The competitive nature of grants does not usually afford us the luxury of being unsure about anything when it comes to grant applications. You basically need to cover all your bases –which include asking relevant questions like, “How do I pitch for grants?”
However, learning how to pitch for grants will be an easy pea if you strictly follow the guidelines outlined in this post.
Start With a Story. (The Problem)
In a bid to engage your audience right from the get-go, telling a story is a step to achieving that. But hey, not just any story. It has to be a story that addresses the problem you are trying to solve in the market place.
Furthermore, it also has to be a story your audience can relate to, because all you want at the end of the day, is to get their interests aroused.
Unsure on how to go about this?
Well, a simple background check on your investors gets that problem sorted out. This gives you a glimpse of their interests and what they care about, which helps to build your story around those.
Unveil Your Solution
The next guideline to follow in learning how to pitch for grants is sharing details about your unique product.
Furthermore, it involves sharing how that product will solve the problem stated above. But, it’s pretty essential to keep this as short and concise as possible. The goal isn’t to feed your investors with every technical detail about the product but to keep them engaged.
Reveal Your Target Market to Your Investors.
You would be delusional if you thought everyone across the globe was your potential target market. In the world of pitching, being specific is inherently crucial to keeping the attention of potential investors.
But remember, there’s no room to feel unsure about yourself. So do your research, know your target market, and be realistic.
Read Also: 10 SME Grants to boost your business
Talk About Your Successes
In your journey to mastering how to pitch for grants, building credibility is pretty vital. And one way to boost credibility is to share the successes you’ve had.
Investors are basically interested in what you’ve accomplished so far; here’s your chance to blow their minds.
So go ahead, impress your investors with the important stuff like product launches, contracts, sales, key milestones, and so on.
Move On to Your Business Model and Marketing Strategies.
Investors are generally skeptical when it comes to your financials. They are unsure as to how you intend to make money, how you intend to reach customers, how you intend to measure your successes, and more importantly, how much will these cost.
So your business model should focus on the pricing of your products, laying specific emphasis on the anxious market awaiting product distribution.
Read Also: Winning marketing concept for growing businesses
However, marketing and sales strategies should be in place to ensure the product is distributed to meet the demand.
Furthermore, it also reveals your competition with practical strategies to dominate or put them out of business.
Read Also: How to Gain Competitive Advantage
Introduce Your Team
Pitching for grants will be a basic flop without introducing your team because investors invest in people before ideas.
However, the introduction goes beyond just names and skill-sets. It should further talk about why these individuals are the best people for the job. But it is always vital to share what skill-sets are missing in your team because most start-up businesses are usually missing a talent or two.
Specify Your Funding Needs and Future Projections.
Being specific about your funding needs and future projections clearly shows you mean business. Remember, you cannot afford to be unsure of yourself or anything in the game of grants.
Furthermore, amongst the list of things you should be specific about with regards to your funding needs are:
- The amount of money already invested in your company,
- The names of these investors and their ownership percentages,
- Exactly how much you would need to get to the next level –with details of the level in question,
- What these funds will be used for, and
- The anticipated outcome.
However, that’s where your future projections come into play. Investors are eager to know your financial prognoses for the future. So ensure you share your projected revenue per product over the next two to four years.
Conclusively, at the end of your pitching, you should be able to achieve the following:
- Tell me why I should invest in your company rather than your competition.
- Why I shifting from my existing suppliers to buy from you is a great idea
- Tell me why I should quit my job and join you.
- Do all these in 100 words or less.
How Do You Make a Pitch?
In a product pitch, you should try to:
- Clearly and briefly describe your product or service.Find your product’s target audience and/or industry and talk to them about it.
- Tell us what problem the above people are having and how your solution can help them.
- Give a real-world example of how your solution would work.
What Are the 5 Basic Steps of Pitching?
Coach Corral’s basic steps for pitching are the setup, the step back, the plant foot, the leg lift, the power position, the release, and the extension.
Can You Teach Yourself Pitch?
Even though you can get better at absolute pitch, most musicians would be better off focusing on relative pitch instead. Most musical tasks, like improvising or playing by ear, can be done with either skill, but relative pitch is much more useful and fun to learn.
What Is the Easiest Pitch to Learn?
The four-seam fastball is the first pitch that you need to learn. Most of the time, this is the easiest pitch to throw to get a strike. If the ball is thrown correctly, its four laces will spin as it goes through the air. This helps the throw stay on target.
What Are the Types of Pitch?
Fastballs are the Four-seam, Two-seam, Cutter, Splitter, and Forkball.
Breaking Balls: The Curveball, Slider, Slurve, and Screwball.
Changeups: Changeup, Palmball, and Circle Changeup
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