Much has been said and written about investor presentations. The “PowerPoint presentation” may seem like the all-important (and sometimes, harrowing) opportunity to make your pitch for capital, but it shouldn’t be a surprise introduction for investors.
Investors will often request a copy of your PowerPoint deck prior to meeting with you. Send it to them. They aren’t looking for surprises, they want to be ready with questions.
Don’t think that your presentation will go smoothly without interruption for the allotted 10 or 20 minutes. That won’t happen. You will be constantly interrupted with questions and comments.
But that’s actually a good thing!
What every good salesperson knows is that when customers are raising objections and asking questions, they’re interested. If they weren’t interested they wouldn’t be there or could care less.
Instead look at this way…
Use your presentation to smoke out objections so you can address them. Learn which parts of your presentation or business that your investors don’t understand. How can you give a better explanation? Welcome questions with respect (there must be a good reason the person asked…) and dig deep for good answers. Remember, this is no time to be a smartass! These investors see people like you come and go every day, all day long. This is one of those moments, one of those opportunities, where you can demonstrate what you’re made of — that you can take the heat. At the same time, investors are evaluating you as a potentially successful business leader. This is one of those “moments of truth.” It’s why the BizPlanBuilder business plan software is as comprehensive as it is… for this moment. Hopefully, you’ve done as much homework as possible. Writing your business plan brings it all together, and you will have the answers to satisfy any investor.
If you already have our Biz Plan Builder business planning software, you will find the PowerPoint (Keynote for Macintosh users) template included in the “Business Plan Presentation” folder.
Oh yeah… Your investor presentation doesn’t necessarily need to be high-tech…
I picked-up a little black notebook at a FedEx/Kinkos that consisted of 12 regular letter-sized sheet protectors.
All I needed to do was to print-out my powerpoint slides and insert them back-to back into the sheet protectors and voila!, instant low-tech presentation book.
I’ve shown my presentation to people on airplanes, in restaurants, and hotel lobbies.
It works just fine and it’s a great back-up should your laptop crash.
