A few months back, I was helping a friend with their grant application, great business model with great proposal written. However, they failed due to poor presentations. A brief recipe of what you should be present:

1. Problem – What is the current problems in the market which you found it as an opportunity ?
2. Solution – The solutions to the problem. What can your system do?
3. Product – The main features of your product that provides the solution.
4. Demand – Show them the demand from the market. Tell them this is what the market wants. show them letter of interest.

I believe most of the you might have known of the above recipe. but what you have not notice which kengyew has pointed out, and I totally agreed with that. Things you should get notice for your presentation:

1. Don’t put your panels to sleep nor giving them a headache:
   • This is one of the mistakes that my friend did. The panels are listening to more than 20 presentation a day, they are tired, sleepy. So, Stop listing all the features that what your system can do.
   • Example, you are pitching to built a Toilet bowl with a system that is able to analyse human health condition by examine the faeces (your stool).
   • Hence, you do not list down every single feature of the toilet bowl from flush tank, design, flap seat, ass washer, can do this, can do that and bla bla bla bla bla etc. How boring was that!!!
   • All you need is to find out your few main unique feature, and focus on that only. the rest, mention in brief.
   • if you list down too many features, it looks more like a rojak system instead of a uniquely defined product, and may open up more problems and question for the panels to haunt you down.
2. Tell Stories
   • “Imagine, every morning when you are sitting on your toilet bowl, there is a nice sweet voice with background music, reporting on your health condition, advising you the amount of water you should drink, print and plan the type of food you should eat. Apart from that, if your ass get too numb, you get to comfort your ass with the massage system”,
   • rather than …“The toilet bowl that we proposed will have voice reporting system, a built-in speaker, a printer that will list down the amount of water should drink and the food to consume. and also, a built-in X2131 latest model of massage system.”..ZZZzzzzz …. who cares about X2131 model.
   • I am not a good story teller, that’s why I plan for my presentation with stories. Preparation is needed.
3. Is all about Emotion:
   • You don’t present like you have just gotten up from bed or your dog just died last night.
   • You need to show PASSION and EXCITEMENTS. Give me the money or i will ….~!

I have delegate most of the responsibility of sales call and meeting schedule with clients to my marketing partner, kc. However, I decide to take up the challenge to learn something which I don’t always do – A cold call to a potential clients. Yes, is my first Cold Call, which I think is a skill that needed to mastered in the path of becoming an entrepreneur.

So, I listed down a list of potential customers and their contacts in a piece of paper. I put the phone in front of me. then…. oppps , of all the sudden, I felt thirsty, so I go make myself a cup of tea. Ok, the tea is ready, I suppose if I talk too much I still get to clear my throats with the tea. Hmmm, I think not enough contacts in my list, so I when google for more contacts, in between, facebook for a while, and listed down extra 10 contacts to my list. Ok, now I should be ready~! I pickup the phone, suddenly, I felt shit right at my ass, and I head to the toilet and make it big~! Ok, I think almost everything should be ready, the list of contact, the tea, my throats are clear, there is no shit in my ass. Oh ya, I forgotten to write a script for my call. So, I spent some time to write the script. Ok, now everything is prepared. Set to go. What the Hell, I am still freaking nervous when the phone is on my hand. And, 2 hours gone~! I have been shouting at myself – Make the Call ~!!! you Fucking Idiot~!

What happen to me, why am I so nervous. I am able to faced the 10 panels from MDeC and now I am so chicken~! So, I told myself, If I don’t make the call now, I will be eating bread for life!!! Hence, I get myself calm within minutes, pick up the phone, and dial the first number on my list. A lady pick up the phone, hence, I read my script.. “Hi, I am Chee Hoong. Calling from Joove Enterprise Sdn Bhd”, then the lady answered~ “WHAT IS THIS REGARDING~!”, oh gosh, the sound on the other sides seems having a period, I felt very uninvited, my brain just got a shock, stunned for a second. And I repeated the script again “Hi, My name is Chee Hoong, calling from Joove Enterprise Sdn Bhd. We are doing bla bla bla. and blablabla. Are you able to spare me some time for a meet up?”. Wow, I read that script in one breath~! and I hope she gets my message. She replied. “SORRY, WE ARE NOT INTERESTED!” slammed the phone. There goes my first call. Oh, is sounds so hurt, is like being dump by your girlfriend. OK, get on with the second call with the better feeling, still tense up, half recovering from the previous rejection. Second call, heart brokening. Third call, Failed. Something is not right some where.

So, I call up my partner, get him to call some clients on my list, and I observe his conversation. The next day, I make my second attempt, imitating the way my partner did, these time without scripts, no tea, and with shit in the ass. I converse in a way like how you talk to a friend, gentle, nice and honest. Finally, One appointment made, YES~! That moment, I felt so over joy. I am happy that I am able to overcome the fear, and successfully getting an appointment via the phone. Then the second call, third call, forth call, is so exciting, and I got it all through and appointments are set. I believe, there are still much to learn from cold calling skills. A lot of practice needed on me. Hence, Geeks, all you need is to overcome the fear. Start calling now or you will be eating bread for life.

Small tips for cold calling. 1st, Prepare a Script but Never read from the Script. 2nd, Identify your objective. 3rd, focus on your objective. 4th, converse in a smooth way. 5th, Just enough information will do. 6th, Ask for appointment. 7th. PICK UP THE PHONE AND DIAL AND KEEP A SMILING FACE~!

Links to share:

1. http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/coldcall.htm
2. http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-10-Tips-For-Cold-Calling-Success&id=80590
3. http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/marketing/articles/cold-calling-guide.shtml
4. http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/marketing/customer-service-acquisition/7-tips-for-turning-cold-calls-into-hot-leads.aspx#tipsforturningcoldcallsintohotleads

Hence, I would like to share some information here that might be useful to those that are in the middle of applying the fund. No matter which funding option that you are applying for, please be aware for the few issues that I highlighted here. I don’t mind to re-mentioned the tips again.

Info 1) Understand your Business Plan from Top to Toe

I am not an expert in writing business plan, but i had everything in my mind. I am not going to elaborate on value proposition of your business, marketing plan, targeted market, competition, financial plan and technology plan, I believe you know better than me.

1. Understand your product Niche and Uniqueness.
2. The Win-Win situation between you and your customers. show it in your plan. show it in your presentation.
3. Understand your competition. Strategy to tackle potential competition.
4. Never say there is NO COMPETITION, and thats the most stupid thing to mention. No matter how niche or how unique your product is, your idea is obsolete within the 10 second when you thought of it, and there might be 1000 people already working on it.
5. Show Facts and Figures to support your plan. Research, Research and Research. Google is your best friend.
6. 1 Plan is not enough. A plan is just a guideline, plan changes. Thats why always have a Plan A, B and C. Put Plan A as priority.

Info 2) Filling up the Application Form correctly:

Your application form determines whether you stand a chance to present your ideas.

1. The person to approve your form does not really care about your idea, but they care more if you have fill up the forms correctly according to their standards.
2. Do not make assumption on filling up their application forms. Specially on the financing part. example, if the fund does not includes for marketing purpose, don’t assume and don’t be so clever to include that when filling up the form. Your application will be rejected due to your clever actions. Assume stands for making an ASS between U and ME.
3. Call them up directly, arrange an appointment with them, or get a 1-to-1 advisory to advice you on how you should fill up your application. It’s best you fill up the application form first, then arrange an appointment, let them comment on your application, and repeat until you get your form correctly written.
4. Don’t write grandmother stories for your applications. Be straight forward, and write in point form. Who the hell is going to read your stories where there are 100+ applicants waiting for them to approve. Concentrate on Executive Summary, the interviewers might only read that! but don’t forget the rest of the content as well. (there might be one picky one that reads all of it).
5. The person to interviews you are the one that evaluates your ideas, and most of them don’t read your proposal, they will read the Executive Summary.
6. Hence, Fill up your forms correctly. You don’t fill up correctly, you have eventually marked an end for your GREAT ideas.

Info 3) Get ready for Defense and Attack Game

I had my first presentation slides ready after i handed over my forms, instead of waiting for an interview, i did extra preparations by presenting the business plan to my father’s friend, which is a CEO of a financial consultancy company, and my uncle’s friend, which was also someone who holds a high position in a big corporate. Both has nothing to do with the industry within my business plan, I just want to get screw up and receive some feedbacks from someone at the top level management, and i treated them as potential VC’s. Both of them has different opinions. One of them is more picky for my presentation skills, the other wants to know how my money is earn. 2 of them guide me in on my slides, my presentation skills and the things i needed to prepare.

1. You only got 10 Minutes to present. You need to cramp up your 30 pages business plan in 10 min. The sequence of my presentation slides: What is my product? > The niche and uniqueness > Targeted market > Market Potential > Competition > Barriers for competition > Potential Growth of the business > ROI as summary > Thank you. (Note: The sequence is just a guideline for you. Don’t follow my sequence, my sequence is based on my Business plan and my way of presentation. 10 min is considered long, i was given only less than 5 minutes to show what i have when i present to the CEO)
2. Practice more on your presentation skills. I can’t remember how many times i have practice alone in front of the mirror. But i have presented to both of the 2 top managements at least 3 times each.
3. Time your presentation. Practice with your business partner. Time yourself with a stop watch. Try not to exceed the time given. Go slow and Steady.
4. Continuously refine your presentation slides until you feel that it is enough to convince the panels. example: I replaced Sales and Marketing Plan with Market Potential, is because showing the potential market is more convincing than marketing plans. Marketing strategy is important, but my objective is to convince the panel that this is a viable business, so, Market Potential tends to weight more important at this stage and time is limited for presentation.
5. Get support letter from potential customers to strengthen your idea. Call up your potential customers or targeted markets, present to them, get feedback and get a support letter from them. We called several potential customers which includes TV3 and UNICEF. However, we only manage to present to UNICEF right in the morning before our 2nd interview with MDEC in the afternoon, we got a good feedback from UNICEF, but we did not manage to get a support letter, cause that needs a lot of process and approval from UNICEF internally.
6. Spot the Q&A question. Write down the potential questions, and your Answers, then from the answers, what will they question again, and answer again. Bring in the piece of Q&A you written during your presentation as bullet prove vest. When one is tackling the question, the other is searching for the right answer.
7. Get a Sales and Marketing Partner, some one who could present and up sell your ideas. Technology Geeks mostly are not good presenters, like me. Technologically you may be good, but technology is only part of the business. You need a marketing representative in your business. They may not be able to help you in developing your idea, so what, in long run, u still need someone to do the sales for you. You can sell the product yourself? Trust me, you can’t, unless you are an experience marketing guy. If you are a marketing guy, you won’t be sitting 24 by 7 in front of your pc.
8. Wear and act professional. Get a tie, shake your hands when u meet the interviewers.

Last but not least, this is just an opinion, hope it is useful. Good luck to your application.