Last week we discussed what the French call “mis en place” (essentially, everything in place) — the steps of preparing to cook, which we will adapt to preparing a pitch, and the first step: Knowing Your Recipe.

Today, Step 2: Preparing Your Ingredients

In my experience, it takes forty hours worth of content development to create a 2-to-5 minute presentation, and a minimum of 8 hours of practice to create a solid pitch. Just like great meals, a successful pitch takes time, and a pitching situation is not the time to fly by the seat of your pants!

Funders can ask some intense questions, so it is to your benefit to not only have your basic pitch prepared and practiced, but also to be ready to answer in-depth questions. You need to know what questions you should be prepared to answer. Are there legal codes/requirements in your industry? Do the potential funders require that you use a specific format?

You must make sure you have everything at hand in case you need to pull additional information. One of the funders may ask for a specific answer on how many customers it will take to reach your goal of $300,000 in sales. You need to know (not guess) the answer, and probably related questions such as how long will it take to get those customers? What is your average customer spend? How many items or services do they buy for that price?

It all comes down to details!

In general, the ingredients you will need are answers to these questions:

• Who are you? What is your background? How did you come up with the idea?

• Who is your ideal customer? How do you plan to reach them?

• How do you make money and what are your plans for expansion?

• What are your anticipated operating costs?

• Are you realistic about how you will get these sales? Are you holding a top-down or bottom-up approach?

• What are your plans for marketing? Sales projections?

• If you have a technology, what is it? Do you hold any trade secrets?

• What milestones you have reached, or plan to reach with the money you are requesting?

As you work on putting this information together, I encourage you to reflect, practice, and make sure your presentation is as clean as a commercial kitchen when you hit the stage!

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. What questions should you have detailed answers for BEFORE you pitch?

2. What details do you need to make sure you answer the questions?

3. What other ways have you prepared for a pitch?

_____