Great reputation management is about knowing when to throw the fast balls and when to have the slow reveal. At Buy Side Design, we provide you with tips straight from investors.
TO GET A MEETING WITH AN INVESTOR:
-You need credibility through an introduction to get attention. If you do not have a common connection, throw a fastball at the beginning and lead with your strongest point. Don’t perform the slow reveal. If you get an investor on the phone, ask questions so they invest time in you. “Finding a friendly” is the best strategy for opening doors.
PREPARING FOR THE MEETING:
- Know your audience. Who are you meeting with? What is the focus of their current investment strategy and what appears to be on the periphery of growing interest? Are their investments similar to yours, if not, what is different and what impact does that have on results? Know their range of capital deployment for funds most similar to yours or why making change is the winning choice.
- Make sure your presentation is professional and accurate. Obvious oversights will be seen quickly and perhaps judged. Prepare a presentation to meet your specific communication requirements that last no more than half the allotted meeting time. A 20 minute meeting is suited for a 10 minute presentation.
- Always be ready to articulate your presentation in a conversation without visuals. Think about all the things that could go wrong during the presentation and have a plan to avert such events. Being prepared for one-to-one conversation is that plan.
- Prepare to answer difficult questions. What are the 1 or 2 things that are the deal killers? A period of poor performance can be explained in a way that proves you have surpassed the challenge and gained as much as possible to improve your current navigation of the financial markets.
PRESENTATION:
- Investors still expect to see a deck but do not like a long one. Respect investors’ time with succinct information. They want to see a maximum of 10-20 slides. Allow for discussion alongside each slide. Keep the deck short. The deck has to work for you, be transferable and understood. It will be passed on to lead decision makers if you’re lucky and most definitely shared if you said anything worth repeating. Make the deck tell its own story.
- Don’t underestimate the power of technology to underperform. Pre-wire the presentation and ensure you have back up just in case.
- Suggested information structure: vision, why your team will succeed, the market opportunity, your strategy, data validation, the future roadmap and the ask for funding needs.
DURING THE MEETING:
- The first minute is most important. Know your elevator pitch in one sentence. Start with your product, vision and company purpose. Describe it in nice crisp way and use the framework “We are X for Y”.
- Full blown demos are for follow-up meetings. You don’t need to go into administration panel and show them how easy it is to navigate.
- Don’t talk at them, talk with them. Leave time for questions.
Any questions? Contact us. We are here to help. Let us show you the world beyond powerpoint.
