Increase Revenue by Selling to Investors

Raising investment for the first time can be daunting. Business leaders are often intimidated by the investment process but in reality, if you’ve been selling your product to B2B customers, you’ve already learned everything you need to know.

Pontus Noren is the Founder and former Vice-Chairman of Cloudreach, as well as Executive Chairman and Founder of sales tech business savvi.co. Pontus joined the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss how to map the investor’s journey to the outbound sales process to raise investment.

How raising investment relates to the outbound sales process

Many business leaders may not realize how similar the investment process is to a typical outbound sales journey–only instead of selling your products or services, you’re selling shares in the company. 

Similar to an outbound sales journey, the path to investment starts with finding prospects (in this case, investors) and reaching out to book a meeting. After that, you follow a similar process through subsequent meetings and negotiations until eventually, you sign a deal.

This process can feel unfamiliar in the beginning because you’ll be working under new terms. For example, in outbound sales, the proposal will be sent to a steering committee, while an investment term sheet goes to an investment committee. Although the terminology may be different, the process is ultimately the same.

Where most leaders go wrong in the investment seeking process

Most outbound sales leaders are used to trying to predict a buyer’s next move. It can be disorienting to be thrown into an entirely new process with unfamiliar terminology; which is why it’s helpful to see the similarities between the investment process and outbound sales.

Both the investment journey and the outbound sales process are built on trust and relationships. The early stages of either partnership require getting to know one another to see if there’s a fit, and if there is, then the prospect can move forward to the next stage. 

Qualifying your investors as outbound sales prospects

Like any other prospect, you need to qualify your investors. Use the first few meetings to see if you have a cultural match and a similar understanding of the market. If you have two completely different ideas of where the market is going, your partnership is unlikely to work out long-term.

Ensure potential investors have a solid understanding of the market and your company’s place within it. Like in outbound sales, you’re looking for prospects who have already identified the problem and are searching for a solution. Investors should be able to clearly see the gap in the market that your company fills. If you find yourself having to educate them on your market, a deal is unlikely to go through.

The pros and cons of using an investment banker

Many founders are tempted to lean on the support of an investment banker to help them through their first time raising investment, which comes with both benefits and risks. Some investors view investment bankers with suspicion and you may lose a certain amount of trust by relying on them.

On the other hand, bankers can be great partners when raising your first round of investment. Bankers have a pre-built network with many connections to potential investors. They can take care of the heavy lifting in the initial investment phase, helping with your financial model, pitch deck, and outreach.

At a certain point, you’ll need to switch over to doing the selling yourself. This is where it becomes helpful to draw on the outbound sales journey to pitch your company to investors. An investment banker can then rejoin the process for legal negotiations.

The major benefit of working with an investment banker is that they understand the subtleties of the process, including all of the language, terms, and potential pitfalls that you may be unfamiliar with. If you want an expert to guide you through the process, working with a banker could be a great option.

Accelerating the outbound sales process

Pontus’s sales technology company savvi.co was created to accelerate B2B transactions for both the buyer and the seller, but it can also be used for raising investment.

A common issue in both outbound sales and the investment process is that information is sent and resent over email. With potentially dozens of people on the customer or investor side, information is easily lost.

Savvi keeps all of that information in one centralized place. Sellers can initiate a conversation after a meeting and share documentation, and the buyer can then re-share it with their team, ask questions, or request more information. The entire outbound sales process is driven through the platform and easily accessible to all stakeholders.

Whether you choose to use Savvi or another platform, keeping your team organized with enablement tools is critical for outbound sales success. If you need help streamlining your process, book a free assessment call with our sales coaching team!

First steps toward investment

Like outbound sales, the first step toward raising investment is to create a clear value proposition and practice pitching. Think about why people should invest in your company, what makes you unique in the market, and what you’ll spend the money on. At the end of the day, investors are sold to in the same way as any other prospect.

If you want to connect with Pontus to learn more about how the investor’s journey relates to outbound sales, reach out via LinkedIn or visit savvi.co.

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