How to Craft an Elevator Pitch to Attract Investors?
How to Craft an Elevator Pitch to Attract Investors?
The elevator pitch has been around in some form another for quite some time. It's evolved from a quick promotional speech to land a job to a brief explanation of what one does for a living to a pitch intended to convince investors. The latter has become one of the more preferred ways for entrepreneurs to attract investment funds.
Unfortunately, now that this technique is so popular, it's become quite challenging to create a pitch that stands out. A good pitch must be clear, attention-getting, and convincing. To help with that, we've created this list of elevator pitch tips.
Not every pitch will end with the investor eager to write a check. That doesn't mean your pitch is a failure. There are other positive outcomes as well, including:
The investor agrees to visit your website.
They agree to a more in-depth meeting.
Investors agree to download your product or take a sample.
Keep in mind that elevator pitches are intended to be used when the right set of circumstances put a potential investor in front of you.
The last thing you want to do is blow your chances because you leave out something important. Your pitch should be created in a way that it answers questions investors might have, and assures them that you have thought of everything.
The following tips will walk you through all of these elements with actionable advice on how to get the best results.
Every successful product or purpose solves a problem. That's how you create demand. Your problem statement answers a simple question, 'why would people spend money on this?' Depending on your product or service, explaining that problem can be more difficult than you think.
If you're pitching a budget home security system, you might state that the problem is that low and middle-income families don't have a comprehensive home security solution they can afford. On the other hand, you may have to redefine the term problem a bit for other products and services.
Meeting a want is also solving a problem. Imagine that you are pitching a dating app for the fitness-minded. Here, the problem is that people want to make romantic connections with others who have similar lifestyles and goals including Fitness.
If you have done a good job of laying at your problem statement, the investor is nodding in agreement. You've convinced them that the problem exists. Now the most important part is to explain clearly how you've got the solution to that problem.
Let's go back to the example of the budget-priced Home Security system. Maybe you've created a partnership with an existing home security company to repackage and resell a limited version of their premium security package to a new set of customers under a different name.
This is also the time to talk about the future. What is it that you plan to do to either take your solution from concept to fruition or scale your solution to create growth and success.
Now it's time to talk about your competitors. You'll need to know who they are, and what advantages they have that you'll need to overcome. If you don't have current competitors, which is very unlikely, you have to talk about any other company that could come behind you and do exactly what you do.
How are you going to create barriers to entry for them, or carve out a customer niche that they won't be able to touch? Do you have plans to engage digital media, for example?
At this point, you don't need to go into a full accounting or provide a forecast that goes years into the future. What you want to do is curate some compelling numbers that will nudge the investor in the right direction.
For example, how many units have you sold this year? What is your valuation? What is your percent of sales growth over the past two years? How much have you raised in funding? How much have you bootstrapped?
Of course, the most important number is how much you need, in this round of funding to reach your goals.
Now it's time to convince the investor that you've assembled a highly competent team to execute your plan. Focus on their strengths including industry-relevant experience, technical skills, management experience, and entrepreneurial background.
The better your team, the clearer it is that you know how to recruit good talent, and keep your team engaged. If you can't clearly articulate what somebody brings to the table, you should reconsider mentioning them in your pitch.
Your pitch shouldn't be open-ended. Instead, you need to close with a clear call to action. Are you ready to ask for funding now? If not, what's next? The investor needs a memorable takeaway so that they can continue to the next step.
Whatever that next step is, you have to make sure that taking it is as effortless as possible. Have the link to your website ready to text, be prepared to show them exactly how to download a free trial, or do anything else to remove as much friction as possible from moving forward.
You have a great product. You've identified the perfect ecosystem for your startup and assembled a great team. Now, all you need is funding. By following the elevator pitch tips above, you'll energize investors and get them to open their wallets.
Angela Baker is a senior writer, editor at the academic paper writing service Trust My Paper. Angela has a degree in marketing, and much of her writing focuses on small business development.
She also enjoys working with emerging writers to help them develop their craft. Ms. Baker says she doesn't get much downtime, but when she does she enjoys watching movies and reading.
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