Whenever you are preparing to pitch to an investor, the odds may look against you. There are countless business ideas in the market but only a handful of investors willing to back yours. 

Needless to say, pitching is a nerve-wracking process, and without a proper strategy, you are unlikely to taste success. Most pitches fail because founders don’t invest enough time to look for the correct questions that need to be answered. Having a deck of full slides that focus on the wrong questions is a recipe for disaster. 

Here are the best tips for nailing the investor pitch:

Spend time preparing your pitch deck

A pitch deck is a lot more than the information put together randomly. Even if you have a complex business idea, your pitch deck should contain easy to understand concepts. The text should be readable and supplemented with interesting visuals. It should be concise.

 Always keep the audience in mind while preparing the deck and structure it in a manner that strikes a chord with them — unless you can paint a persuasive picture for your investors through the deck, even the best business ideas can fall flat on their faces.

Narrate your story 

Storytelling is an essential element of pitching. A well-crafted and passionate story can help the investor connect with the ideas at a much deeper level. However, investors do not have a lot of time — so you must be able to grab the attention right from the beginning. 

To make a better impact, start by telling them the specific challenges you faced that inspired you to conceive the idea. Don’t hesitate to share your learnings — talk about the setbacks and successes you have experienced and how you propose moving forward. 

Don’t shy away from the details 

Make sure you have included the necessary information in your pitch — talk about your liquidity, the cost of developing the product further, the financial capacity of your target customers, what your competition is doing, etc.

 Adding details will help the investor understand you have a viable business plan in place, and you are not flying blind. 

Avoid using buzzwords 

Simple words can convey the potential of a great idea. Resist the urge to add unnecessary buzzwords to impress your investors — keeping your pitch straightforward can make it more engaging and help grab the attention.

 In case your product demands the use of technical terms, make sure to explain them well. The words you choose while making the pitch showcase your personality as an entrepreneur. So, select them wisely.

Know your exact ask

A pitching session is not the ideal time to be vague, especially about the amount of money you want to raise.  While it may be intimidating to say the number out loud, it is the best way to get the investor to trust you and your idea. Investors like founders who have thought through the business model and worked out the details.

If you want to bring it home, you need to be specific about your needs — it’s that simple.

Research your investor

Pitch meetings are about establishing a person-to-person connection. The best way to develop the relationship is by speaking the language your investors speak — learn more about your investors through the information available in the public domain, look at their social media handles and LinkedIn profile to understand their interests, etc. This will help you to fine-tune the pitch.

Customize your pitch

If you are pitching to multiple investors, it may be tempting to use the same deck. However, this is a massive mistake-no two investors have the same personality. As a result, the same pitch may fail to impress both. Tweak your pitch in a way that helps you communicate effectively to each investor. Customizing your pitch is an easy way to show the investor that you are genuinely interested in getting them on board. 

Prepare for a grueling Q & A session 

 Regardless of how detailed your pitch is, every investor will ask you questions. Make a list of the most common questions and prepare your answers. Think through each question carefully — your answers will have a massive impact on your credibility. Go back to your pitch and examine it from an investor’s point of view to find out potential questions — is there a slide that needs more clarification? Have you missed covering any particular aspect of the product? 

Find the right mentor to help you pitch properly 

You may be extremely confident about your best business idea and all set to burn the midnight oil to create an excellent pitch. However, a helping hand from a business coach or mentor can provide you much-needed strategic inputs and guide you through the process. A good mentor can also help you identify the common pitfalls and red flags and give you the tools to navigate such sticky situations. 

So why set about creating your investor pitch alone when you can lean on mentors and leverage their domain expertise to persuade your dream investor?

Jupiter Business Mentors is a platform set up to connect mentors to the start-up community and small & medium business enterprises to help them grow their business. With 35+ expert mentors across the industry on the same platform, finding the right mentor has never been easy. Simply sign up and create a profile so that Jupiter Business Mentors and view the profiles of Business consultants to guide you.

Learn more about how Jupiter Business Mentors can help you and avail of 90 minutes of free sessions with any six mentors on the platform.