Part of my role with the UK Government is to bring entrepreneurs, companies, intellectual property and capital to the UK from abroad.
Forget the companies who pitch to VCs looking for $10m or even $100m. I’ve returned many times from India where I’ve listened to such companies making their pitches. And I’ve listened to leading British money management companies, pitching for our monies at Chatham House (you may know it as the Royal Institute of International Affairs) – it’s where Gandhi spoke when seeking Indian Independence, right before he met King George.
With HM Queen as our Patron, it is pretty important to get the right money managers with whom to entrust our funds. As you can imagine the ones pitching are the best in the business, between them, they have pulled in funds of $75billion+.
So what are the lessons for fund raising for your own business? (These are from my years as hearing pitches from Goldman Sachs to smaller asset managers and hedge funds).
Don’t read the presentation
Assume that if we are interviewing you to give you money to manage, then we’ve read the presentation, and know it better than you. So if we tell you we’ve read it, and you only have 30 minutes, then assume we’ve read it and don’t waste your precious pitching time telling us what we already know.
Printed Materials Should Not Be Slides
Don’t print out your slides, especially if they are in 22 size font and have a few bullets. I’m not a teenager, I’m not attention deficit disorder diagnosed. I am not a Candy Crush playing Silicon Valley Red Bull intoxicated teenybopper. I can read Greek philosophy with an IQ that puts me in the top 1%, so I can handle complete sentences and 10pt font. That’s why you came to me for money.
Your hand-outs should be in A5 slides format so the fonts aren’t larger than 12pt – anything larger looks like you think I’m blind, as well as stupid.
You should also in A4 have a written document, explaining everything in far more detail. We are talking serious money, I can handle explanations which last more than 20 pages, and actually have paragraphs and isn’t just written as if for a blog. I read grown up books for fun.
Think Why Giving You Money Fits into My Needs
I don’t need to hear why you’re so good. Everyone I’ll be listening to is bloody good. That’s just basic. I need to know you’ve thought about me. I want to hear that you’ve gone through my webite, my literature, asked me before the meeting my needs, my other investments and then told me why yours fits with mine. I don’t invest in isolation with people who think about themselves. Oh by the way, your fees ARE negotiable, even if you already have $50 billion under management, because everyone’s fees are negotiable.
Want me
Guess what doesn’t work? A laid back attitude like you’re doing me a favour. I want to know you’re keen for my money. You want a relationship with me. Make me feel special.
Customise
Your presentation has to be customised to me, I don’t just mean my name and date on the cover page, I mean in the A4 document which lots of explanations of how what you do fits with what I need.
Other errors
You don’t need your logo on each page. I know who you are. Be confident. Work well with your partner that you are presenting with. Of course explain how you have lots of clients like me, but I am different and you will customise your approach.
Differentiate
The biggest issue I have is, ‘why are you different’? What do you give me, others do not. And it all comes down to risk/reward. How can you assure good growth, and mitigate losses, and at the same time do it by doing something slightly different.
Invest in your presentation skills
Sadly money does not go to the person with the best track record. Else Warren Buffett would be the only fund manager in the world. It goes to the best marketer. So I don’t care if you’re good with money. If you are not good at communicating, then you are nowhere. It’s weird I know. Get lessons on presenting with confidence.
Anticipate What I Will Ask
If you have not worked out what I will ask, if you have not interviewed yourself, then how the heck do I get any confidence you can anticipate the markets and so look after my money?
Alpesh B Patel
