How do you make a good first impression with a potential investor or sponsor for your business that’s a question that come in from one of our reader, who wrote in to say that I had secured a meeting with a potential sponsor for the business and wanted my advice and what to say and what to do so first of all Congrats that’s a big jump Congrats on reaching out and getting somebody to say yes and agree to a meeting huge step forward and hopefully will help propel your business to the next step in terms of what to say when you get to that meeting a few tips that will help you out number one understand what they want so if they’re sponsoring your business I don’t know what it is that you do but if they’re sponsoring you they’re after a certain outcome so what is it but if it’s some kind of charitable event maybe they want exposure in the community maybe they want some online exposure maybe they want lots of people to visit their website whatever it is understanding what their goals are there’s probably a number of ways you can help them out but you want to know what their objectives are to start a lot of entrepreneurs get that wrong a lot of salespeople get that wrong they just started to their pitch where the person who’s receiving it they’re only seeing one or two things not everything so you want to try to target your message and it comes from listening and understanding what they’re after so start by asking questions get a handle of why they’re interested in you then you could tailor your presentation number two to show them a desired outcome so now you know they want show them how you can help them get it right so if it’s increasing visits to their site increasing sales for them getting more people following them on Twitter whatever it is that their goal is you want to show how you are going to be able to help them if they sponsor you the more tangible you can make it the easier it’s going to get them to say yes and number three is tell stories stories add a personal element to it it’s great to have facts and figures and to solve a need but when you can add a story whether it’s your own personal story or the story of another client who’s gone through it or some of that your help as a result of them sponsoring your event then that’s gonna add a more personal element to it and increase the chances of them saying yes so good luck listen to them understand what it is that they’re really looking for target your presentation towards them and show them the outcome and then tell the story around it. now you’ve got to make an impact right away you may have a maximum 20 minutes with these guys and so you got to really make that impact and let them know that hey this is something they want to do business with so practice your pitch refine it down talk to yourself in the mirror go over it again and again and again the more practice you have the better it’s gonna be talk to your cat talk to your dog practice in front of somebody else so you get that feedback as well and you get used to it even if you’re just presenting and your dogs in front of you just getting used to having somebody watch you even though it’s not another human being helps prepare you so you’re not as nervous when you go into your presentation so good luck keep us posted, we want to hear how it went and if you have any other questions.
