tips for pitching to customers – GoForth Institute Blog

7 tips for pitching to investors

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Pitching to potential investor or customers can be nerve-wracking, and we recommend getting as prepared as you can. Start with these 7 essential tips for making a small business pitch.

Tips for making a small business pitch

Know your business. You should be able to describe your business model, explain what unique need your small business fills, who your competition is and your marketing and sales plan – to name a few.
Know your numbers. Have a basic understanding of financial elements like yearly sales (volume and dollar amount), cash flow projection and net worth.
Research your potential investor or customer. Get to know who you’re pitching to as much as possible, so you can speak accurately to what they’re looking for – and so you know what issues may arise.
Be concise. You might have five minutes to make a pitch, or you might have 30 seconds. Prepare a few pitches of varying lengths that get the point across and still sound compelling.
Put yourself in their shoes. If you were being pitched to, what questions would you ask? Make a list of these questions to help you become better prepared.
Practice! Go through your pitch in front of your business partners, trusted friends or family – or even in front of your mirror. Don’t worry about memorizing your “speech,” but focus on pinpointing strengths or missing pieces. Some cities even have networking groups where entrepreneurs just like you can practice their pitches.
Act natural! Making pitches is a lot like public speaking, but it doesn’t have to be terrifying. Just be professional, friendly and try to relax!

Want more tips for pitching to investors? Check out the 6 common questions investors ask in a pitch.

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7 tips for making a small business pitch

how-to-make-a-small-business-pitch Pitching your small business to potential investors or customers can seem daunting – where do you start? What do you say?

Or, it might even seem too easy – just give them all your marketing talking points from your website, right?

The truth is, making a good pitch is all about research, information, and openness. Here are our seven tips for making a great small business pitch:

Know your numbers
Know your business.
Research your potential investor or customer.
Act natural!
Practice your pitch.
Be concise.
Put yourself on the other side.

Want more advice and detail about each of these points? Check out our blog post: How to make a great small business pitch!

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Tip of the Month: Creating a Perfect Pitch

In keeping with the theme of our last post, we’ve added a new How-To Guide to our new, expanded website. Titled “How To Create a Perfect Pitch,” it’s designed for entrepreneurs who need help creating a pitch for their small business. Even if you’ve made a pitch before, the guide can still help you tweak and fine-tune your approach. We know that small business pitches are never a walk in the park, so use our guide to make the process easier and more clear.

Creating a pitch for your small business begins with a business concept. After all, you can’t confidently talk about your business unless you know it inside and out, right? The foundation of a great pitch is an understanding of the following concepts:

Who will buy?
Value proposition and the compelling story;
Definition of your product or service; and
The distribution channel.

Once you have these four concepts clear in your mind (and on paper), you can then put them all together to form your business concept – the foundation for your perfect pitch!

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How to make a great small business pitch

GoForth Institute is excited to deliver small business training to the winner of the University of Alberta’s Perfect Pitch competition. Part of the overall prize package, the winner will receive mentoring, workshops and training in GoForth Institute’s 100 Essential Small Business Skills ^TM.

This got us thinking about pitches, so on our Facebook page, we asked entrepreneurs to tell us about some of their memorable small business pitches.We want to know what worked, what didn’t work and what their favourite pitch strategies were. Tell us your pitch stories in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.

Stumped or scared when it comes to making pitches? Share your advice, or take some free inspiration from our list below.

Tips for making pitches about your small business

We know that making pitches to potential investors or customers can be nerve-wracking, so here are some tips:

Know your numbers – things like yearly sales (volume and dollar amount), cash flow projection and net worth.
Know your business. You should be able to, when asked, describe your business model, explain what unique need your small business fills, who your competition is and your marketing and sales plan – to name a few.
Research your potential investor or customer so you can speak accurately to what they’re looking for – and so you know what issues may arise.
Act natural! Making pitches is a lot like public speaking, but they don’t have to be terrifying. Just be professional, friendly and try to relax!
Practice in front of your business partners, trusted friends or family or even in front of your mirror. The purpose of this is not to memorize your “speech,” but to pinpoint strengths or missing pieces. Some cities even have networking groups where entrepreneurs just like you can practice their pitches.
Be concise. You might have five minutes to make a pitch, or you might have 30 seconds. Prepare a few pitches of varying lengths that get the point across and sound compelling.
Put yourself on the other side. If you were being pitched to, what questions would you ask? Make a list of these questions to help you become better prepared.

Here’s one more tip for making pitches – start watching the CBC TV show Dragons’ Den. No, we were not paid to say this; we just really love the show! Tune in for even a couple of episodes and you’ll get some free education on how to make a small business pitch.

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