Do you want to make a lasting good impression on your investors right after the first meeting? A lot of entrepreneurs have bright business ideas but fall short when it’s time to make a great business pitch to investors. Being an entrepreneur, you need to know the ins and outs of your business. Of course, having a solid business plan goes without saying, but you also need to intimately know what makes your business valuable and give investors good reasons to fund your business idea.

There are different angles from which to make your pitch, but here, we will focus on the sure-fire ways to get the attention of business investors and turn that dream into reality.

Necessary Steps Needed To Successfully Pitch Your Business Idea to Investors

1. Perefct Your Presentation

You absolutely have to create a presentation for your business and for you to do that, you’ll need a solid pitch deck. A pitch deck also known as a startup deck is a presentation that highlights the overview and structure of your business. It is brief and covers important points such as business plans, the products you sell, the services you render and the funding required.

A pitch deck should be a visual presentation, visual aids always make presentations a lot more fun and they tell more stories.

What is the goal behind a pitch deck? You would think the goal is obviously to raise money to fund your business right away, but it rarely ever works that way. Investors are pragmatic by nature, they only invest after a lot of thought and nitpicking. So what is the goal? The goal is to get you into a second meeting with the investors.

When you create a pitch that is so good it leaves a lasting good impression on them, they will most definitely call you back to hear more of what you have to say.

Don’t know what a pitch deck looks like? Well, there are several formats out there suited for different business ideas, but as I said, we are only discussing sure-fire ways to get you that funding. Check out this pitch deck template that is more likely to make your presentation superb!

2. Keep Practicing

The “practice makes perfect” line never gets old and cannot be overemphasized. It is not enough to know your business idea and make a dazzling visual presentation, you also need a lot of practice.

Investors will ask questions. Now, you may think that because the business idea is yours, you will be able to answer it without any difficulty. While that could be the case, you will be surprised when a question is put forth to you and you begin to stutter. Not a good look, right? This is why you need to practice your public speaking skills.

Practice your speech, the rhythm of your speech, the tone of your speech and also your hand gestures. Nonverbal Communication techniques are very important in winning over audiences.

With enough practice time under your belt, you’ll find out that you’ll be more relaxed when faced with questions in the meeting because both body and mind have been prepared.

3. Be Creative

Business is a form of art. Art needs creativity. You have to be able to capture the attention of your investors, make them feel they have to listen to you.

One way of doing that is by telling a story. Yes, you read that correctly. Begin pitching your business idea with a compelling story. Mind you, you must not get carried away with your own story lest you lose their attention and with it, your business funding.

Find a creative way of combining how you figured out the need for your product in the general public and the solution which led you to arrive at your business idea.

Telling a story doesn’t just capture the mind of your investors, it has a psychological effect on you in that you will begin to relax without you noticing it. It also helps to build your confidence as you speak.

4. Talk About Your Target Customers

The business operates on the invisible wheels of demand and supply. These wheels are in a constant rotation too and as such, you need to be able to determine with certainty who your target customers are.

When talking about your target customers, you have to be realistic with your projections, remember, numbers don’t lie.

Here’s a tip on how to pitch your business idea to your investors when talking about markets; break your target customers into TAM, SAM and SOM

TAM stands for Total Addressable Market. This is the sum total of all the customers in the world with the potential to buy your product.

SAM stands for Serviceable Available Market. This is the portion of the market that is readily available for you to sell your products. Due to some barriers like distribution or inclusion, your product could only be available for consumption to a select portion of the market. For example, a multivitamin pill for children under the age of 10, because of the age barrier, this product is only readily available for consumption by children under the age of 10. Of course, this doesn’t mean that adults are not able to buy it. Adults can buy it, but the consumption of it is done by children under the age of 10.

SOM stands for Service Obtainable Market. This is the portion of the market that you will sell your products to when starting out, in order words, your early projections of customers.

A solid presentation of target customers is synonymous with profit projections, so you will have to take your time here and lay it all out carefully.

5. Work on Your Business Model

You have covered the problem and provided the solution in an entertaining way, you have also talked about your target market. Next is the business model. This happens to the crux of the matter.

When investors invest in a certain venture, they do so expecting profit at some point in time. In order for them to expect profit, the venture in which they’re investing must be lucrative I.e it must be able to provide sustainable income.
In short, investors want to know how you’re going to make money.

Here, you must speak clearly and carefully about the pricing of your products or services rendered. You must also speak enthusiastically about how the demand for your product is high in the market.

When supply meets demand, you get profit!

6. Present Your Marketing Strategy

A lot of investors will be interested in your marketing strategy. How will you reach your consumers? Through which channel will you make your products or services known to the general public?

The business world has been revolutionized with the aid of technology and social media. This creates an easy and fast way of creating awareness for the consumers. In this day and age, nearly everyone is on social media, for those that aren’t, they know of people who are; this is how news travels super fast. You will want the news of the arrival of your product to spread like wildfire and what better way to do that than to take advantage of social media. We are in an era where money is/can be made online.

Now, there are a bunch of services that are put in place to boost sales and connect business owners with the right market. You have to accurately calculate how much all of that will cost when starting up. You have the option of using tech hubs to boost your rating or using ad services on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

7. Talk on Your Financial Projections

To be able to successfully pitch your business idea to your investors and have them on board, you must be able to enlighten them on the potential of your business. No one likes to invest in a venture that is bound to fail.

So double-check your numbers and graphs!

8. Conclude with Your Funding Requirement

After talking about the above points, you can now finally be able to present to the investors what you require in funding.

Clearly state how much you require based on the projections and emphasize that you are capable of turning your investments into profit, nothing makes an investor happier than knowing he/she has made the right investment.

Conclusion

These are the sure-fire points you have to take under consideration when pitching your business ideas to your investors successfully. Master these and build your confidence. You have to remember, you are not only pitching your business ideas to your investors, you are pitching yourself. When investors spot a confident and well-prepared entrepreneur, they automatically see a winner and they cash in their chips.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to go win over some investors and make that dream business a reality!

You should totally check out this step by step guide to writing a business plan.