Bear this in mind — you ought to have a shortened version which you can talk about within a few minutes. Your extended version will include everything you want your potential investors to see.
To begin, you can browse through these templates on pitch.com. This collection of free proposal templates shall help you to pitch your product, service, or idea to prospective investors.
Also, people are visual beings. So, instead of telling your venture capitalists what your company is or how it will benefit them, display it before them.
There exists numerous tools to help you in creating visual aids to accompany your pitch. Display your financial targets with tables and diagrams, and design your logo.
Keep it engaging and enjoyable, yet professional. Remember that your pitch needs to attract investors, not bore them!
#2. Practice makes perfect
You should rehearse your pitch. Just about every idea on this roster will be rendered obsolete if you are unable to quickly communicate with each component of your company.
Several entrepreneurs believe that simply understanding their business will allow them to rapidly and eloquently explain its value.
Consequently having a wonderful, visually enticing pitch deck will suffice as a backup plan. As a result, they arrive at pitch meetups underprepared.
Rather than saying, “I need only 15 minutes,” and thereafter taking 15 minutes, you might eventually see yourself blabbering for 30 minutes and only getting through slide 6.
Hence, spare some time to practise, streamline your communication, and retain just the aspects which will help your business grow. Anything else can be left for later.
#3. Start your pitch with an intriguing narrative
Start your demonstration with a captivating story. This should deal with the problem you’re attempting to solve in the industry.
It will immediately engage your investors. Also, if you’ve conducted any testing, strive to embed real statistics here.
Even better when you can connect your narrative with your audience. For this, you should master the art of great storytelling that will effectively showcase your brand’s ideology.
In case of your investors, outline what sectors they had earlier invested in. What were the pitfalls in their prior entrepreneurial pursuits?
Conduct some research on the investor so that you gain a good insight about what they are interested in and you can then personalize your narrative accordingly.
#4. Describe the respective solutions as per your target market
Share what makes your product different and the manner in which it will resolve the problem you discussed in the earlier slide.
Keep it brief, precise, and simple so that the investor can clarify it to someone else. Except if your investors are well-versed in your sector, bypass using fancy words.
Additionally, if you’ve performed any testing prior to the event, include the findings here to give credence to your remedy. Although, one day, if it could truly be the case, currently don’t tell that everybody on the globe is possibly your intended audience.
Be honest about who the product and solution are for. Define your market. This will convince your audience and enable you to think more tactically concerning your roll-out strategy.
When discussing your target audience, try to create user personas or ideal consumers if possible.
Further, this can assist investors in visualizing the number of potential customers and demonstrates that you’ve given careful consideration over who your firm will deliver to.
It’s much simpler to talk to a specific individual instead of a massive demographic in a brief pitch.
#5. Describe your business model
This slide is usually of the utmost importance to investors.
How are you planning to generate income?
Be really precise about your product offerings and their pricing models. Emphasize how eagerly your market awaits your advent.
To add more credence, impress your investors with your team’s achievements until now — sales, contracts, new recruits, product launches, etc.
You’ve probably mentioned snippets of this earlier on, but it’s at this point when you should paint a complete picture of the company.
However, don’t just talk about what you’ve accomplished; also talk about where you are planning to go.
Demonstrate a blueprint of the subsequent steps, added milestones, and also how financing will enable you to reach them.
#6. Outline your marketing policies to acquire customers
This is among the most frequently overlooked segments of an investing pitch as well as a comprehensive marketing plan.
- How are you going to reach out to your clients?
- Do you have any website technologies to capture customers?
- How much would it cost? How would you determine success?
You should be able to easily quantify your acquisition costs while attracting new consumers using your financials.
However, you must also indicate how you plan to connect with customers, what channels you intend to advertise on, and provide an illustration of communication.
You’ve done your homework, you understand your customer — so why not display before investors the manner in which it will work in practice?
#7. Introduce your team
Investors make investments on people first. Ideas come later.
So ensure to share information concerning your team of experts and why your teammates are the best individuals to support your company.
Furthermore, be sure that you are sharing details regarding any skill sets that your team may be lacking.
Most entrepreneur teams lack key abilities like marketing, managerial expertise, programming, sales, operational processes, and cash accounting, among other things.
Inform your audience that you are aware you do not know it all.
#8. Define your financial goals and competition
Show your revenue projections for each product for the upcoming 3 to 5 years. You should always have assumptions to serve as a back-up for your showcased numbers.
Investors will take out their cell phone calculators to ensure that your figures sound right. Hence, provide them with the data they require to ensure that your estimations are correct.
It’s tempting to spend a lot of time trying to explain financials, but consider the fact that you’ll need to talk to them fast.
If investors are interested in hearing or learning more, include your entire financials in the extended presentation or give answers to queries once you’ve completed presenting.
Again, describing your competition is a critical component of your business pitch. The ideal way to describe your perceived value above your rivals’ is to present this slide via a competitive grid format — with your competitors listed down on the left part of your page.
You should display your features and benefits at the top. Finally, place check marks within the boxes where your business gives that facility.
Preferably, you should have checkboxes at the top for each category, while your competitors fall short in critical places, demonstrating your competitive edge.
#9. Communicate your requirement for funding
Indicate how much funds have been involved in your corporation until now.
Outline your ownership percentage distribution and communicate how much additional funding is required to take the extra step.
Be clear regarding what your next level is. Would you require several rounds of funding? Is your investment on an adjustable note, a capital round, or anything else?
Remind people of how your senior management is able to manage their growth investment. Inform investors about the amount of cash you require, the reasoning behind it, its usage, and your end goals.
#10. Explain your exit plan
Most investors would want to understand your exit strategy when you’re looking for huge amounts of investment money, which usually exceeds $1 million.
Do you have a plan to be acquired, go public, or do something else?
Demonstrate that you’ve conducted your research on the exit plan, such as the businesses you’re trying to target and how it makes perfect sense 3, 5, or 10 years into the future.
Investors will expect you to support your claims. Keep a comprehensive business plan and share that with your investors — so that they can peruse further if they wish.
And besides, the goal is for you to give a strong pitch, so by the close, their hands are outstretched, demanding either your entire business plan or your executive summary.
Conclusion
Seek to enhance your pitch, regardless of the result. Don’t be worried to solicit feedback and consider this for later.
Request another member of the team to take notes and evaluate them after the event. Look for flaws that caused the investor to respond negatively.
Although if you believe you’ve picked the right pitch, continue fine-tuning, practicing, and implementing — until you achieve your desired outcomes.
About the Author!
Atreyee Chowdhury works full-time as a Content Manager with a Fortune 1 retail giant. She is passionate about writing and helped many small and medium-scale businesses achieve their content marketing goals with her carefully crafted and compelling content. She loves to read, travel, and experiment with different cuisines in her free time. You can follow her on LinkedIn.