Don’t let your great business idea fail because of a bad business pitch. Using the 3 C’s to win investors by keeping it clear, concise and compelling

Jeff Greenberg is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in the high-tech community and with technology based startups. He tells his CEOs one thing, “Everything has to bleed the 3 C’s of Clear, Concise, and Compelling.”

Your pitch must be clear in its strategy and details and must not be vague in any way. Keeping it concise keeps it relevant while having a compelling presentation holds attention.

Shed the Extra Weight in your Business Pitch

About keeping it concise, Jeff says, “Every time you add a word, a bullet or a slide, you’re basically diluting all of the other words, bullets and slides.  You have to ask yourself, is the addition of this information worth the dilution it causes to everything else? And a lot of times the answer will be no, in which case you shouldn’t include it. You’ve got to eliminate redundancy and eliminate extra information so you can just get down to the crystal clear message.”

He also advises going through the pitch over and over again to anybody that will listen and observe what resonates. Reinforce the essential and get rid of the other pieces. Store the extra information in a backup notes application, just in case you need it to expand on certain details later.

Pick Up the Phone

Ken Hubbard is an advisor at ACH Ventures holding investments in 60 companies, as well as sitting on the board of directors for multiple technology and consumer product companies. He tells his CEO’s to pitch him on the phone before doing it in person, so that they can hear themselves.

He says, “I cannot tell you how many of them get through the first, maybe second page of their pitch and then they say to me “Wow, I need to do some fixing.” They realize it on their own when they hear only their voice.” With no other communication other than verbal, it is easier to focus on what is being said versus hearing and seeing body language as well.

You Make Your Business Pitch Compelling

Kevin Gibbs has been with four startups from angel funding to the final sale of the company and has worked with turnaround companies. He has sold four startup companies and raised over $40 million in VC funds. To keep your pitch compelling, you need to make every aspect of it compelling. “They will buy from you if you make the pitch compelling. If you make the technology compelling, if you make the market story compelling, and if you make the team compelling. The pitch isn’t designed to make you money, it is designed to get you money. Just remember that,” adds Kevin.

One thing to remember is that anyone you are pitching to has not spent the last few months or years with your idea, concept, or product. They are just seeing or hearing about it for the first time. Imagine telling only half of a story. Be sure to separate your familiarity and enthusiasm for what you are pitching and your audience’s perspective.

You care about getting the investment, they care of getting a return on their investment. Rather than focusing on what you need, focus on how they will get their return. Keep the presentation and all information clear, concise, and compelling from their perspective.