5 ‘Must Haves’ When Pitching for a Joint Venture Partnership

Joint venture partnerships are your key to unlocking some pretty major opportunities, and generally speaking you don’t get a second chance at that pitch. So, here are the 5 ‘must haves’ when pitching for a joint venture partnership to ensure you are bang on the money every time:

1. Keep it Quick – Eliminate any unnecessary information that just wastes the investors time. Don’t ramble on an on about your past, your marriage, your financial situation in life, and any other irrelevant information. None of that has anything to do with an investor deciding to explore a Joint Venture opportunity with you. If you think you are rambling, you are.

2. Choose Your Words Carefully – Eliminate words like “need” and “fast cash.” This makes you sound desperate. You might very well be, but you don’t need to amplify that desperation… successful people work with successful people. Instead of talking about your need (which investors rarely care about), talk about their opportunity. That’s what successful people look for… they look for opportunities.

3. Walk Your Talk – If your product or service isn’t solving a problem in your life or those closest to you, maybe you need to revisit the effectiveness of what it is that you want to sell?

4. Be Specific – When pitching your offer, don’t speak in vague terms. Let the investor know exactly what benefits they will receive. To say such things like, “I will share the profits with you on a reasonable basis” tells an investor you haven’t taken the time to calculate your true costs and even determine your price points. Don’t ever go to an investor without having this information readily available. It hints that they are going to be the one having to come up with these figures which means they are now your CFO, and they probably don’t want that role.

5. Know Your Profit Margin, But Don’t Share It – Don’t offer a share of profits. A savvy investor will never agree to a percentage of the profits because it’s too easy for the company to hide their profits in expenses. You could make $500,000 in profit and then go buy a Maybach 62S as a company car and all of a sudden you have no profit to show, meaning your investor just bought you a car and they get nothing in return. You should offer Joint Venture partners a percentage of sales and if you can’t calculate what a smart percentage would be for that, then you have no right asking for a joint venture partnership either.

If you would like to learn more about how to pitch investors for any type of partnership opportunity, you can grab a copy of my latest national best-seller, “Collaboration Economy” in bookstores nationwide or on iBooks and Kindle Fire.