Beat investor gloom and come across as a pro in your initial pitch.

Raising capital to grow or survive is quite difficult right now!

Many conditions contributed to investor gloom, including slower economic growth, declining consumer confidence, falling manufacturing output, high inflation, and heightened geopolitical tensions. Even the relaxation of Covid restrictions across the region failed to reverse the trend. Macroeconomic weakness is now the No. 1 concern!.

We have gone from “burn for growth at any cost” through to “lets pivot to profitability”. For companies with a novel or innovative product pre series A this is extremely difficult to do.

Getting in front of investors is still easy right now but closing them has become a different story.

But there is a way forward. You have to learn to Sell your stock.

It’s not the same as selling your product or service but many can fall into that trap.

Capital raising is just a strategic sales process and needs to be treated as one. If you don’t have a product that requires a strategic sales function (i.e it’s largely consumer driven, channel driven or bottom up) then you really need to upgrade that tool belt.

Step 1) Qualify the investor.

At the start of the call or meeting ask your prospect questions.

Alot of first-time founders go instantly into the excitement or mechanical process of who we are and what we do pitch. Don’t do this. Just don’t. People will tune out, won’t engage and won’t really feel important.

Yes your vision may be empowering, yes you might have a great back story and yes your pitch can excite but you forget all they do is meet founders like you.

Investing in an early business takes a lot of time and effort it can be a 3 month to 6 month sales process. You can standout if you qualify the investor with curiosity, courtesy and succinctly right at the start of the pitch.

You can come across as abrupt if you do this wrong or you can come across as a “pro” professional. Everyone wants to work with a professional as it lowers the founder risk.

Here are some human questions you can ask:

Do you enjoy investing?
Why do you do it?
Are you good it?
Why do you work at "soso"?
What is your best acquisition and investment?
What would you like to uncover in our conversation today?

Step 2) Chair the meeting.

The next step you can do off the last question is chair the meeting by setting the agenda.

The agenda should cover;

1. Top line of the business “pitch the stock”
2. How your business works and what is unique about it?
3. Financials
4. Conversation points
5. Q+A

You chair the meeting by driving the introductions, the agenda and segmenting the time right at the start of the call.

Chairing the meeting reinforces your position as a professional and setting the agenda allows you to go from qualifying to direct. Both signal competence in a strategic sales process and lower founder risk of any investment.

In my next article I will give you my initial template for how to pitch the stock in 2 -3 mins to a portfolio or fund manager.