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3 Trial Preparation Techniques to Boost Your Investor Pitch
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When helping clients prepare for their investor pitch, I am often reminded of the similarities between the trial preparation I frequently undertook during my 15 years as an attorney, and the steps an entrepreneur needs to take when preparing to pitch Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists.
In the same way as simply having good grounds for litigation or an innocent client, are by themselves are not enough to persuade a judge or jury; simply having a good product or service is rarely enough to persuade an investor.
Preparation and persuasion are at the heart of any good investor pitch or jury speech. The failure to properly prepare is one of the key reasons that entrepreneurs with great ideas in a growing market, fail to secure business funding.
The following 3 techniques will help ensure you deliver a compelling investor pitch and increase your chances of getting funded:
1. See things from your audience’s perspective.
Sometimes working around the clock 7 days a week to launch a successful business can lead to an inability to see things from the perspective of others. This is perhaps the downside of the ‘tunnel vision’ that is sometimes necessary to get from A to B, against all the odds.
Good trial lawyers, will not only make sure they know their own case inside out. They will also spend plenty of time making sure anticipate how the judge or jury will view their case, including the questions they will raise and concerns they may have.
If you are pitching investors, then you must do the same. The more you are able to step into the shoes of an investor and see things from their perspective, the more you will be able prepare for their questions, make sure your correctly frame your pitch and take steps to address their concerns in advance.
2. Make Sure You Identify Your Potential Weaknesses and Challenges.
When you take the lead in identifying your challenges, you have the opportunity to frame them in the best light.
It is far easier to focus on your strengths and opportunities rather than deal with the potential problems. There is always the natural concern that raising possible challenges in your pitch may reduce your chances of getting funded. This is one of the reasons some that entrepreneurs fail to address issues such as the competition or management team gaps, in their pitch.
Most investors have ‘risk radar’ and will be able to spot your challenges a mile away. If you don’t raise them, they will. Investors are more likely to be impressed by you taking the lead and identifying the challenges you face along with your proposed solutions, than if you leave it to them to raise.
You do not want to give the impression that you have overlooked potential challenges as this will greatly undermine your credibility and the investor’s view of your business acumen.
An effective preparation technique that we use is to run Mock Pitches with our clients, asking the challenging questions they are likely to face from investors and honing in on possible weaknesses. You can and should do the same with a friend or colleague who you believe understands your business and has some knowledge of how investors think.
3. Tell a story.
Great trial lawyers know how to tell a good story. A good story can go a long way to securing the verdict a trial lawyer wants, even when the evidence is not great. As children we grow up with stories and as adults we continue to enjoy them through books, television, film and theatre.
When you deliver your pitch as though you are telling a story (making sure you deal with all key issues) you are more likely to engage your investor audience. Stories are one of the most effective ways of reaching people on an emotional level. Given that emotion is a key factor in most if not all decision making, the more your pitch excites and engages, the greater your chances of success. At the end of the day, no-one really wants to listen to a dull description of facts and figures?
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