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Presentations Investors Will Love and Fund

It is never easy raising money but it just got a whole lot tougher. Are there tried and trusted techniques to turn investors on? Yes there are. The secret sauce ingredients include: rigorous preparation, a great compelling story, delivered with passion by a credible management team.

Let’s break it down into three parts, preparation, content, and delivery.

Preparation

First, gather together answers to questions that will be asked by the business angel, venture capitalist or private equity player. What is the status of your industry in terms of trends and statistics? The key is to sound authoritative. Demonstrate that your team understands this market without being verbose. The value proposition – does it connect with customers? Why now? What makes the management team credible? Which analysts validate your strategy? How will you make money? Be clear on the itch you are scratching! What business am I in? Be clear why you are remarkable. Is it a very competitive space and if so why will you succeed? Little competition – does anyone want to spend money on your solution? Get on top of the detail. Memorize key facts. Be ready to explain the volume and yield drivers behind you historical numbers. Show your mastery of the economics of your business. Build a business plan that summarizes the policies you need to run the business. Ensure all key policies are articulated in a detailed way. A great business plan allows you to produce a great one page executive summary. Finally do your due diligence on potential funders, including studying their web site to discover their portfolio, previous exits, investment criteria, and bio of partners.

Content

What do I cover in my business plan and my executive summary? Write an enjoyable compelling story that covers: how much money you need, how you will spend it, how much your business is worth, why customers love you, how you will make money, why is it scalable, what makes your leadership team credible, what is the competitive landscape, and explain barriers to entry and the risks of what could go wrong. Prepare many what-if scenarios. Use the one page executive summary to get interviews and then use a few power points as props to deliver your story. Talk with confidence knowing your speech is backed up by a rigorous business plan.

Delivery

The executive summary has been sent, hit the bull’s-eye and has resulted in a face to face meeting. How do you handle a face to face meeting? Words of caution! First 60 seconds are unreasonably important. Lead with your strongest, most remarkable statement. Remember eye contact is vital so you don’t want an audience getting lost in the deep and meaningful graphs instead of looking at you. Length of presentation? Maximum 20 minutes with big changes of pace every 5 minutes. Talk slowly. Use a maximum of five power points. Involve key members of your team to make key points. Finish with a very strong 60 seconds bringing together the proposition and clear next steps.

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The Art Of Speaking: Winning The Mental Game Of Presenting

How many of your speeches could be considered artistic? Do your audiences view you as a master speaker? What would you have to do to boost your speaking to the next level?

Highly experienced speakers not only know their subject, they know themselves, their audiences and their craft. They know how to write, stage and organize winning presentations that engage the audience at all levels.

To kick your speaking up a notch, take any of these 13 tips on as a project and watch your investment in yourself as a speaker grow.

13 Strategies For Making Your Speeches Masterful

1. Go beyond telling your audience about your subject. Be passionate and become engaged with your subject.

2. Demonstrate your credibility and your right to be on the platform by recounting your experiences as an expert and how you solved problems and helped people and organizations.

3. Masterfully customize your material for each audience so they know absolutely that you are there for them.

4. Refine your voice control and turn your throat into a musical instrument your audiences love to listen to at length.

5. Speak from your heart and touch the hearts of your audience. Take risks by being vulnerable, imperfect and your audience will see you as a real human being, as one of them, not just as “the speaker”.

6. Speak the truth and your audience will respond. Avoid any inconsistencies or incongruencies between your “real life” and your “platform life”.

7. Tell more stories and give fewer statistics. Reduce the PowerPoint and get more personal and people will respond eagerly.

8. Connect with your audience, one person at a time. Begin the personal touch before you take the stage by “being with” people in the audience, not “talking at” them.

9. Have fun as you speak and so will your audience. To get in the fun mode, stop focusing on yourself, and instead be audience-centered.

10. Respect your audiences and they will respect you. Never insult or disrespect anyone in your audiences. Show your regard for everyone.

11. Stop writing your speeches and start living them. Find your best material from your travels, your work, your friends, your family and the real world around you.

12. Create multi-media presentations to engage people the way they are used to — with modern media. Coordinate your talk points with particular moments in the media show and you will WOW people.

13. Create and deliver your talk from the A-V-K matrix. This means your talk should be approximately 25% auditory, with 45% visual and 30% kinesthetic. You want to speak to everyone’s learning styles in the audience.

Now you have a better idea how master speakers make it look so easy. The hard work is in the preparation and in the crafting of the message. Enjoy your journey in the speaking world and you will reap the many benefits of this exciting calling.

For a comprehensive overview of your abilities as a speaker you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete strengths and weaknesses. For a free, easy-to-take 65-item presentation assessment tool you can score right on the spot, visit http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/Assessments/PresentationSkillsAssessment.html. You can use this as a guide in creating your own presentation coaching program, or as the basis for a coaching program you undertake with Bill Cole, MS, MA.

Copyright © 2006 Bill Cole, MS, MA. All rights reserved.

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Have You Ever Been Presented With An Opportunity But Are Waiting On A Sign From God?

How many times have we heard… “I am praying for a sign from God.” Ironically enough the opportunity that presents itself more than likely was an answer to a previous prayer. All too often we want to dictate how we want our prayers to be answered, so when the answer comes if we do not like it we wait until something else comes along that aligns more with our comfort level. Could it be possible that the “sign from God” is as simple as you taking action?

Can we get transparent and honest with ourselves; and stop hiding behind the intention of prayer in order to avoid taking action on an opportunity?

By all means prayer works! Prayer is the channeling, the acknowledgement of as Napoleon Hill would say “Infinite Intelligence.” The power of prayer can changes the hearts of nations and gives strength to move beyond our current limitations.

But the other side of the coin to FAITH is ACTION. FAITH without WORKS/ACTIONS is dead. It is kind of like being freezing cold, God gave you a house with a fire place. Provided you chopped wood and matches but you stand there and freeze to death because you were waiting for a sign to light the fire place.

“I am praying and waiting on the Lord to give me a sign.” Can be a delay tactic which hinders us from utilizing the very things/resources/gifts or talents which are already in your grasp.

This reminds me of a powerful story from the Bible about this woman who had no money, she was about to loose her children and house. One day she came across a prophet and in absolute agony she told him of her helpless situation. He asked her what did she have of value, she told him of this small bottle of olive oil she had. He then told her to gather as many empty vessels as she could, after vessels were collected to take them in her house close the door and start pouring the oil that she already possessed into the empty vessels. The women did what she was told and from the little bitty bottle of oil she filled every single empty vessel she gathered. She turned her situation around by taking ACTION.

ACTION by asking for help. ACTION by being open to receiving a formula of resolution. ACTION by finding something of value. ACTION by stepping outside of her comfort zone and asking for the empty vessels. ACTION by following through with the formula. ACTION is what empowered her to completely transform.

She was a single mom, helpless, scared, and desperate; but by her FAITH by taking ACTION with what she had the little bottle of value that created a whole other situation for her and her family. It would have been so easy for her to accept her dilemma and to not be willing to take any ACTION; because how in the world would a little bottle turn into to gallons of oil. She could have talked herself out of taking action. However she did not. Someone gave her guidance, she had the FAITH to take ACTION.

This story always reminds me that each of us has something so special with in us that can turn our lives around. Think. Be absolutely honest with your self. What talents do you have that you have not used because you are still waiting on a sign? Maybe it is not the sign that is missing; but the willingness to trust in the talents you already posses. Talents may come easy but to continuously become better they must to be utilized. Your talents will never reach their potential if you constantly allow them to lay dormant.

Talents may be smothered by fear (False Evidence Appearing Real; the 1st time I heard this was at the Eker T Harv. Millionaire Mind Intensive), or it could be lie of paralyzing doubt (which may be caused by past experiences of failure, or by the belief that you are not good enough, or do not have what it takes) and/or it may be the case of P.P.S. (the Problematic Procrastination Syndrome).

“The distance between when you know you should do something and when you actually take action to do it is called procrastination.” Tony Rush

See the best way to cure P.P.S. is by taking ACTION!

I have a dear friend who is very loving and likes to help people. They constantly give their time and energy to everyone they encounter. This person is highly intelligent and creative; they could literally sale ice to a polar bear but they always have this convincing reason as to why they are not able to pour their skills into a lucrative endeavor. To them it just always seems that the time is not right. My friend has had about 3 to 4 great opportunities presented to them in the past couple of years. They may start course on the opportunity but then they stop; and say they are waiting on this or that to still happen before fully committing or taking action. Then when the next opportunity comes it seems better then the last but yet it is missing something. When all the while if they could just hold tight and run with just one opportunity it would then be the answer to what they were searching for to begin with.

There is a whole other world out there for you just waiting to reveal itself if you just activate the other portion of your FAITH muscle by taking ACTION. We are suppose to live a live in the abundance of His grace so why do you continue to expect so little from the Creator of the Universe?

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