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Every successful business begins with a good idea. But even a good idea, an entrepreneur still needs the financial resources to turn that idea into reality. Thus, among the very first steps he or she must take to actualize his idea is to make a good, convincing pitch to potential investors. Dr. Michael Edmondson, co-founder and president of MEAPA, a US-based biotechnology consultancy company, calls the current economic environment the "creative economy." He says it is an environment marked by "an accelerated information mediums delivering more advertising messages about an ever growing number of products and services."
In this new environment, he says investors are inundated by more and more new information every day, making it much more difficult for them to make investment decisions. It is therefore common for the typical investor to get thousands of business proposals each year. From among these, a few hundreds would be read or looked at. Only 40 to 50 would actually be researched and considered. And in the end, only a handful of projects would get funded.
If money were not a problem, of course, entrepreneurs could beat the odds by seeking the help of a business consultant. If they have to make a go of it alone, however, what can they do to make that perfect pitch to the potential investor?
To begin with, entrepreneurs pitching a business proposal should show to potential investors that they have done their homework. Edmondson observes that many entrepreneurs make the very common mistake of relying solely on the product description to tell their story. "Simply believing your product is the best is not sufficient marketing," he says.
A second common mistake, Edmondson says, is that "entrepreneurs fail to view marketing as real work and often start the marketing process far too late int he product development life cycle."
Finally, he says, there is often a "disconnect" or incoherence among the various elements of the business documents created by the entrepreneur. A consistent and compelling story does not emerge. For example, a marketing plan should not only take up product positioning but should already anticipate the product's advertising thrust and prospective media placements. In sum, before making the pitch, the entrepreneur should have already formulated an overall marketing strategy for realizing the potentials of his product or service.
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