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
32 – 52

Listen, pause, then answer

Investors will ask crucial, probing questions about your business during or after your pitch. Interrupting them (because you think you know the answer) before they’ve finished the question is not only rude, it also speaks to your inability to listen. Listen to episode 20 of The Successful Pitch as Allon…
12 Jul 2022 1 min

Deeply passionate about your product

In a high-pressure pitch context, the passion you feel for your product or service can be lost in a sea of nerves. The natural, excited tone you would convey in any other scenario becomes stiff and rigid and is sure to bore your investor. Join Allon for episode 19 where…
5 Jul 2022 1 min

Always bring a backup copy of your presentation

You only have one chance to get this pitch right. Anything can go wrong on Pitch Day – faulty equipment, a corrupted presentation, a dead clicker battery, etc and then your chance vanishes; you blew it. A great entrepreneur always has a plan B and, just in case, a plan…
28 Jun 2022 1 min

Always check the equipment

Technical gremlins have an uncanny way of sneaking into presentations uninvited. Faulty or glitchy equipment is frustrating for you and your audience. Join Allon for episode 17 of The Successful Pitch for a few tidbits of advice to mitigate potential technical problems.
21 Jun 2022 1 min

Learn to use a clicker

Using your keyboard to click to the next slide is distracting for both you and your audience. Walking across the room to do this breaks your pitch rhythm. You lose your audience and it gives you an air of being unprepared and unprofessional. Join Allon for episode 16 of The…
14 Jun 2022 1 min

Never read your slides

If an investor simply wanted you to read a slide deck, they wouldn’t need you to be in the room. The point of a pitch presentation is to give you an opportunity to talk about your business naturally and in your own voice. Join Allon Raiz for episode 15 of…
2 Jun 2022 1 min

8 to 15 slides in your pitch

What do you do if an investor invites you to pitch but doesn’t provide a templatised slide deck? First off, don’t overdo it with the slides, information overload is a big mistake. Join Allon Raiz for episode 14 of The Successful Pitch where he talks about why it’s important to…
30 May 2022 1 min

Dress appropriately for your audience

Dress counts. What you decide to wear to a pitch tells your investor how capable you are of reading the company culture and, by extension, the market. But the “what-to-wear” decision can be fraught with emotion and nuance. How do you dress to show your potential investor respect but also…
23 May 2022 1 min

Keep your models simple

The more complicated your business model, the more vulnerable you are to risk. Investors prefer simple models because the risk decreases with less working parts to the model. Listen to Allon Raiz in episode 12 of The Successful Pitch where he breaks this down with an excellent example.
16 May 2022 2 min

Percentage of market share

Investors need to understand how much of the addressable market your business could potentially win but this number needs to be presented realistically. Taking into consideration that competitors will respond as soon as you enter the market, what is the best way to present your business’s market potential to an…
10 May 2022 2 min

Pitch language

Maybe. I think so. Probably. Using these words in your pitch indicates doubt in yourself, your abilities and your business. Uncertain words immediately raise red flags in an investor’s mind. Conversely, overconfidence will set off the same flags. So how do you find a balance that will ensure investor buy-in?…
3 May 2022 1 min

Research the ideal investor

It is important to understand that a spray-and-pray approach to finding an investor does not work. It’s important to create a profile of what you are looking for in an investor and what you want from them before putting yourself out there. Join Allon in episode nine of The Successful…
25 Apr 2022 2 min

Operations knowledge is crucial

No matter what business you’re in, a potential investor will want to know how you make money. Can you explain this process in detail from start to finish? Do you understand where you could push to make money and where you might be losing money? In episode eight, Allon explains…
19 Apr 2022 2 min

Low margins equal low investor appetite

Investors are more likely to invest into a business with high margins. Why? Because higher margins provide a buffer for the mistakes a startup is bound to make. A business with low margins poses a higher risk because new businesses can’t always offset low margins with higher volumes. In this…
11 Apr 2022 2 min

Market-related salaries

As the business owner, choosing what to pay yourself is no easy decision. And what you do decide to pay yourself speaks volumes to your potential investors. Join Allon in episode six of the Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch, to find out what you’re communicating about your balance…
5 Apr 2022 2 min

Tell them about the competition

When entering the market, no competitor is going to roll over and let you take their market share. Do you know who your competition is and how they will respond to your arrival or growth? How you will respond is crucial to an investor’s decision to invest in your business…
29 Mar 2022 2 min

Tell them about the risks

The job of an investor is to look out for all possible risks associated with a potential investment. If you are not upfront about the risks your business may have, the investor assumes you haven’t thought about your business realistically – nothing is risk free.
22 Mar 2022 2 min

Sell your experience, sell your team

In episode three of the Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch, Allon stresses the importance of making sure you can show the investor that you and your team understand the risks associated with actually executing your business model.
15 Mar 2022 1 min

Take notes when investors speak

Episode two of the Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch, is about gaining insight from questions investors ask you, and the subconscious messaging you give off when you pay attention and take notes.
8 Mar 2022 1 min

The deal is not expressed upfront

Bombarding your investors with numbers straight off the bat is a sure-fire way to lose their interest. In the first episode of the Raizor’s Edge podcast series, The Successful Pitch, Allon chats about the importance of starting your pitch the right way.
28 Feb 2022 4 min
32 – 52