I was recently in the audience as an entrepreneur was pitching his business plan to angel investors. He was well-groomed, polished and articulate. Just as I was warming up to him, he made a critical error. He slipped into salesman mode.
He summarized his first slide by saying “I know that you’re not going to want to miss this incredibly attractive investment opportunity!” From there he went on to accentuate the positive, discount the concerns and continued to sell himself with misplaced humour and an overly smooth delivery. I don’t think anyone invested.
Don’t blow your chance to secure that needed funding by kicking into sales mode.
Keep it simple. Seldom have truer or more useful words applied to entrepreneurs and their ventures. And it’s not just about the business; it’s also about the people. Keep it simple for your customers. When your product or service strikes an immediate chord and customers understand intuitively how you are creating value for them, no further explanations are necessary. If, instead, the value isn’t obvious and it takes time and energy to explain why someone should part with their hard earned cash in exchange for what you have to offer, then it may be time to step back and figure out a way to simplify either the product or the message.
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Entrepreneur 1.0: The Ultimate Business Boot Camp (E1.0) is presented by TechAlliance Venture Services in partnership with the Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Richard Ivey School of Business.
“You can’t learn business out of a textbook”. I heard this statement so many times during my MBA application process and even more so now that I am completing my MBA. So, what does an entrepreneur get out of the Ivey MBA?