It’s that time of the year again. The week in which you’re meeting up with a bunch of prospective investors. As a fund manager/ investment advisor, this is your moment to go in for the kill.
Picture this: Standing at the front of a group of investors with the rest of your team, you’re about to raise the curtain to kick-off your pitch. You freeze. Your eyes widen like dinner plates. The body goes rigid. And as you’re about to speak, the mouth dries up as if there’s cotton inside it. Anxiety takes over…
For fund managers/ investment advisors who shudder at the thought of presentations, there really just isn’t an opportune time for one, is there?
The truth is, you are in complete control. Your audience only knows what you tell them. Show them that you’re nervous, and you’ll have lost their trust and respect. Exude confidence and they’ll be nodding like bobble-heads. We can start by understanding how audiences perceive the presenter. Based on a widely-known study called “Silent Messages”, conducted by UCLA in 1981, every presenter transmits a set of three Vs:
Verbal: The words you speak.
Vocal: The conviction in your voice, or how you tell your story.
Visual: What the audience sees in you – your body language, and what you do when you tell your story.
Notice how the visual (your body language and what you do when you tell your story) has the greatest impact, the voice (the conviction in your voice) next, while the verbal (words) used to tell the story has the least impact. We always remember a strong or weak presenter by the way they told their story, and by their conviction and belief in themselves. The most defining thing about a presenter is the way a story is told. That is what builds trust. That is what builds a relationship. And that is what closes deals.
The irony is that most presenters bend over backwards on the Verbal (words) aspect, neglecting the storytelling and convicting part of their pitch, where a lack of credibility is most exposed. By no means am I suggesting we abandon the words used when making a pitch; I’m suggesting that one should put stronger emphases on the how the story is told, and the conviction that supports it. The medium is the message, and you are the medium!