Let’s face it. Over the years, the cannabis industry has become a lot more sophisticated.
A cannabis business hopeful is nearly akin to a tech business hopeful. Competition is fierce.
So if you’re an up and coming cannabis entrepreneur, that means your presentations and pitch deck are gonna need to be top-notch when pitching your cannabis business.
What Will Investors See When You Are Pitching Your Cannabis Business?
With a much bigger playing field, getting a cannabis business up and running is more challenging than ever. And you don’t want to get struck out on your first swing. (Yeah, it’s a ridiculously imperfect baseball analogy, but you get it.)
So here’s what NOT to do:
1. Be Wishy Washy
Cannabis doesn’t carry the stoner stereotype it once did. In other words, you’re not trying to push “Pothead Industries” here.
Go into your pitch with the precise knowledge of the problem in the cannabis industry you’re attempting to solve. If you don’t know that much, your pitch isn’t gonna land.
If you’re not totally clear and concise about what why your company needs to come into existence, nobody is going to care about your great product or super cool team.
2. Try to Dazzle Them with Video
Unless you’re in a very tall building with a slow elevator, you’ve got somewhat longer than an elevator pitch here. But not much.
You’re looking at an absolute maximum of five minutes. And probably more like 2-3 minutes. So don’t waste half that time on video. It won’t give investors any sense of YOU. And ultimately, you’re trying to sell yourself.
Another drag with video? Technical problems. And you won’t have that geeky A/V guy or gal to help you out. So just ditch the whole idea of video.
3. Practice Utter Unawareness of Your Audience
You’ll need to tailor your pitch to appeal to both the newbies in the industry as well as the seasoned investors.
So a short slide show with some industry data could be helpful for those who are looking to learn a thing or two.
But you’ll need to shift gears if you’ve got a veteran cannabis investor. Have something at the ready to replace the slide show because they don’t need information about market or growth potential. You’ll just be preaching to the choir.
4. Provide Graphics That Encourage Vision Loss
In those situations where you do use slides, remember there could be people sitting in the nosebleed section. So skip the heavy text and extraneous details. Keep those graphics big and bold so they can be easily seen.
And forget about graphs and charts and numbers. Important numbers are better and, frankly, more impressive when they’re shared verbally.
5. Offer Famous Person Quotes
Willie Nelson? Seriously?
Yeah, he’s awesome. And clearly a huge proponent of marijuana. But what makes you think that he (or any other celebrity or big name) is going to lend any credibility to your company?
This is just going to be another time suck during your pitch. And it’ll take the focus away from you. So unless Willie has promised to be a shareholder in your proposed business, leave him out of your pitch. (In fact, leave him out either way.)
6. Assume You’re Untouchable
Here’s the cold hard truth, buttercup.
Absolutely every business can be copied. If not sooner, then later. So what amazing and unique action are you taking to keep yourself from being vulnerable? Have a plan in place to let investors know you’re serious about protecting your company’s market position.
Otherwise, you’re going to be referred to as the MySpace of the cannabis industry. And you do NOT want that.
Get Ready to Launch
If you’re pitching your cannabis business, you’re going to need to make a strong and lasting impression. Like a coffee stain. But far less irritating.
We hope the above advice helps you in your attempt to woo investors. And if you’re lucky enough to already have a cannabis business, you’d best be keeping up with your marketing efforts. Competition’s about to get seriously ramped up.
Let us know how we can help you with those efforts. We get results.