Pitching is a serious business, and you definitely want to put your best foot forward. But it’s important to remember to be a human – smile, make an appropriate joke, show how approachable you are. If you are enjoying yourself, your investor will too. It’s not all fun and games though. Listen to Allon in episode 32 of The Successful Pitch to learn how to balance the serious side of pitching with a warm, engaging nature. Listen Now >

The highest pressure-point of a pitch is the last sentence. Should you end on a comment, a statement or an ask? If your investor is left thinking there is more to the pitch, you know you’ve ended on a weak, fluffy note. Listen to Allon in episode 31 of The Successful Pitch to find out how to go out with a strong ending. Listen Now >

Investors come in all shapes and sizes but one thing they all have in common is that they are impatient. Start your pitch off with a bang to avoid losing their interest. Help them frame the rest of your pitch around a schema or model. Listen to Allon explain all the benefits of presenting the important stuff upfront in episode 30 of The Successful Pitch. Listen Now >

Pitches should be taken seriously and preparing for a pitch is vital. Because most investors ask a handful of similar questions, it’s easy to anticipate what might be asked and overprepare your answers. The mistake made here is jumping in to answer before the investor has finished asking and sounding overly rehearsed. Join Allon Raiz in episode 29 of The Successful Pitch where he explains why a look of surprise might be in your favour. Listen Now >

The worst words you could ever use in a pitch are words that make you sound uncertain – especially during the Q&A section. They immediately convey to your investor that you are unsure and lack confidence in the knowledge surrounding your business, and the future of it. So, what do you do when you really don’t know the answer? Join Allon in episode 28 of The Successful Pitch to find out how to field these difficult questions. Listen Now >

Good investors are trained to listen and listen well. Any contradictions between your pitch deck and your voiceover have the potential to blow you out of the water. Contradictions invite hard-to-answer questions, come across as mistakes and make the investor question the validity of your entire pitch. Listen to Allon Raiz in episode 27 of The Successful Pitch where he provides two ways to mitigate these contradictions. Listen Now >

No two audiences are the same, but they all have the same question: “What’s in it for me?” And the answer to this question will be different for each person. For this reason, it’s important to tweak your pitch to your particular audience whenever you get up in front of someone different. Join Allon Raiz for episode 26 of his Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch to understand what your audience feels if you do not tailor your pitch to address their unique concerns. Listen Now >

As an entrepreneur, you tend to become so embedded in your business that you forget that the nuances you know offhand are not as obvious or understandable to the outside world. It’s important to keep this in mind when pitching. Join Allon Raiz for episode 25 of The Successful Pitch where he explains how to mitigate this problem by using a common reference point or schema.

An investor wants to know that he or she is investing in something worthwhile that is actually solving a problem. Demonstrate this by using storytelling in your pitch to express the problem statement. Use a real-life client example and sprinkle in the size of the market that would be willing to pay to solve this problem – but don’t overstate the problem or the market size. Join Allon Raiz in episode 24 of The Successful Pitch to learn more.

If you use technical words and complicated statistics in your pitch, you’ll increase your probability of closing an investment. Not at all! In fact, doing this increases the risk of investors asking you questions you may not have answers to . . . if you don’t lose them in a sea of boredom first. Listen to Allon Raiz in episode 23 of The Successful Pitch where he explains a better technique to use when pitching.