Convince Investors to Fund You Read online

  Principle: Your slide deck must create an Immediate Yes in the investor—with the first slide.

  Power Questions: What are the different types of investors I am reaching out to? How can I categorize the different types of investors and customize slides that would seize such investors’ attention?

  Reminder:

  Get Access to Free Videos to Take Your Skills to a Higher Level

  Go to GetTheBigYES.com/YourAdvantage

  Section Three:

  How do I handle it, if my mind goes

  blank?

  Countermeasure: Rehearse Recovery Methods so you create the impression that you are confident and competent.

  In over 20 years of serving as a professional speaker, I’ve learned that having poise when one’s mind goes blank is a matter of strategy and rehearsal.

  You can use Recovery Methods to ensure that you avoid looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

  Recovery Methods include:

  a) “At this moment I want to emphasize …”

  b) “I see that‘s important to you.”

  c) “I need a pause for a moment. I want my response to be valuable to you.”

  d) Take a drink of bottled water

  Rehearsing Recovery Methods, for even just 9 minutes each morning, will give you an advantage. Your nervousness before a speech will be reduced because you know that you can handle the moment of your mind going blank.

  You know how to recover and continue with poise and confidence.

  Power Principle: Rehearse Recovery Methods so that you appear confident and competent if your mind goes blank or if you’re given a horrible question.

  Power Questions: How will you rehearse the Recovery Methods?

  The methods include:

  “At this moment, I want to emphasize …”

  “I see that’s important to you.”

  “I need a pause for a moment. I want my response to be valuable to you.”

  Take a drink of bottled water

  Avoid these 3 Deadly Mistakes

  —and Gain Investors

  Throughout this book, I cover various mistakes and related solutions. At this point we are deep enough into this book to call out 3 Deadly Mistakes.

  1) Failing to Listen

  Recently I was at a networking event, and I saw a venture capitalist, “Sam,” accosted by an eager entrepreneur. I was stunned at how this person failed to listen to Sam. Sam even shared a look with me. Sam’s message was “Oh, no. Another amateur, somebody wasting my time.”

  The solution here is to listen carefully. Often, a potential investor will ask you a question that will give them exactly what they're looking for. They ask, “What’s your traction?” A good response is: “Our traction is …” It helps to repeat a couple of exact words the investor uses.

  At every moment investors are testing you. If you fail to demonstrate that you’re a good listener, you demonstrate that you are likely an inept leader. Great leaders listen to team members, board members and investors.

  2) Failing to Bounce Back Well from Rejection

  With all the top people I’ve interviewed, one fact comes up again and again: Successful people face more rejection every week than other people do. So, a successful person learns to develop strategies to handle rejection.

  Learn to instantly reframe a rejection-situation in your thoughts. For example, if an investor says, "No, that's not a match for what we're looking for," you could guess and think that you just received a brush off. However, the truth may be that investor merely has a slot to fill that does not match your venture.

  Avoid losing your personal energy needlessly. Look for data points. If the investor winced when you mentioned the unique benefits of your venture, note that. However, realize that this one data point is still not enough to form a complete picture. I’ve guided clients with a phrase: “Notice if you’re just making up stories.” Taking a data point and falling into a totally negative impression or story can be counterproductive. For example, one of my clients could not get a particular investor to return her calls. She said, “He doesn’t like me. I bet he thinks my idea is stupid.” I replied, “Let’s observe. It doesn’t look like you have enough data points. Until then …” She replied, “I know. ‘I’m just making up stories.’” Then she smiled. She avoided losing personal energy.

  Years ago, when I was auditioning for acting roles, I had a journal in which I wrote down notes after each audition. I noted What Worked and Areas to Improve. Once I took those notes, I closed the journal. I felt good because I had done my job with an audition.

  You can do a similar action. You can write in your own journal about how each investor meeting turned out. You identify what you did well—what worked. Additionally, you identify what you need to work on to improve.

  Remember, this powerful word when you run into rejection—Next!

  3) Failing to Rehearse for When Things Go Wrong

  If you get flustered in a conversation with an investor, you lose.

  Here’s a brief list of things that can go wrong:

  a) your mind goes blank

  b) the investor doesn’t believe that your traction is real

  c) in the middle of your giving a brief pitch, another person interrupts the conversation

  d) the investor criticizes or even ridicules any aspect of your venture

  As I work with my clients, I take them through a process I call Directed Rehearsal. I have directed feature films and videos. My focus is on getting people to perform at their best. In order for my client to perform at their best, I direct them, and they rehearse for when things go wrong.

  During Directed Rehearsal, I have called out to my client, “Your mind just went blank.” The client then rehearses one of five Recovery Methods so he or she comes across with poise and skill.

  Further along in this book, we will cover more details about how to deal with similar situations when things go wrong. Realize that simply rehearsing the text of your pitch is not good enough. You must rehearse your message and how you will recover when things go wrong—so that you come across as skillful and trustworthy to investors.

  Section Four

  How can I use hidden methods

  to convince the investor?

  Countermeasure: Guide the investor so they can convince themselves.

  Frank Greene, a venture capitalist, and I had a discussion about pitching over breakfast one day, some years ago.

  “It’s important to engage in a dialogue with an investor. You can do that even during a pitch to a room of investors,” I said. “Answering one investor’s question and responding to that one person can make a big difference.”

  “That’s true. But they [pitch-makers] don’t want to have a dialogue. They just want to pitch,” Frank said.

  I’ll now shared some “hidden methods” so you can build real trust with investors.

  We’ll use the A.I.M. process:

  A – align your listening and dialogue

  I – intensify how they convince themselves

  M – maximize “what has to happen?”

  Align your listening and dialogue

  As I mentioned, having a good dialogue with an investor, even from the stage, is truly valuable.

  A special element of the dialogue includes your skill as a good listener …

  Learn Secrets of Great Listening

  Have noticed how you feel better when you notice someone listening attentively to you?

  Investors, like all of us, want to know that they’re being heard.

  Listening well pays respect to the other person.

  You can use a powerful source of personal charisma when you master some secrets of great listening.

  I have written a number of books about charisma including Darkest Secrets of Charisma, Your Secret Charisma and Create Your Best Life: Unleash Your Charisma and Confidence to Change the World.

  I’ve given speeches emphasizing how we can get beyond limiting beliefs and thoughts about wh
at charisma is.

  I’ve broken down the concept of charisma into three different forms:

  Magnetic Charisma: A person has a stereotypically attractive appearance that pulls people to them. They walk into a room and people stop and stare. (Some people have a resonant voice that is magnetic, too.)

  Natural Charm Charisma: Some people create a warm interaction because they are natural and good listeners. That’s charming. Some people have a warm smile that creates harmony and a heart-to-heart connection. The other person in the conversation naturally wants to cooperate with the person exuding Natural Charm Charisma.

  Warm Trust Charisma: This person has moved distractions out of the way so people can trust them sooner. This person demonstrates in action that they can be relied upon. Even in a conversation, you can rely on the person with Warm Trust Charisma to pay attention to you and to put effort into understanding what is important to you.

  Enhance Your Warm Trust Charisma by Becoming

  A Great Listener

  What makes a great listener? That’s when someone is not shackled by 3 Deadly Mistakes that I call Listening Blockers.

  Listening Blockers:

  1) Defending

  2) Judging

  3) I’ve Been There—One Up

  1) Listening Blocker: “Defending”

  If you came home and were confronted by a loved one who complained: “You never take out the garbage,” how would you react?

  Many of us would say, “That’s not true. Two weeks ago, I took out the garbage!”

  What is that comment? It’s part of defending yourself.

  It seems reasonable, right?

  Here’s the point: Defending is not listening.

  Instead, devote extra effort to calm yourself down and demonstrate that you’re really listening.

  Imagine if you could say, “I hear you. It sounds like you want me to help more with the chores. Do I have that about right?”

  Can you picture how the family member might begin to cool down?

  The essence of Warm Trust Charisma is that people feel good in your presence when they feel they can trust you.

  Here’s an example:

  Matilda: “Joe, you never take out the garbage.”

  Joe: “I hear you. It’s seems like you're frustrated that I haven’t taken out the garbage yet. Is there something special happening?”

  Matilda: “You remember that my Book Club group is coming over tonight. It’s Thursday.”

  Joe: “Oh, right. I’ll move this garbage out now.”

  The idea is that Joe avoided defending himself.

  Ultimately, Matilda wants to feel that Joe cares about her. How does he demonstrate that? He listens.

  2) Listening Blocker: “Judging”

  Judging is something that we all do naturally. Our ancestors who survived to pass on their genes were those who paid close attention to negative things in their environment. The ones who did not pay close attention did not live to pass on their genes. So, it’s natural that we judge everything to make sure that we’re safe. We judge someone’s words, idea, facial expressions, all of it.

  When you’re judging, you’re not listening. You’ll need to pull yourself back from judging.

  3) Listening Blocker: “I’ve Been There—One Up”

  The third listening blocker is a real challenge because a lot of us were taught the way to show that you empathize or you understand something is to say, “I’ve been there” or “yeah, me, too.”

  Here is an example. When I first began as an instructor at a particular university, I sat in the faculty lounge, and a professor came over to me. He said, “How many classes are you teaching?”

  “Four,” I replied.

  “I'm teaching seven classes.” That was like he was playing “one up.” You might call it “three up” (three more classes).

  I adapted in the moment and said, “Wow, you’re tough. That’s amazing.”

  The point is that the person has turned the spotlight of the conversation away from my thoughts and to something that seems like it is self-aggrandizing.

  Here's another example: Mark comes into work and looks tired. He says, “I’ve got this newborn.”

  “I can relate to that. I have newborn twins,” George says. That’s one up, again.

  When the spotlight of the conversation goes away from the person who’s talking, that person feels abandoned. The opportunity for a real connection is lost.

  I illustrated this once in a speech. I said, “Maybe, you’ve experienced how a parent might say, ‘When I was your age, I had to crawl in the snow on my knees … and … I had no pants.”

  When someone does I’ve Been There—One Up, they’re not listening. On the other hand, when you listen, you create Warm Trust Charisma. The person trusts you because you’re really with them. They know you are being respectful and you’re paying attention to their concerns.

  Use the Solution for Defending, Judging or I’ve Been

  There—One Up

  If you notice that you are defending, judging or using I’ve Been There—One Up, pause. Take a breath. Then ask a gentle question:

  Wow, that sounds intense. So, what did you do next?

  Oh, that sounds frustrating. How would you like things to go better?

  A gentle question is one that is easy to answer. It might even be fun to answer such a question.

  When you ask a gentle question and listen, you demonstrate that you are holding the space with care for the other person to express himself or herself.

  You notice that I used the phrase “Oh, that sounds frustrating.” I call this a Reflective Reply.

  You’re reflecting to the person some acknowledgement of their feelings.

  You say things like:

  oh, that sounds frustrating.

  That sounds intense.

  That sounds like it was disappointing.

  When the person hears your Reflective Reply, he or she feels heard. This so important that I wrote a book titled Be Heard and Be Trusted. And, this book includes some classic material from that previous book. I’m celebrating 20 years of my focus on building communication that fosters trust. Trust is built on good listening.

  So, create that connection. Create that rapport. Create that harmony. Create Warm Trust Charisma.

  Intensify how they convince themselves

  The truth is: The more you push, the more the investor pushes back and gives you resistance.

  Instead, you’ll better by asking questions. Guide the person to share with you what is most important to them.

  You can ask:

  For you to know that an investment is a match for you, what has to happen?

  What makes a startup company a real good candidate for your fund to invest in?

  What matters most to you when you’re considering a startup company to invest in?

  The point here is to make your comments relevant to the investor. More than that, make sure to appropriately listen and stay silent at times. Let the person think through and feel their feelings so they can convince themselves of the value of your startup business.

  Be aware that you avoid pushing.

  Instead, invite them into your world and guide them to experience your offer as something that really works for them.

  Maximize “what has to happen?”

  Here’s another version of the “what has to happen?” question:

  “In order for you to know there’s something you want to invest in—what has to happen?”

  At that point, the investor could become your “coach.” How?

  The investor could say, “The startup founder would need to show me traction that means something to me.”

  You might ask, “How would that look?”

  The investor says, “The first clients belong to a group what would be part of a Total Addressable Market of _____.”

  In summary, you do a process of using “hidden methods” when you make it easier for the investor to convince themselves of the va
lue of your offer.

  Power Principle: Guide the investor so they can convince themselves.

  Power Questions: What elements of your startup business are most attractive to investors? How can you facilitate that the investor really connects with positive feelings about your company?

  Reminder:

  Get Access to Free Videos to Take Your Skills to a Higher Level

  Go to GetTheBigYES.com/YourAdvantage

  Section Five

  What can I do if things go bad in a pitch

  meeting with an investor?

  Countermeasure: Use the process of shifting the conversation out of an awkward moment.

  Recovery Methods for a Tough

  Pitch Meeting

  Often, I work with clients who are going into a tough pitch meeting. They were given a “warm referral” and a lot is at stake. They do not know what the investor might throw at them. Additionally, if they make big mistakes in the meeting, they might lose the person who gave them the referral.

  We use the SHIFT-NOW process:

  S – set their permission

  H – hear their leaning this way or that

  I – invite them to share their take

  F – focus on “forgive me”

  T – target “what is working for you?”

  N – nurture and pivot on “I’m curious”

  O – open a story

  W – work in the mutual friend

  Set their permission