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What’s your best tip for keeping the conversation open with investors post-pitch?

1. Treat Your Followup Like a Sales Campaign

Send them a follow-up email using a tool like Yesware to ensure that the email is active and they opened it. A couple weeks later, send another email with a link to exciting news about your company. Did they click on the link? This will help gauge their interest level, even if they don’t respond right away. – Syed Balkhi, OptinMonster

2. Forecast and Track

To keep the conversation open with investors post initial pitch, emphasize a key business metric and the near-term forecast. In a follow-up communication, be sure to compare how the business is tracking to that forecasted key metric. This will not only give investors something to look forward to, but it will show how you are executing the plan. – Eddie Lou, Shiftgig 

3. Keep Them Updated, But Don’t Be in Pursuit

After your meeting, make sure to keep these investors updated but don’t pursue them. Let them know your process (e.g., “We’re in meetings for two more weeks and then we’ll make decisions”) and try to gain the power in the relationship. The more they need to chase you, the more likely you can raise money. – Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches 

4. Understand Their Doubts and Address Them

By showing that you are cognizant of their doubts and are working to address them, you show you’re willing to listen and will adjust your strategies to fit their concerns. If they see progress in the areas where they had doubts, they’ll be more willing to work with you and to trust your vision. – Marcela De Vivo, Brilliance 

5. Get Creative With Your Followup

With so many emails being exchanged in a day, I prefer to follow up with investors in a unique and creative way. Sending a video message helps convey more of my personality than can come through in an email and adds a more human element to the conversion. – Mark Krassner, Expectful 

6. Offer to Help Your Investors

Keep the conversation going with investors by looking for ways that you can actually help them. Investors won’t usually expect this type of behavior, and it fosters a much better relationship than if you follow up just to hound them for an investment in your company. Before asking for an individual to invest in you, put forth a helping effort to show them you are worth investing in. – Arian Radmand, TurnGram 

7. Always Determine the Next Step

To keep the conversation going, you need a reason to follow up. Ask, “What would our next step be?” If they say they’ll get back to you, offer to follow up in a week if you don’t hear from them. If the investor asks you to send over some financial projections or market research, get on it right away. Keep up that momentum until you get the term sheet! – David Ciccarelli, Voices.com 

8. Be Nice

Investors are people, too. They want to invest in entrepreneurs almost as much as they do in companies. Be kind and gentle to investors, even if they do not respond in kind. If you are turned down by a fund, don’t be belligerent or resentful. Instead, be grateful and thank them for the opportunity. You never know when they have a portfolio company that is looking for something like you have. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors 

9. Send Updates on Progress

Share the progress you’ve made in an email update that shows quantitative progress when it’s made. The focus on results is an excuse to contact them while illustrating your value and worth if they were to invest in your startup. – Angela Ruth, Due 

10. Be Emphatic, Not Desperate

Being energetic, motivated and positive about your company and its goals can keep an investor engaged. Be careful, however, to keep the dialogue emphatic, rather than desperate. It can be very easy to go off-rails and start coming off as an owner who is in need, rather than one who wants support and a true partnership. Neediness is not an attractive quality to an investor. – Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker

11. Connect at Networking Events

While you don’t want to stalk your potential investors, you can find out where they will be and participate in those events to get more face time away from presenting and pitching. This can stimulate further discussion. – Zach Binder, Ranklab 

12. Plan Out a Series of Announcements to Send

You pitched a new investor — now it’s time to keep them hooked by showing them momentum, even after your initial chat. Before you work to raise funding, develop a month-by-month plan with a series of announcements — whether it be ARR growth, customer additions or product expansions — that can show company momentum and act as a touchpoint to keep those conversations going after the pitch. – Stan Garber, Scout RFP 

13. Tell Them What They Want to Know

If an investor is interested in your company, you don’t need to keep the conversation going because they will stay actively engaged. If an investor isn’t really sold on what you’re doing but is close, you need to leave the pitch meeting with a solid grasp of the one milestone the investor cares about. Hold off on updates until you can tell them you have blown past the milestone in record time. – Jacob Chapman, Gelt Venture Capital 

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