This article is a how-to guide on pitching to investors, with a hidden secret weapon that many entrepreneurs’ miss: the use of Posters and printed visual media to be used in tandem with your investment pitch.
We can not count the amount of times, we have attended a pitch event and the entrepreneur has only used a power point pitch deck on a projector to show their company brand. So typical.
A secret weapon to pitching is to get posters printed before hand and stick them up on the walls in your pitch room, showing off your company’s brand and visual plans and if you pitching in a Private members club – print their logo on your poster – it will look great.
Make the background of your pitch room visual with your company’s motto and brand – show the Investor how serious you are about your business. Ultimately, as an entrepreneur you maybe spending so much on the rental of the meeting room and spending an additional £20 – £30 on sticking posters of your brand on the walls could be the best investment you make. It will certainly leave a really great impression. More on this below but for now we will flesh out pitch your investment proposal to Angel Investors.
Tell a story
When it comes to presenting your ideas you should try to connect with your audience by telling a story but your business presentation doesn’t have to be a work of fiction.
You must aim to take your audience on a journey when presenting your ideas to potential investors, help them see the story of success and what it will bring. Get your audience emotionally involved in your idea and you will be more likely to convince them.
Keep it simple
Try to minimise the amount of bullet points, it will only overwhelm your audience. If you have to use points try to keep it between three and five main points. Remember the average person can only remember a fraction of anything so you don’t want to include everything. Instead, choose out important points that you want to make.
Keep your presentation as simple and straightforward as possible while bring your audience with you on a journey.
Speak Naturally
No, you don’t have to sound like Steve Jobs to sell your idea. During your business presentation speak naturally while maintaining a good body posture to show your confidence.
You want to sound approachable and competent to your audience.
Avoid using swear words unless you know it fits the style that you’re going for.
Stay away from unusual or big words, it will only bring confusion to your audience.
Communicate clearly while presenting your ideas.
Avoid long awkward silences.
Make sure you don’t sound like you’re taking down to your audience. Practice your speech before taking the stage.
It takes practice before you can master the art of presentation. Know your concept and material inside out, you should be able to countably explain them in a friendly and professional manner.
Angel Investor Report – Insider Edge
Know your stuff
Avoid cramming everything into a single presentation but know your stuff inside out so you can answer any question in a flash without hesitation at the end of your presentation if you have to.
Your business idea will most likely contain a lot of figures, it is important that your remember all of them. At the end of the day business is all about figures. If you can’t remember your figures, have a note of it in your pocket or somewhere where you can find it very quickly when asked.
Presentation Handouts
Let’s be honest, most business presentations are a filled with lots of text, bullet points and PowerPoint slides. By the time you’ve finished your presentation your audience are overwhelmed, bored and tired of constantly reading through your text.
Text is not the most effective way to engage with your audience. Communicating your ideas visually to you audience / investors can make a huge impact on your presentation. Take a look at the presentations of the biggest tech companies. Apple for example, only communities through high-quality images and huge one or two letter words per slide to sell their product.
Apple’s competitors hate the company’s marketing strategy but other most other enterprises are now trying to follow the path of simple visually filled presentation to get their own messages across to their audience / customers. However that doesn’t mean that you should trash all the information that you would like to present to your audience with written text.
A good way of providing all the necessary information in a written manner is to present them with presentation handout or a booklet which gives your audience something to take away and review it later. They are one more way for your listeners to be reminded of you and your business idea.
Our go to printers for instantly printing & binding our presentation is Reload Internet in Paddington, London which offers different varieties of special printing papers and quick turnaround time for any amount of orders (sometimes within minutes).
Printed Large Format Posters set up for an investor meeting – a hidden weapon
For the wow effect, a hidden weapon in presenting to investors, is to set up a poster showing your company logo and information on your business.
Posters are a great way to share information and are an important part of business presentations and proposals. They can be used as a way to tease your idea before the start of your presentation, display a large image of your product throughout the presentation or simply may be used to present complex materials so it is important that the display message of your poster is well laid out, readable and attractively presented. If you poster contain a lot of text or any text in general, use professional font and make sure the font is large enough to read from a distance.
Avoid using cartoonish or funky looking font unless it suits the style that you’re going for. Posters are also a great way to start one on one conversation with potential investors about specific aspect of your research that may not be possible in your presentation.
At Reload Internet they can print posters in London same day, within hours of placing your order.
Using high quality print materials and number of different finish including matt, glossy and satin they can deliver any print sizes up to A0.
Visit Reload Internet for more information. They are based in Paddington, London.
For the wow effect, a hidden weapon in presenting to investors, is to set up a poster showing your company logo and information on your business – ahead of time. Nothing leaves a better impression than an investor walking into a room to see that an entrepreneur has set up literature in the background.
Angel Investor Report