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Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Investors
It is your business goal to pitch investors to buy your brand. Many businessmen have different theories to pitch them in the right way. Selling your product forcefully can upset or irritate your valuable leads. You must be very much aware of the right way to pitch investors. You can try out different terms and types of pitches to reduce the chances of mistakes that usually businessmen do while pitching to investors.
In this article, you will be guided on such mistakes with some amazing tips and tricks. You can not take a chance to miss any of your leads. Ignorance is not the solution but over-pitching to investors is also wrong. Sometimes the overflow of information becomes the most common reason for sales failure. Entrepreneurs need to do a study to check out what are common mistakes and how they can prevent them in the future. Only then a successful investor pitching is possible with 100% results. So let us proceed to the main attractions of this article to discuss mistakes to avoid when pitching investors.
Mistakes that you should Avoid When Pitching Investors:
Your sales targets may put a lot of pressure on you. That should not reflect on the sales pitch. Otherwise, you will lose the lead and its references as well. Being human is our way of talking and body language reflects what is running inside our mind. But a real entrepreneur must-have skills to express diplomatically. Your script needs to be short, crisp, and clear. Only then your targeted audience will enjoy buying your product or services. Once you have successfully closed the deal, you can later ask for more references or pitch for another purchase.
Taking decisions in a hurry will always lead to a loss only. Below are some silly mistakes done by entrepreneurs while pitching to investors:
1) Desperate behavior:
Every entrepreneur should follow pitching ideas to investors. Finding a fresh lead may generate desperately in you. But this is the time to control yourself. You can show it to your investor. How happy you are to see the lead let your investor also feel the same. He is also here to invest in your services or product. Being desperate to sell your product presents your need and sounds unattractive. In such conditions, your investor may feel pressure to invest forcefully and will move on with other attractive entrepreneurs. So despite smelling desperate, be attractive and informative for your investors.
2) Lacking preparations:
Investors do preparations for the questions they need to ask. Because they are investing their hard-earned money in your brand they would like to clear many aspects. Also, they would like to know why they should go with your services. This means how your product or service is better than others. If you are not prepared for these questions then you may face an embarrassing situation in the meeting session. Even you will lose the chance to pitch your investor. Confidence comes with knowledge. To gather useful information about your brand and prepare some examples to explain your statements. Keep your face confident and do a mirror practice to enhance your confidence level. Your preparations automatically teach you how to pitch investors?
3) Following a script senselessly:
Many new investors learn with their experiences. You follow a script to pitch to investors in your early days. But, some of them make it a habit despite improving. They don’t answer the investor and remain sticky on their script. Even sometimes they don’t give proper time to investors so that they can ask questions. Your investor is showing interest in the brand but still, he wants to know many things about it. You are the source to pass on that information in the form of answers to his questions. Listening to your investors and replying accordingly with satisfying answers may clear all doubts. Also, it helps in building trust and long-term relationships.
4) Straight forward reaction for negotiations:
Many competitors are available in the market with the best offers and deals. Also, it is the right of investors to ask for negotiations. Ignoring that part may cause you to lose a genuine deal. Make sure you have made up your mind to avoid mistakes when pitching investors. Else you will repeatedly do all these mistakes and face failure. As an entrepreneur, your failure belongs to the failure of your brand and services. That may lead the business to a big loss. Listen to what negotiations your investor needs. Check for affordability. After that, offer what your budget and company policy allows. Explained some extra benefits which matter more than negotiations. Suppose it is about an electronic product and your company offers Free AMC for 2 years, or a replacement guarantee for 3 months will work enough. Show such offers to satisfy your investor despite rejecting his negotiation proposal. This is the biggest rock in the path to convincing your investors to invest in your business.
5) Shut down causing pushings:
Are you in a hurry to sell your product? But your investment may be looking for future investment. Maybe he plans to buy it next month. Ushing investors too much can divert his mind to not buy or choose another brand. So before pitching your ideas to investors try to understand what he wants. In case of future buying interest, assist your investor with the desired information and stay in touch. Give a reminder call or SMS at a preferred time.
6) No revisions:
Humans can make mistakes and it is natural. Take your mistake as a lesson. Work on the matter you failed earlier. Do as much revision as you can. It will prevent you from future failure. This revision will clear your mind about how to pitch investors in the right manner. If you will not learn from your mistakes and keep doing such dumb things then you can not see your future as an entrepreneur.
7) Taking criticism as a personal attack:
There are many competitive brands and services available in the market. In such conditions, criticism is a normal thing. Prepare yourself to defend your brand with solid and genuine answers. Being associated with a brand sometimes entrepreneurs take the criticism personally and they start behaving rudely to the investor. It doesn’t suit the personality of an entrepreneur. Always ask for feedback and try to recover from a negative review.
8) Hiding your enthusiasm:
If you are an entrepreneur you need to hold some passion for your work. Dull responses will never let you win. Behave like a representative who will show all about the brand to its investors. Nobody would like to deal with an impassioned intrapreneur.
9) Wrong presentation of need:
You are working for your company and you both need profits. It is common to offer benefits to attract investors. Offering beyond the level may not only affect your profits but, also affect the trust of investors. They will feel like you are in need to sell and they are not needed to buy. Making false promises will also affect your relationship building, which is an important key to running a business in the long term.
10) Wrong angle approach:
If you want to convince investors to invest in your business then a right angle approach is a must. You need to be very focused on your listening abilities for effective investor pitches. Understand what your customer wants to know and where he wants to invest. After that pitch at the exact place. It will save your time and energy. Also, it will impress the investor to bring more references and prefer future purchases.
Conclusion:
The job of an entrepreneur is quite tough. That is the reason you do the biggest part of the business. Properly doing your job is your responsibility. Do the work on the above-mentioned mistakes in a guided manner. Soon, you will reach your career goals. Also, you can get the assistance of some experts. Many reputed companies provide expert entrepreneurs to enhance your sales. Get desired sales output with the right steps of investor pitches.
