This video emphasizes the importance of active listening for founders during fundraising. It highlights how listening to investors can provide crucial insights into their due diligence, their perspectives on the market, and their concerns, ultimately aiding in successful fundraising.
What this video covers
Listening is essential. It’s the key and the recipe to getting the money wired into your bank account. In today’s session, we’re going to be breaking it down into different steps and giving you the insight as to how you can master listening to nail it when it comes down to your fundraising. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
You need to understand that those investors have been doing their due diligence on the space. They’ve made the decision to invest in a company like yours, in your segment, and most likely, they have been talking with your competitors. Plus, you want to know why haven’t they placed a bet yet?
Verbally interrupting before someone else has finished speaking. Taking the conversation on different tangents, suggesting you were thinking or pretending to listen instead of actually listening.
You need to do the test of listening, and the test of listening is practicing the 2:1 ratio. What this means is that you need to be listening twice as much as you are speaking, and this is going to allow you and put you in a position to really get to those concerns because at the end of the day, what separates you and the money are the concerns in-between. For that reason, listening is absolutely everything.
The other part of listening is for your team. You want to listen to your employees, to your co-founders, to your consultants, to your advisors, and perhaps make whatever corrections or modifications are needed. You need to know, as well, that over 67% of companies fail because of issues between the team members, so you do not want to showcase to the investor the fact that you did not take it to the next level when it comes to listening with your team and that there is clear communication in place.
It’s not about being in your own head; it’s not trying to anticipate what you’re going to say, how you’re going to look; none of that matters. It’s all about being in the conversation, dancing in the conversation with the investor, and knowing and delivering that answer to the concern that they have about your business and your industry.
Your body language is going to be very telling when it comes to listening. The last thing that you want is to not look at the eyes, or to look distracted, or to look somewhere else. You want to look at the eyes, right to the person in front of you, and make sure that they see that there’s a clear connection between you and them.
It happens all the time. When you’re speaking with someone, and that person is not looking at you, that creates a sense of lack of trust, and that’s the last thing that you want because fundraising is all about trust. Trust is super critical for you to gain access to that money.
Another way to confirm the fact that you’re listening and to make sure that you’re getting it right is to ask if you heard well what they said. Maybe if they perhaps asked or were mentioning something, you could say something along the lines of, “Is it exactly what you were asking: x, y, and z?” Then they will give you confirmation. Sometimes, that actually helps to tell the other person that you were listening and that you’re getting what they’re trying to explain. That creates a really nice and meaningful connection between you and the other party that is in front of you.
Try to be open-minded. The last thing, as well, is to right away start judging on whatever they’re telling you, or maybe they’re giving you some feedback. Don’t go into judgment mode. Be open-minded always, and be in the conversation. Then, after the conversation, maybe you can create your own opinion. But if you are in the conversation, you need to be bouncing back-and-forth with what they’re saying and with whatever you need to give them back.
You should also ask open-ended questions. This is going to allow you to increase the listening, to increase the amount of time that you’re present with that other party, and to perhaps build further that meaningful connection between you and the investor.
