The years of painstaking hard work in building a business’ reputation, market, customer base and suppliers is hard enough, but boiling that down into a half hour investment pitch can be an even more daunting process.

Ask any entrepreneur about their business and they will both passionately and eloquently extol the virtues of their product or service. However, taking that enthusiasm and blending it with the vital financials and validity of any business is a fine art and one which often takes years to perfect.

Venture capitalists meet hundreds of prospective companies every year, with each one hopeful that its offering will provide an investor with a unique opportunity. With capital now at a premium and fewer funds than ever active, the need to nail the ‘perfect pitch’ is vital.

What you need to do to see pitch success

Be a compelling story teller

You need to have the ability to grab and keep your audience’s attention with what you’re saying and the way you say it. Your pitch should have a clear beginning, a middle and an end just like a good story.

People relate to things they connect with. Personal anecdotes work well; a ‘this was the problem and this is how we solved it’ approach. If you can, use attention-grabbing statistics to back up what you’re saying and avoid jargon. Break your messages down to a reading age of nine. People shouldn’t have to concentrate too hard to understand what you’re telling them.

See also: How to improve your pitch deck – SeedLegals CEO Anthony Rose sits down with Nik Holm, founder of Manchester-based Holm in-home care services to go through his PowerPoint presentation, offering takeaways on how to improve your own pitch deck.

When delivering your pitch, stand square with your shoulders back, pause before you start, make eye contact and project your voice. Be natural and personable. Make investors like and believe in you and show your passion. It may sound simple but it’s amazing how many people forget to do this.

Planning and preparation are key

Plan, plan, plan! Know your stuff so that you can answer any question that’s thrown at you. Don’t allow yourself to become unstuck as this can seriously undermine your credibility regardless of how good the rest of the pitch is. Learn everything by heart so that you know your slides inside out and never ever read off them.

Research your audience. Do some digging about your potential investors to find out what makes them tick. This should give you some insight into what’s going to grab their interest.

Pick yourself up

If you get knocked back don’t lose all hope and faith in your ideas. Take on board the feedback and advice you’re given and make improvements to your pitch or business plan. Then get yourself back out there to get the results that you want. View any opportunity as practice whether successful or not. You know what they say…. practice makes perfect.

Now that you have nailed the mentality behind your pitch, you need to work out what goes on your slides.

Check out our infographic below to find out what you should put in your investment pitch.