In business,
you have to know how to pitch your business. You might not be having plans to
fund having a solid elevator but pitching ensures that you know your business
pretty well. And this comes hand in hand when you eventually decide to seek out
investments.
How do you make a pitch to an investor?
What we all
need to know when talking of pitching is that whenever an entrepreneur wants to
create a successful pitch you have to good business plan. From there you will be
in a good position to identify what will make your business valuable and worth
investing in. Here are some ways how to make your pitch successful.
1. Creating a good presentation
Before doing
anything else, take time to put your pitch deck. Your
aim is to create a deck that is easy for you to work on and get investors happy
about your business. Considering that done, always have in mind to have a small
version that you can speak to within some minutes as well as an extended
version that contains everything you would like to give potential investors
access to.
This is the
best time to use your free pitch deck template for PowerPoint to
keep you going. In case you may need help in putting your pitch together
you can check out this list of tools that
can help you put together a professional presentation.
2. Practice your Pitch
You need to
practice your pitch and ensure you know everything because not being able to
quickly speak about each element of your business makes every other part on the
list meaningless. Many businesses always think that by just understanding their
business they can quickly explain its value hence they end up going to pitch
meetings without getting prepared.
Take your
time and practice, simplify your messaging, and only keep the important
elements that will give a positive impact on your business.
3. Use a story to outline your problem
Here, you can
begin your pitch with a very compelling story and have in mind that the story
should address the problem you are trying to solve and with a story, your
audience will be fully engaged. Always try including any form of data if you
have done any testing.
Ensure you
conduct some research about the investors so that you know what they care about
if you can tell your story to them.
4. Have a Solutions
Tell your
audience the unique things about your product and how it will help them solve
the issues. Make it brief, concise, and simple for the investors to understand
and can explain to others. Avoid using buzzwords unless your investors are very
conversant with your business. And if you have done any testing before, plugin
results to give in solutions more easily.
5. Your target market
Having a target market means
having a specific group of audience that you basically major in as per your
industry. Just try to be realistic about who you are building your products
for.
If you can
try and develop a user persona of your ideal customers when
talking about your target market then this can help visualize the potential
customer displays that you have thought wisely of who your business will serve.
Note that it is always easier to speak to a named individual in a quick pitch
rather than speaking to a big demographic.
6. Your
Revenue
As an
entrepreneur, you have to major in this because you need to know how you will
make money. You need to be very specific about your products and the pricing.
As well as emphasizing how your market is highly waiting for your arrival.
7. Your funding needs
Feel free
when dealing with your investors. Clearly spell out the amount of money that
has already been invested in your company and other preferable details.
Remember to
remind your audience why your management team is of importance and capable of
managing their investments for growth. Discuss to them how much you need, the
reason as to you need the funds, what it will be used for, and the intended
results.
8. Take feedback and refine your pitch
Never be
discouraged by the outcome of your pitch, whether positive or negative always
strive to look for ways you can improve. Always ask for feedback and take them
to account for the next time you pitch and if the investor is not willing to
provide any don't insist, furthermore it is their time you have spent so it is
more or less the same.
Always work
with your team so that they can help you in note-taking and review with them
later. Look for the weak points and the areas you stumbled over which led to the
negative reaction of the investors. Always keep practicing, and executing even
if you have the best pitch.
It is not
always easy for one to how good your pitch is until you actually do it.
Work smart and learn to treat every investor pitch as a learning experience for
you and your business.
The above
discussed are just some of the ways one can use to become successful in
pitching business ideas to the investors. Feel free to look for more from
different sources for the best outcome in your businesses.