Entrepreneurs looking for an investment in their new business venture must have the ability to deliver an effective pitch, and in a sense they must be good salespeople. Having a good idea with a solid plan in place may not be enough. Pitching your idea to a potential investor is no easy task and many entrepreneurs struggle with this. Nerves can often get the better of you and at times the value of the business idea can decrease following a weak pitch. RTE’s Dragons Den provides us with evidence of business people, often with excellent ideas, that simply cannot communicate them effectively for whatever reason. Hopefully the following tips will make the daunting prospect of making a business pitch a little easier.
Like any business or professional presentation pitching your idea should involve the four P’s planning, preparing, practicing, and of course presenting. These rules almost go without saying. We all know the importance of speaking clearly, making eye contact, and using attractive slides; however what is really going to make you stand out from the crowd to the investors are the following.

1) Know your audience: Before entering the room in which you will make your pitch you should know exactly who will be facing you. Surprises on the day can throw the entrepreneur off. Potential investors should be selected carefully. It is not a case of just getting anyone to invest in your company. They must fit well with the start-ups business culture as well as the product or service being provided. You should know as much as possible about their interests or other business activities or involvements. The presentation style may have to be altered depending on the audience so this is something else that should be kept in mind.

2) Be passionate – sell the idea to them: Perhaps start the presentation with a one minute elevator pitch and include only the important details. Do not immediately ask for money or come across desperate. Make it feel like they would be lucky to invest in a product or service. Most of all be passionate, enthusiastic, and genuinely excited about you new business. If you are not excited about it you can’t expect others to be.

3) If appropriate use props, prototypes or demonstrations: This may be particularly important for new start-ups that are highly technical or complex to explain. Perhaps showing the investor how the product works may be more effective than trying to explain. If your business is a website it may be a good idea to have some screenshots of the site within your slides. If an investor is going to part with his/her cash they will want as much details and knowledge of what they are buying into as possible. At the same time don’t over complicate things. For a simple product or service that can be easily communicated, including props may actually over complicate the pitch.

4) Back everything up with numbers: I can’t emphasise this point enough. At the end of the day investors are looking to make a return on their investment for the most part. They are results driven and knowing your figures for sales, profits, costs etc is absolutely essential. There is nothing wrong with having a small page or record card with your figures on them. Pitching an idea is an extremely difficult task and if you feel that remembering all figures is too big a task don’t do it. The worst thing you can do is forget a certain figure, panic and then be thrown off for the entire presentation. Your projections in terms of profits, sales etc should be realistic. By all means aim high and be optimistic but he numbers must be backed up.

5) Learn from mistakes and rejection: Securing an investment is no easy task! Don’t be disheartened if you do not succeed. Take the advice on board and make the relevant changes. Think about which questions you could not answer or answered poorly. The more experience you have at pitching your business idea, the easier it becomes.

Dave from Hidden Depth here, I just finished designing a great new site for Owen Fitzpatrick: Charisma.ie
Here is some info from Owen on the Charisma Bootcamp

Starting your own business in the modern business environment is no longer about how good your product is. It is about how good people think your product is. Of course, it’s important to ensure that you have good quality and service… but it’s vital you focus on how you present your brand and product line to the customer, to the world.

We consider the importance of a good website. For some, this is their sole way of representing their company to the world. But even when it isn’t, how you market yourself to others is of utmost importance. Many people spend a lot of time deciding on what their logo is going to be while missing the bigger picture. In order to win in this world, you have to stand out from your competitors, grab attention and appeal directly to the customers out there.

There are so many competitors around that we can no longer wait for them to hear via word of mouth. We must know what words mouths are likely to say about us. Whatever we say about ourselves is the starting point. That’s not just about your mission statement or values or promotional blurb… it is something that must be replicated continuously throughout the interactions you have with customers. from social media sites to your own website, your customer service to your sales people…. everyone needs to be on the same page.

Even more important, they must not only be consistent but also impressive. They must impress, captivate, engage customers at every level. This requires confidence. It requires an understanding of effective communication and persuasion. It requires charisma. I spend a lot of time working with organizations and individuals, helping them to become more charismatic. While some falsely believe that you are either charismatic or you are not…. a brilliant marketing campaign can instantly grab attention and appeal to the masses. It can engage the audience powerfully. So a business can improve it’s charisma by creating a powerful impression on it’s potential customers.

The Charisma Bootcamp is a four day course I am running in December where I bring a pitch doctor who has worked with Google and BBC, a multimillionaire business leader, a comedian, magician, stylist, voice coach (who has worked with Hollywood celebrities), a social media expert… and myself, a psychologist together. The course is focused on helping people master charismatic communication so they learn how to grab attention, engage people and captivate their audience.

It’s vital that you become aware of how you are coming across to your potential market and take steps to understand the processes at work in engaging or disengaging them. When you focus on how you communicate as well as what you communicate… you are adapting to the times where it’s no longer good enough to be great… you have to seem great as well!

For more information on the Charisma Bootcamp check out www.charisma.ie/more-details.

wrote by Dave: HiddenDepth.ie

Going through Dublin Airport the other day I noticed this “special offer” sign… wow an Irish brekfast for only ¢11.60!

Why not give the poor tourists who have been ripped off around the country a final kick in the arse as we send them on their way?

This got me thinking about the whole area of pricing your product or service..basically the options are apply a standard margin and trade away or slash your margin and go for volume. For example our freinds at Dublin airport could have chosen a Special offer Irish brekfast at ¢5.99 this may result in a much busier operation with more throughput and presumably additional add on sales as people go through the establishment.

A recent article in the Sunday papers with a successful banker now entering the UK market also caught my eye, his opinion was that “profit is in volume” (at a tight margin). Certainly the most successful companies in retail in particular apply the stack em high sell em cheap principle. Once you get the ball rolling your increased purchasing power allows you to take additional margin and advantages the trick is to not let your overheads gobble you up before you get traction.

With my new business I am pushing for the volume & value principle so I will find out soon enough if it is the way to go. Consumers are however flooded with special offers so if you are selling something “on Special” it should be something that the consumer can relate to as being good value i.e they have bought a full Irish before for around ¢8 and now it is on offer for ¢5.99 hmmm not bad.

Right all this talk of breakfast is making me hungry, any opinions on the above are welcome….now what shall I have? not a full Irish anyway..

S

Selling is often a dirty word among small business owners. Of course, that’s kind of silly because it’s selling (and more of it) which keep us in business. But, for many small business owners, this is an activity they abhor. They would rather have their teeth pulled at the dentist than to cold-call or attend sales appointments. That’s because the activities they enjoy are usually associated with what they are good at – for example, fixing people’s backs (chiropractor), crunching numbers (accountant), working out (fitness trainer). If they could spend all their time involved in their area of expertise, they would be happy. The last thing they want to focus on is sales.

As a result, some small business owners don’t have a sales plan or strategy in place. It’s something they fit in around their other work, to be done grudgingly when the appointment book looks bare or when cashflow is tight.

However, if you put some simple strategies in place, selling doesn’t become so arduous, especially when you incorporate it as part of your daily/weekly routine. So what can you do?

1. Dedicate a specific amount of time
Block out a set amount of time every day/week where you only focus on selling. When you try to fit it around your other activities, there is always an excuse not to do it. Instead, diarise it so that you ensure you can give it the attention it deserves. Remember, that doesn’t mean you have to spend the entire time cold-calling, there are a whole range of other (less painful!) activities you could be doing to boost your sales.

2. Automate your marketing
Sales can seem so time-consuming, especially if you think that it can only be done on a one-on-one basis. But your sales can be an easier process if you support it with an automated marketing campaign. Here is an example. If a customer has bought a particular product/service, it can be useful to send an automatic message (whether by email or snail mail) letting them know about another product they may find useful.

The key here is to ensure that you are upselling them with a product/service they are likely to find useful. So, based on the product they purchased originally, consider what other product most customers also purchase. When you are targetted, many customers appreciate being told about other products that will help them (and which they may not have come across unless it was brought to their attention). It’s only when you try to sell them an unrelated or irrelevant product that they may find your marketing annoying.

3. The fortune is in the follow-up
It’s not your customer’s job to remember that you are in business. Sometimes, a friendly phone call or email can simply remind customers that you are there. If you haven’t heard from a customer in a while, get in touch. This doesn’t mean you have to sit on the phone for hours (although some customers do require that personal touch). You can automate this to a degree as well. Use a customer relationship system that can flag when it’s been a certain number of months since your customer’s last visit or purchase. After that period of non-sales activity, send them a friendly reminder about your new stock or specials.

4. Ask for the sale
Years ago, I learnt one of the most useful strategies about sales which I still use every day. And that’s simply to ask for the sale. For example, I run a training business which offers writing courses. When I first started out, people would call and enquire about courses. I’d happily tell them about the courses they were interested in and I’d finish the conversation with: “Well, have a think about it and if you’d like to enrol, give me a buzz back.”

While that might sound fine, I eventually realised that if people were already taking the time to call, they were already pretty interested in the course. So I changed that script to: “Ok if that’s all the information you need, would you like to enrol now?” My sales conversions increased immediately with that simple tactic. Think about when you can ask for the sale. And make sure you do!

Ultimately, we need to stop seeing sales as a chore. If you integrate it into your business systems, it will soon become an easy part of the process. Remember, as Zig Ziglar once said: “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”