Tag Archives: common sense

5 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Presentations

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This question came from a busy professional.

I’m searching for career experts who can tell me the biggest mistakes people make
when making a presentation at work.
Most everyone has heard of the more common mistakes of not making eye contact with the audience and relying too heavily on note cards.  But here are some of the bigger mistakes that you may not be aware you are making.

  • Covering too much
  • Not properly tying the topics together
  • Not having a CTA
  • Not closing the deal
  • Not having someone else edit

 

We will go through each in detail, explain why it’s such a big
mistake and then give advice on how a presenter can avoid making the mistake.

Continue reading →

When do you need a new career vs. just a new job?

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A busy professional asks a question regarding career advancement.

When do you need a new career vs. just a new job?


When you’re burned out in your current job, how do you know if it’s time for a new career vs. just a new job? What questions should you ask yourself? What criteria should you be thinking about?

This is a question that everyone should ask – even before “burn out”.  But, as you pointed out, many don’t consider it until they are “done” with their current job.

Avoid Burn-Out

To avoid burn – have a career development plan (3, 5, 10-year plan) and regularly do a career assessment against that plan.

Some steps to get you on that path:

  • Work with a success coach, mentor or business coach to assist you in your career and professional development plan.
  • Include your professional development task in your professional yearly review discussions
  • Share your career goals and professional development plans with your manager
  • Schedule various tasks to accomplish throughout the calendar year to achieve those year-end, 3, 5 and 10-year plans.

Never too late

If you don’t have a career development plan, create one now.  Decide where you want to be, do and have in 3, 5, and 10 years.  Consider a 360-degree view of your life in 3, 5 and 10 years.  To assist you in this, feel free to download this Dream Sculpting Worksheet.

New Career or New Job

Once you have your career development plan, it is critical that you regularly evaluate it.  As you gain new experiences, skills and interests, you are changing.  The career path that you defined 3 years ago may not fit the person that you are today.  Take the time to reassess your professional and personal desires.  Make sure you are not only staying on target – but that this target is still what you want.

The Next Career Step Challenge Worksheet may also help you with deciding if you need a new career or just the next logical step in your current career development path.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complimentary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

Marketing with Customer Satisfaction in Mind

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – the The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a  business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.

 

Today’s question comes from a busy professional:

When does marketing meet customer service?

If your marketing and customer service strategies do not meet somewhere, your customers will fall through the gap. Having an understanding of how these two departments come together for the customer experience is critical to delighting your customer throughout their relationship with your company. After all, the customer will look at these functions as coming from the company as a whole, and as independent departments.

With marketing’s job being the first contact with a customer and customer service happening much further down the customer life cycle, these two departments seemingly have no overlapping strategy. But, we know this is simply not true based on research which indicates that the customer expectations set by marketing in the beginning have a significant impact on customer service’s ability to please a customer later on.

 

Thank you so much for your well-thought out question.  Although the answer may be slightly different depending upon the specific market or industry, a good market plan normally starts with two pieces:

  • Marketing with the client in mind
  • Marketing with the product/service in mind

 

Marketing with the client in mind

The market plan begins with the target customer in mind.

  • Define your product/service/company’s differential or niche.
  • Define your target market or specific customer that needs or wants your product and service.
  • Imagine what will attract your target customer base and then create effective campaigns that will attract that customer base.

So – in essence, the entire market campaign is centered on attracting that perfect client.

Marketing with the product or service in mind

You also need to keep your product or service in mind while marketing.   You very well cannot market an automobile when you are selling a cat.  At the same time, some marketing campaigns over sell the product to get that signature on that dotted line.

This is the situation that sets the improper customer expectations. This is the situations that will impact your over customer satisfaction ratings and increase your customer service calls.

Money is in the balance

Customer and Company satisfaction occurs when customer and marketing expectations match.

  • The company makes money when the purchase price of the product outweighs the cost of making the product.
  • The company makes money when the client returns and refers other customers.
  • The client returns (and refers) when their expectations of value have been met or exceeded.

If marketing consistently over-promises to make a “sell”, they run the risk of eventually:

  • Overrunning the budget of time, materials, and resources to complete the task (costing the company more money than they would receive for the project)
  • Missing over-promised deadlines and product features to the client (costing the company the client’s return visits and referrals)

Even if the sales and marketing teams do succeed in this client contract, it’s unlikely that the client will return.

Ensuring Balance

To ensure balance, the marketing sales account manager work together with their production or creating services teams, from the start.

  • Both teams review the client contract or Statement of Work (which the production team is expected to fulfill).
  • Both teams are required to approve and sign-off on the features and delivery commitments.
  • The account manager then meets with the client to explain any changes to the feature list or delivery schedule.
  • The production team can also be available to answer any technical questions regarding the changes.

Once the contract or SOW is signed by the client, the product team can get started on the product or service.

It is also important to note that the account manager owns that customer relationship.  Therefore, once the product or service is completed, the account manager meets with the client to deliver the product, review the changes, explain its usage, review the original contract to illustrate all commitments have been met and get a feel for the client’s satisfaction.

the Main Event isn’t the Sell

Keeping both the company and client expectations in mind – upfront – can lead you to a successful conclusion.  A sell isn’t the main event.  The company is in the business of making money.  Therefore, you must always consider the cost of making that sell.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

How to objectively measure soft skills in employee feedback?

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Last article we were discussing “How to give feedback employees will here?”  In that article, we used very objective examples.  It was easy to measure performance against technical tasks, but how does one determine SMART goals for soft or people skills?

Let’s review the same tips, but this time – with soft skills examples.

Setting the stage

Giving an effective feedback starts with understanding your employees’ goals and career objectives.  Once you understand the “why” the employee comes to work – the better you can connect the feedback to their goals.

For example, if they want to eventually lead the team or become a manager, then focus on the skill sets that will help them achieve those goals.

For example:  Managers require:

  • Problem Solving and Decision Making.
  • Planning
  • Delegation
  • Internal Communications.
  • Meeting Management.
  • Managing Yourself

These business goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant and Time bound).  With SMART goals, it’s very easy for both the employee and manager to agree whether the goals were met or exceeded.

Some examples of SMART PBC might be:

  • Successfully complete management courses XYZ within 6 months
  • Successfully complete time and project management course ABC within 3 months
  • Successfully participate and deliver executive summary reports in 3 executive staff meetings by Dec 15th
  • Speak at (at least) 2 technical conferences regarding how you solved a critical situation regarding this industry
  • Select and mentor at least 1 person to take over some of your coding, debugging and documentation tasks. Successfully hand-of at least one maintenance project to your protégé.
  • Create and implement an internal communication plan for your department within 3 months
  • Successfully project manage/schedule/budget 1 project start from finish (with supervision) during this performance period

 

As you can see, greeing upon this soft-skills SMART goals actually commits the manager to help her employee succeed.

Barriers to hearing

The most prevalent barrier to hearing and understanding feedback is our mindset.  The moment your supervisor releases a perceived negative comment, we automatically go into defensive mode.  Our brain immediately will find situations that negative what was just been said or provide detailed reasons/excuses for the events.

Best advice is to continually focus on the SMART goals or commitments set at the start of the year.  Use the agreed upon PBCs as your starting point.  Since your PBCs will have specific metrics and goals in place for each performance commitment, it will be easy to determine if the criteria has been met.

For example, If one of the PBC goals was to speak at (at least) 2 technical conferences regarding how you solved a critical situation regarding this industry – it is very easy to tell if they accomplished this goals.

Then simply ask the employee if he/she feels if they have met that particular goal.

Repeat this until all the PBC goals are reviewed.

Making sure employees get it

Once you and the employee have agreed upon the status of the PBC goal, ask their opinion on where to go from here.

For instance, if the employee agrees that he/she did not meet this soft skill goal – you can now start a discussion on where to go from here.

The discussion is focused on working on a solution together. Brainstorm on some titles and abstracts they can present.  Show him/her how to search for technical conferences in your industry and advise him/her to start submitting abstracts.  Once the abstract is accepted, encourage him/her to practice on co-workers and local professional organizations.  Encourage him/her to conduct a webinar or video their talk.  The more they practice, the better their soft skills.

As you can see – these discussions then become the foundation of their next PBC SMART goals.

Keep them involved

At the end of the day, keeping your employees involved and engaged in their own career development is key.

 

How do you craft a polite email to customers who haven’t responded to your previous emails?

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A busy professional asks a question regarding customer sales.

How do you craft a polite email to customers who haven’t responded to your previous emails?

I’m an international trading clerk, I have some customers who used to talk to me smoothly, but once I give them the price, they don’t reply me or even a comment on the price. So how should I contact them in a polite and comfortable way as a follow up?

Well, email isn’t the only tool in your toolbox.  Also email isn’t actually “talking to you smoothly”.  My recommendation is to use email:

  • as a “record” of your more intimate phone conversations
  • as a summary of your last phone conversation
  • to remind the client of the next step in the buyer’s journey (which may be another phone or in-person meeting)

One recommendation is don’t craft a polite email, call them. Calling them shows that you’re serious about winning their business, as you actually took time out of your day to follow up in a more personal manner. Attempting to speak with them directly shows initiative on your part, and a desire to do what is necessary to not only wins their business, but to retain it.

With an actual phone conversation, you can provide additional information, demonstrations, and charm them with your personality and sense of humor.  You can also discuss next steps and get verbal agreements throughout the conversation.  Verbal agreements lead to sales.

As far as price: price is never the biggest sticking point in the prospect decision making process.  It’s usually that

  • they have questions you have not answered (you need to know what those questions are, they are not going to tell you),
  • you have not asked the RIGHT questions (to find their pain) or
  • they don’t like/trust you

Bantering through email doesn’t really resolve any of these things.

Consider a more personal approach:

  • Visit the at their site
  • Invite them to your site
  • Make personal phone calls

Bottom line:  If one method of communication isn’t working, do not continue with that method.  Switch it up and make your next method more personal with a sense of urgency.

See what you think about those ideas.

How do I define my role in my daughter’s business that I will be funding?

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This question came from a loving parent and business owner.

How do I define my role in my daughter’s business that I will be funding?

 My daughter wants to start her own business in a field in which she is not only certified, with 5 yrs. experience, a solid client list, but has some excellent ideas in which to grow the clientele. She has no credit, so my husband and I would be taking out the loan on her behalf. How do we ensure that we get our ROI? She has already asked me to help her with bill paying and such. I have read the posts about silent partners, but I’m unsure that is what I’ll be.

Don’t go in blind

Starting a new business is not an easy endeavor and many businesses fail within the first 3-5 years. If they do succeed, it may not be until the 5th year until they see any profits.

Add to this the complication of loaning a child or family member and you are in very, very risky territory.

A new business is a gamble

It is very difficult to “loan” a children money, because even though they may initially recognize it as a “loan”, they often it do not pay it back.  Other expenses take precedence and they are predisposed to accepting your help.  This is doubly risky if you introduce the idea of “investing” or becoming a silent partner.  You are now “investing” in a new business that may not succeed or may take several years to see any profits.  Therefore if you have to take out a loan that you need to be paying back in a timely fashion, I do not recommend “investing” as a silent partner.   Investments are not guaranteed to be paid back.  A new business is a gamble.  And if you do not have the money to lose, do not do it.

Recommendation:

Instead – treat this as a strict business loan with payback expectations (along with any interest you agree as your ROI – as well as timelines for payback).

Have a signed contract with well-defined payment schedule AND consequences for defaulting on the loan. Avoid a payment schedule that states “payment due when business starts to make money” (or anything similar). Don’t tie the payment schedule to her business success…. BUT consider her Business Plans and income forecasts when defining a tangible schedule with actual dates. (Even silent partners do their homework to verify that the Business Plan is solid and there is actually a reasonable expectation of ROI)
For instance – Require her to show you her Business Plan with income forecasts, budgets, expenses, and forecast revenues. Help her with coming up a realistic Business plan. DO NOT TAKE OUT THE LOAN IN YOUR NAME until you see and approve of her detail business plan. Demand that the loan payment become a regular expense in their business plan (just like any other business expense).

Then create a calendar of payments based on her actual revenue forecasts. Review her company expense schedule to verify that the load payment is included as a regular fee of doing business.

.
Also include consequences for not meeting those payment schedules (late fees, payment in other forms, payment extension with increased interest rates, etc).

For instance, if her business folds or she abandons the business – she still needs to meet the payment schedule BECAUSE you still need to pay back the loan (regardless). Iron out all the scenarios and exit strategies if things do not go as plan. Do you expect late-payment fees, etc. How many months of non-payment determines an abandonment – and what would the next step in that scenario. Do you want to hold any collateral for payment, etc.

Do your homework

You will want to iron all these scenarios out and make the expectations clear up front. Do your homework to make sure this even makes sense. Or hire a business coach to help you with these decisions and help her with a realistic business plan. Understand the start-up costs, the recurring costs, the target revenue goals, what steps will be taken if the revenue goals are off-target, the resources and equipment needs, and everything else a realistic business plan covers.

If you don’t want to approach this as a business loan – then just agree to “gift” her money (with ZERO expectations of ROI or repayment). And only give her money you can afford to lose (not get paid back).

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

How to switch from Digital Marketing to Business Analysis

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Today’s question comes from a busy professional:

Is it possible to switch directions in my career, from digital marketing to business analysis?

I am currently in digital marketing but I want to build a career in business analysis. Is that possible? 

 

Yes.  It is possible to switch directions in your career from digital marketing to business analysis.  But you don’t need to leave one to become the other. You can easily use one to transition into the other, without a huge leap.

General Steps

These steps can be executed to switch to most positions.

 

  • Identify the transferable skills between the two positions
  • Include tasks that illustrate your competency in the new position
  • Business network with those currently working in the new position or adjacent fields

Identify the Transferable Skills

 

Digital marketing and business analysis have many of the same transferable skills.  They are also dependent upon each other.   Adding market research and brand monitoring to your current digital marketing offerings will lead you nicely into a well-balanced digital marketing offering.  Instead of limiting your digital marketing position to posting content and building a following on social media (as do most digital marketers), make sure to analyze your results (collect metrics and illustrate your efforts ROI).

 

Include business analytics into your digital marketing reports

Show digital marketing increases client sales and revenue.  Since business revenue growth is part of business analytics, use business analysis to illustrate how your digital marketing services affects the company revenue.

 

Business analysis is also important to developing quality, relevant and interesting content — for your target market.  The more aligned your digital marketing messaging is to your target client – the more potential clients you attract and the better the ROI.   Business Analysis is the way to better align your digital marketing messaging.

 

Include competitive analysis

Next – start reviewing the competitor’s social media results and their digital marketing results.  Identify your client’s competitors’ messaging (digital marketing and branding messages).  Study how effective the competitors are and use those business analytics to evaluate and modify your current digital marketing strategies.  Run competitive analysis – but reviewing how your client’s competitor are doing their digital marketing (something you already know all about).

 

Start researching marketing data, demographics, qualitative and quantitative client feedback data – regarding your client’s industry – in order to better sculpt your digital marketing content to attract the right target market/client.  Use your marketing data to find more interesting and quality content for your digital marketing business.

Start showcasing your business analysis directly into your digital marketing business.

 

Collect your metrics over time and analyze the trends.  Start offering trend data to your digital marketing clientele – and help build their next level marketing strategy.  Helping clients with their B2B or B2C strategies is another piece of business analysis.

 

Business Networking

Finally, start business networking yourself as a Business Analysts.  Surround yourself with the people that will provide you the right opportunities as a Business Analysts.

 

As you continue to showcase more and more business analytics in your current digital marketing offerings, the more you will be recognized as a business analyst.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

Working with teams across the world?

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Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

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Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

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The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

 

Today we are very fortunate to have a TV program to emulate regarding the perfect pitch deck. If you haven’t already watched ABC’s the Shark Tank, make the time to watch and take notes.

 

It gives you a very good illustration of pitching to investors. Even though the ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” is available for all to learn from, I am always surprised when an entrepreneur shows up unprepared.

If you are interested, I have a list of the most frequently asked Shark Tank questions in a separate article Things we can learn from Shark Tank

 

For now, below is a list of 6 big pitch deck mistakes that you may be making:

 

  1. Not knowing your audience
  2. Not getting to the important stuff quickly
  3. Not including a summary
  4. Not knowing your numbers
  5. Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience
  6. Having one pitch deck for everyone

We will cover each mistake separately.

 

1.     Not knowing your audience

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on their own product, their own needs, and their own wants – that they forget the true goal of this presentation. Your goal is to adequately interest the investors such that they will want to do business with you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. And the quickest way to earn trust is to show the investors that you already know them, what their needs and wants are, and how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

In other words, why should they care about you and your products or services?

Use Stephen Covey’s 5 Habit from his top-selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood”

Spend time researching your investors. Find out what excites them. Find out how they make their investment money back.

2.     Not getting to the important stuff quickly

 

Your prepared pitch should be no longer than 5-8 minute in length. So you really need to get your investor’s attention quickly. If they are interested, they will ask additional questions and will get to know you better. Your pitch needs to interest them quickly.

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, make sure you get to the important stuff as quickly and succinctly as possible. What is the “important stuff”? The important stuff is the stuff that the investors care about (and not necessarily what you care about).

This is where watching the Shark Tank will help. Here are some of the typical questions you need to cover, and a fuller list is available at: Things we can learn from Shark Tank

  • What problem are you solving?
  • How prevalent is this problem? (size of the market)
  • What you need financially to make that much money?
  • Who are you competing against?
  • How are you going to grow? How are you going to use their money?

 

3.     Not including a summary

A pitch presentation falls into the category of a training presentation: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you have told them”. But many forget the summary or “tell them what you have told them” part. Your summary should end with a CALL TO ACTION.

4.     Not knowing your numbers

Investors are interested in a quick return on their investment; therefore, make sure you understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out.

5.     Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience

You won’t have much time; therefore, make the best use of that time. Incorporating the investor’s terminology and experience into your pitch will not only eliminate miscommunication but lead them to feel that you already speak the same language. That you are connected.

6.     One pitch deck for everyone

Don’t fall into the trap of creating 1-perfect-pitch-deck. Consider having a “perfect-pitch-deck template”. By understanding your audience, their terminology, and their unique interest in your products or services, you can tweak and quickly customize your single-perfect-pitch-deck template to win-over each unique investor.

Added Bonus

Now that we’ve discussed mistakes to avoid, below is a quick list of things to think about when preparing your “pitch”.

Things to think about when preparing your “pitch.”

  1. What your business makes or does?
  2. What market you serve?
  3. How will this business make money?
  4. How your business compares to similar businesses?
  5. Why you will succeed?
  6. Your ultimate goals for your business?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are various Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind. The best recommendation is to run your pitch deck past a “mock Shark Tank”. One such “mock Shark Tank” panel are the experts at Crowdsourcia. You can’t go wrong with this set of experts.