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Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect:
1.Understanding what you are selling
2.Researching your investors
3.Exciting your Investors
Here’s the situation, money is tight and the downturn continues. Competition for investment is higher than ever, but you have a great business with significant potential. Exploiting the opportunity requires cash, so how do you maximise your chances of raising the money you need?
When asked how they select opportunities, investors are analytical by nature and so, will list the usual ‘routes to market’, ‘scalability’, ‘return on investment and so on. The reality is that all investments they consider offer these. You don’t want to be just considered, you want to be successful. So how do you excite them and beat off the competition? The answer is threefold.
Firstly, understand what you are selling. You are no longer pitching to a potential customer, you are pitching to a potential investor. You still have to sell but now your offering is you and your business as an investment opportunity.
Secondly, know your audience. Research your investors, their personnel, previous investments made and their criteria for making them and understand why you are approaching them in particular.
Thirdly, make your investor excited. You need to grab their attention and tell them a compelling story and this is where you have to be pitch perfect.
The secret to telling any good story is to start with the current situation, explain what problems it presents, pose the question of how do you solve them and then present the answer. Using the following guidelines should help you do this.
Start with the current situation and problem with that. Try to paint a picture of the demand by using individual examples with which your audience can associate or by quoting numbers affected by the situation. Then demonstrate how you are going to solve that that problem and/or meet that demand. This is where you talk about your secret sauce – what’s unique about you. But don’t lose them at this stage by going into too many features of your product. The benefits will do. Remember, they are investors not customers.
Tell them the business model for delivering your solution to the problem. In other words, where is the money coming from? How do you know it will come and how do you know it will make a profit? Remember a business model is simply a system for producing a profit.
Then explain who you are and why you are well placed to deliver. Talk through the team and make sure roles are clearly defined. Next make it clear why somebody else couldn’t do this. What is your competitive advantage and how can it be sustained? Highlight your competitors and explain what distinguishes you from them now and in the future. Introduce any key strategic partners in the venture for delivery, sales, support, mentoring and so on and explain why they enhance your chances of success.
Finally, the financials. Explain how much you need. What you are going to spend it on and how it will make you successful. State any assumptions you have made in your forecasts. Know the detail behind your figures but don’t present it all. This will come out in the questions if necessary.
Personally, I’d conclude on a light note. Summarise your presentation but try to leave them with a good impression of you. If they like you they are more likely to work with you!