Presenting To Investors- The Dos & Don’ts of a Successful Pitch
Presenting a successful pitch to investors may seem like a daunting prospect and is not a skill that necessarily comes naturally to everyone.
Even the most seasoned pitch professionals need to carefully consider their audience, the information they provide and the delivery of the pitch.
The work that goes into producing a pitch that secures a financial commitment can seem overwhelming and it’s easy to lose focus of what’s important, so this is why we have decided to share our top tips for delivering investor presentations with you.
Our training team has put together these top tips to help you make the most of your financial pitches.
What you say:
Put yourself in their shoes– put yourself in the shoes of the fund managers, analysts, and other investors, assess what they want to hear from you (ideally get their feedback from previous roadshows).
Slow down– almost every presenter rushes when they speak.
Use pauses– these will give you thinking time and allow the audience to catch-up.
Emphasise– make sure you stress the keywords and phrases you want to get across.
Repeat your main theme– if you have an important idea to communicate, say it again.
Anticipate- your audience are bound to have questions on; the numbers involved, potential investment returns and your team’s experience – try and address these in the main part of your presentation.
Connect– use ‘you’ when speaking to the audience and make eye-contact with each person.
Stories and imagery– you will need hard facts and figures but add some colour, with examples
and even anecdotes will help to win over your audience.
The visual aids:
Less is more– don’t overwhelm your audience with too many slides.
Keep the slides clear– other detail can be put into a takeaway document if necessary.
Use colours, images, and graphics– this will help to support the story and engage the viewer.
Don’t restrict yourself to PowerPoint– use hand-outs or actual examples of your widgets and products.
Don’t read from the slides– refer to them if you need to, but speak to the audience, not the slides.
Edit– be strict with each slide, if it doesn’t help get across the main message, can you cut it?
Think of your performance as part of the overall visual experience– are your body language, voice and soft skills helping to persuade the audience and sell your story?
The Q&As
Prep the questions– ask colleagues to list the range of questions you could be asked.
Design your responses– work with relevant members of your team to design responses to each enquiry.
Ensure you know the important numbers– the audience will expect you to be able to answer detailed questions on the finances.
Always provide an answer– if you can’t answer a question, explain why and make sure you respond afterwards.
Positive Messaging– refer back to your main pitch, as well as your co-presenters and keep stressing the positive messages.
Practice– all this needs to be brought together in practice sessions, preferably in a formal training course to maximise the time and get feedback, but running through your pitch a few times will give you a lot of confidence and help it to flow better for the audience.
The data, detail, and delivery of a pitch work together to create an enticing prospect for your potential investor and by following our top tips you will give yourself and your business a better chance of securing all-important buy-in from your investors.
Want to know more?
If you have any questions about presenting to investors or you would like to find out more about the courses we run, our team will be more than happy to help. Call us on 0845 230 2601, email info@bluewoodtraining.co.uk or register for your FREE Course Outline.
Written by Will Edwards – Director
