The final skill from a sales angle that can help with raising capital, is not just the ability to "understand value" and "communicate value" but also the ability to "gain commitments" and "ask for the next step."

The average person falters when trying to make a sale, or to persuade because they do all the talking and then they wait silently asking for nothing in return.

This is what leads most people to say "let me think about it and get back to you" when they are at the other end of a business conversation or negotiation.

Picture this!

You have done all your research and you're sure that you are speaking to the right investor.

They are interested in your industry, you both anticipate a level of involvement and contributions that you are happy with, and both of you are confident that you can meet your growth, equity, and repayment obligations.

This is the stage where most entrepreneurial minded folks will remain in front of the power point presentation on the screen smiling, and doing nothing!

Off course the investor is going to say a number of things...

"Brilliant presentation, can you please email me the power point slides?"
"Good work team! Email it to my secretary and I'll get back to you in a few weeks!"
"You've given a lot of good insights with your presentation, this is a whole lot to take in. Give me a few weeks and I'll get back to you!"

The potential investor or his team is going to say this because you have asked for nothing yet!

And off course they are going to say things like this because you've said a lot of things they'd like to check out and mull things over.

In traditional sales theory we know that most people won't take action until something is asked or required of them.

Your potential investors aren't going to throw money at you until have first asked them to do so!

A beautiful presentation won’t automatically lead to them throwing money at you!

A consummate sales professional knows that this is the perfect time to make a request.

"Thank you very much for your time and attention. Like I mentioned earlier in the presentation, this is a Series A round to raise financing. Do you have term sheets you want us to go over?"
"Madam Ogendengbe you seemed really impressed with our presentation, is it safe to assume that you want to buy in at this current valuation?"

In both of these scenarios, you have lopped the ball over to their court. There is something that THEY now have to do to get the ball rolling.

They can either say YES or NO to the terms sheet and you can be back to exploring WHY and any other possible concerns and objections that they have.

That is a step in the right direction! If you leave it at "let me get back to you", then you could be in a heap of surprises next week when their interest wanes, or something else becomes a priority... or maybe they even forget!

Madam Ogendengbe can also either say YES or NO at the current valuation, and you guys enter into a VERY SPECIFIC conversation about what particular terms have to be before she puts any money down for your idea.

In either of these scenarios you ARE making progress because now the investor has a specific request and next step that THEY have to engage in to make progress on the deal.

You have taken the initiative and moved the conversation beyond the proposal or presentation that you made earlier.

For the average Jane or Joe, this is the silver bullet that stands in the way of raising capital for your big idea.

If you've followed the series from the beginning, you can now see that sales skills, especially personal selling with it's emphasis on conversational skills is a handy tool to improve your fundraising efforts.

Most importantly however, I hope you've been able to see that you don't have to change the way you dress to do this. You don't have to change your accent, and you don't have to change your personality.

These are simple frameworks and conversational skills that anyone can LEARN to help you acquire all the capital that you need.

Your business idea might be excellent, but you also have to learn to sell as well because your ability to raise financing depends on it.

Your ability to also interact with your end customer also depends on it, but we'll start addressing those dynamics in another post.