Raizor's Edge The Successful Pitch

The Successful Pitch

Forget everything you’ve been taught about pitching your business — you’re doing it wrong.
To achieve success as an entrepreneur in business, you need to be able to pitch your business to clients and investors. Without a polished pitch, you’re wasting time and potentially risk losing future funding.
Over the next 52 weeks, join Allon Raiz in his new bite-sized podcast series as he walks you through preparing the perfect pitch.
Weekly English South Africa Business · Management Narrated by Gareth Armstrong
52 Episodes
12 – 32

Where is more margin?

In business, a return on investment is a by-product of margin profitability. Investors want a business with the potential to achieve increased profitability, a business that can identify areas in their operations that can be leveraged to achieve bigger margins. During your pitch, you need to be prepared to answer…
29 Nov 2022 1 min

What Do You Need The Money For

As an entrepreneur, you should expect investors to pose the following question during your pitch: “What do you need the money for, and how are you going to spend it?” This is a crucial question, and it needs a well-articulated response that clearly outlines your projected expenditure over a specific…
22 Nov 2022 2 min

Best Worst Most Probable

Investors always strive to get the highest possible return on their investment; they want to gauge if their investment will be worthwhile, how lucrative your business is and if it has growth potential. The financial performance of your business will be scrutinised in terms of capital requirements and profitability. You…
15 Nov 2022 2 min

Competition is coming

Every single business known to man has competition and to deny this is a fatal mistake. The question investors want you to answer is “What is your plan for dealing with competitors?” Investor’s want to know that you have thought this answer through in a strategic, realistic way. Join Allon…
8 Nov 2022 1 min

Units are better than revenue

Your break-even threshold is a pivotal point in your pitch. Surprisingly, investors don’t want this number given to them in terms of revenue, they would much prefer this figure in terms of units sold. Listen to Allon explain why in episode 36 of The Successful Pitch.
1 Nov 2022 1 min

The exit opportunity

As much as investors want their return on investment, they also want this return to transpire in a certain timeline – and this timeline varies from investor to investor. In this episode of The Successful Pitch, Allon prepares you for the question, “Who will buy my equity when I am…
25 Oct 2022 1 min

What kind of return will you give us?

Another question to be prepared for is the inevitable, “What’s in it for me?” Your investor isn’t in the investing game to give money away freely. You are one of three or four potential investments. This month. Join Allon in episode 34 of The Successful Pitch to gain some insight…
18 Oct 2022 2 min

Who else is doing something similar?

Join Allon Raiz in episode 33 of The Successful Pitch. Over the next 20 episodes, Allon will take you through some common questions investors ask and what they are looking for in your answers. This week’s question is “who else is doing something similar to you in the world?” Tune…
11 Oct 2022 1 min

Smile

Pitching is a serious business, and you definitely want to put your best foot forward. But it’s important to remember to be a human – smile, make an appropriate joke, show how approachable you are. If you are enjoying yourself, your investor will too. It’s not all fun and games…
4 Oct 2022 1 min

A strong ending

The highest pressure-point of a pitch is the last sentence. Should you end on a comment, a statement or an ask? If your investor is left thinking there is more to the pitch, you know you’ve ended on a weak, fluffy note. Listen to Allon in episode 31 of The…
27 Sep 2022 1 min

Start with the “Aha!” moment

Investors come in all shapes and sizes but one thing they all have in common is that they are impatient. Start your pitch off with a bang to avoid losing their interest. Help them frame the rest of your pitch around a schema or model. Listen to Allon explain all…
20 Sep 2022 2 min

Don’t sound rehearsed

Pitches should be taken seriously and preparing for a pitch is vital. Because most investors ask a handful of similar questions, it’s easy to anticipate what might be asked and overprepare your answers. The mistake made here is jumping in to answer before the investor has finished asking and sounding…
13 Sep 2022 1 min

Never use “I think”

The worst words you could ever use in a pitch are words that make you sound uncertain – especially during the Q&A section. They immediately convey to your investor that you are unsure and lack confidence in the knowledge surrounding your business, and the future of it. So, what do…
6 Sep 2022 1 min

Consistent facts

Good investors are trained to listen and listen well. Any contradictions between your pitch deck and your voiceover have the potential to blow you out of the water. Contradictions invite hard-to-answer questions, come across as mistakes and make the investor question the validity of your entire pitch. Listen to Allon…
30 Aug 2022 2 min

No two audiences are the same

No two audiences are the same, but they all have the same question: “What’s in it for me?” And the answer to this question will be different for each person. For this reason, it’s important to tweak your pitch to your particular audience whenever you get up in front of…
23 Aug 2022 2 min

Easy to understand reference point

As an entrepreneur, you tend to become so embedded in your business that you forget that the nuances you know offhand are not as obvious or understandable to the outside world. It’s important to keep this in mind when pitching. Join Allon Raiz for episode 25 of The Successful Pitch…
16 Aug 2022 1 min

Solve a problem

An investor wants to know that he or she is investing in something worthwhile that is actually solving a problem. Demonstrate this by using storytelling in your pitch to express the problem statement. Use a real-life client example and sprinkle in the size of the market that would be willing…
9 Aug 2022 1 min

Avoid technical language

If you use technical words and complicated statistics in your pitch, you’ll increase your probability of closing an investment. Not at all! In fact, doing this increases the risk of investors asking you questions you may not have answers to . . . if you don’t lose them in a…
2 Aug 2022 1 min

Use pictures instead of words

In this age of information overload, people are accustomed to receiving information in small chunks. Your potential investor is no different. He or she would prefer concise and visual information in order to make an informed decision quickly. Listen to episode 22 of The Successful Pitch to find out why…
26 Jul 2022 1 min

Always ask for what you want

After you’ve presented your shiny, well-polished pitch to your potential investor, the logical thing to do is show them the next steps. Join Allon Raiz for episode 21 of his Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch, to find out how to ask for what you want.
19 Jul 2022 1 min
12 – 32