Importance of business pitches

Securing resources

Most often, business pitches are there to convince investors to fund your business. For this purpose businesses rely on pitch decks, tools used to persuade and attract investors to fund your company. These investors can be venture capitalists or so called business angels. Take into account that most venture capitalists receive thousands of pitches a year. In order to attract the most suitable VC, you have to consider three things:

1. Investment is risky! Most investors are looking for the highest return potential, which is at least 10 times more than the initial investment.
2. Look for investors that specialize in your field. That can include experts, scientists, or capitalists that have previously worked or invested in your area.
3. Seek out the perfect fit. Don’t choose the richer investor, who does not understand your startup idea, instead focus on investors that share the same values and business ethics like you. At the beginning, invest in compatibility, not profitability.

To make the most out of your business pitch, create the perfect pitch deck that includes the following sections: company vision, business problem (& solution), market analysis, competition information, the value proposition, your revenue model, the team, the financial information, and the current status and use of funds. With the right pitch deck, and suitable investor, you are sure to attract their attention and secure your funds.

Showcasing your skills

Nothing highlights the importance of a good business pitch like the preparedness and charisma of the person who delivers it. Put simply, business pitches are always delivered by people, even if they are presented in a written form. Therefore, pitching your ideas is the perfect way to showcase your skills and abilities to potential investors. A successful pitch showcases at least three of the following skills: communication, research skills, problem solving abilities, creativity and public speaking.

Communication skills refer to your persuasion, negotiation and overall verbal presentation skills. The way you talk about yourself, your business, but also the way you pose questions and listen to others are all important details when it comes to pitching. Empathy is also essential when thinking about what words to use when approaching a sensitive topic. 

A well-prepared pitch is heavily reliant on research. Think of the research as an exercise in credibility. The more evidence-based your pitch is, the more confident and persuasive you sound. Furthemore, a well-researched pitch demonstrates that you can work with multiple sources of information. Which leads us to another skill a good pitch demonstrates well: the ability to formulate and solve problems. The stakeholders need to know that you understand the pain points and can already offer some solutions. Show how you solve the problems by using every tool in your toolbox: visuals, texts, data, statistics, etc.

Solving problems is not only about analytical skills, but also about your creativity. Investors value innovation, the product of the creative mind. To be innovative you need to be willing to experiment and go beyond the boundaries of the expected. Solutions are the result of any good analysis, but the most novel and original solutions are only achieved through creativity. Finally, the most salient skill that comes across during a presentation is your ability to speak publicly. Body language, verbal skills and confidence are the three main ingredients of a good presentation.

Boosting your network

A pitch needs to be well-researched, evidence-based and adjusted for the right audience. The successful business owners know their audience well. The presentation needs to make this clear, as all the stakeholders learn who the customers are. For example, a pitch about a software company needs to focus on a younger demographic that would be using the software, instead of older people who have no access to technology.

Moreover, knowing your customers goes beyond your presentation. Use the time you research your pitch to actually interview and get to know your customers. This may refer to a full-scale interview or a field research project. In any case, use the pitch as an invitation to know more about your customers, as it will reflect on your speech. Finally, some of the customers you meet might become future partners or even investors.

Fundraising is also focused on convincing an individual or a group of people to invest in your business. This can be an angel investor or a venture capitalist. Angels are people who decide to invest on their own, which makes the investment smaller, but also riskier. The venture capitalists, on the other hand, work with money from different sources and invest it on their behalf.

When preparing the pitch, research carefully all the investors, as well as the firms and corporations they might be attached to. The amount of money they are willing to invest is important, but what is most important is whether they fit your vision and values. It can be difficult to collaborate with investors that won’t be interested in your product or marketing style in the long run. Find investors that are financially attractive, but also ones that you can see yourself trusting in.

Types of business pitches

Have a clear idea about the content and length of your pitch before delivering it. Depending on those two factors there are three types of pitches: 

1. An elevator pitch: If the pitch is short enough to be delivered during an elevator then you have a short pitch on your hands. The purpose of this pitch is to acquire an additional meeting where more details could be discussed at length. 
2. A live plan: Instead of a spoken presentation, a live plan relies on all of the information in a written form. The salesperson may decide to include a market summary, financial or legal data, as well as the potential business goals. If the investors are interested then they can demand a more detailed pitch.
3. A presentation: When a meeting is secured then the salesperson is to deliver a presentation that explains in detail what the business does, its financial situation, its challenges, goals, etc.

Conclusion

If you are lacking that extra financial push to take your business to the next level, finding a fitting investor is what you are looking for. The right person to invest in your business can offer more than money, but also expertise, connections and counsel to a struggling business owner. Consider sharpening your skills, writing, honing and later delivering the perfect pitch to the right people and you might gain a lot more than anticipated.

Understand the building blocks of a website

Before you begin scraping data for various purposes, including monitoring product prices, building research datasets, or analyzing trends, you must understand a website’s structure. This means learning and understanding the basics of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

HTML defines a web page’s structure and content, while CSS defines its aesthetic. Learn the purpose of particular HTML tags and elements. Common HTML elements for web scraping include links, tables, images, and text content like headings and paragraphs. Also, explore CSS selectors to discover how you can use them to target and scrape specific HTML elements. 

Moreover, it would help if you learned how to use browser developer tools to inspect the elements of a web page. Developer tools like CSS/XPath selector queries can efficiently locate the elements containing the data you want to scrape. You can also do more with these tools, like testing selectors or debugging a web scraping script.

Set up a Golang programming environment

To scrape a website effectively with Go, you should be able to set up proxy servers with Go and a programming environment. Why proxy servers? Proxies can help you bypass anti-scraping mechanisms put in place by some websites.

You set up a Golang programming environment alongside servers to reduce the chances of encountering errors or unexpected IP blocks. 

Now, to set up a Go development environment, start by installing Go on your machine. Visit the official Go website and download the appropriate installer for your operating system (Linux, Windows, macOS). Then, install Go and type this command into the terminal to verify whether you’ve set up Go correctly. 

Command: go version 

The command would return details about the installed Go version. For example: go version go1. 18. 4 darwin/amd64

Once that’s done, choose and install an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). An IDE gives you access to tools for writing, debugging, and managing Go code, streamlining development tasks, and enhancing productivity. 

For this step-by-step process, we’ll focus on using Visual Studio Code (VS Code). VS Code is a lightweight and popular IDE. To use it, visit its website, download, and install it. Next, navigate to VS Code’s extension marketplace and install the “Go” extension.

VS Code will also prompt you to install Go tools like gopls and gocode. Accept the prompt and install the tools to enable features such as code formatting and completion. After setting up VS Code to write, run, and manage Go code, proceed to set up a project.

Set up a Go project

Create a main project folder (my-web-scraper-project) for shared resources, including settings and dependencies. Within the main project folder, create a settings.json file  and add these settings:

{ “go.useLanguageServer”: true, 

   “go.toolsEnvVars”: {“GO111MODULE”: “on”}

 }

The go.useLangaugeServer setting allows you to disable or enable the Go language server (gopls) within VS Code. Setting it to “true” ensures you can use gopls features, including code formatting, diagnostics, and completion.

Conversely, the go.toolsEnvVars allows you to control variables for Go tools like gopls. GO111MODULE, in this case, is an environment variable. Setting it to the value “on” enables Go modules to manage dependencies.

After adding the settings to the settings.json file, assess whether the Go workspace (GOPATH) is set up correctly. Run this command within the terminal to confirm this:

Command: go env GOPATH 

If the Go workspace is not set, add it to the system environment variables. If all is well, create a new folder (for example, “my- go-web-scraper” within the main project folder to host your web scraper scripts. Then, open your terminal, navigate to the folder, and initialize Go modules. Use this command:

Command: go mod init mygowebscraper

This command adds a go.mod file to manage project dependencies. Once that’s done, you are ready to write your first Go web scraping script. 

Write and run your first Go web scraping script

As mentioned, using Go for web scraping is advantageous due to its features. You won’t have to write the whole script from scratch at this phase. Go has built-in web scraping libraries and frameworks you can use to speed up the scripting process. Some popular Go web scraping libraries or frameworks include Colly, GoQuery, and Selenium.

For this tutorial, we’ll use Colly to demonstrate how you can prepare a simple Go web scraping script. 

So, head to your terminal and key in this command to install Colly. 

Command: go get github.com/gocolly/colly/v2

Navigate to the folder you’d prepared to host your web scraper and create a new Go file like first-scraper.go and add the following code to the file:

package main

import (

    “fmt”

    “github.com/gocolly/colly/v2”

)

func main() {

    // Summon a new collector

    c := colly.NewCollector()

    // Add the target URL

    targetURL := “https://example.com”

    // Set up a callback

    c.OnHTML(“h1”, func(e *colly.HTMLElement) {

        fmt.Println(“Title:”, e.Text)

    })

    err := c.Visit(targetURL)

    if err != nil {

        fmt.Println(“Error:”, err)

    }

}

You should replace the “targetURL” section with the link to the website you desire to scrape. The above script scrapes the text within the <h1> tag of the web page.

After writing the script, save and run it. The title of the web page should be printed on the console, signaling success. 

As you write Go web scraping scripts with greater capabilities, always be ethical. Respect the target website’s terms of use and the scraping limits defined in the robots.txt files. Also, avoid overloading website servers with numerous requests, as doing so may lead to legal issues.

Conclusion

Golang has a robust stand library with packages for parsing HTML/XML, handling HTTP requests, and working with regular expressions. You also have access to web scraping libraries and frameworks, which means you don’t have to rely on third-party libraries to prepare web scraping scripts.

Understanding a global culture

The challenges and benefits of working in this global culture and the effects of a business’ worldview all prove the importance of cross-cultural communication.

Cross-cultural communication refers to the communication between participants from different cultures. Even within the same country, different locations can have cultural differences. Communication styles, standard norms of turn-taking in conversation, and accepted methods of address may all differ. 

So, before getting into the workplace and the effects of cross-cultural communication, it’s necessary to understand cross-cultural communication and inclusion while keeping several things in mind. 

Each of us needs to develop our knowledge and understanding of our own cultural background and biases. Without this understanding, we take many things for granted. This will undoubtedly lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. We also need to cultivate open-mindedness of other cultures and ways of doing things. Keeping these points in mind, let’s proceed.

8 aspects that prove the importance of cross cultural communication

For businesses to thrive in the global economy, it’s becoming increasingly vital to be aware of the importance of cross-cultural communication. Those businesses that successfully navigate and harness the differences and similarities between cultures can create more resilient interconnection and interdependence. 

Accordingly, the importance of cross-cultural communication in business plays its role in increasing productivity which helps businesses to thrive and increase their profits. So, let’s go through some of the greatest benefits of improved cross-cultural communication in the workplace and see how they drive success.

Communication and trust

Good cross-cultural understanding improves communication between people from different cultures. Consequently, it fosters greater trust.

When employees or customers are aware of potential differences and similarities, they’re likely to pay closer attention. They’ll think more about what other people are saying and doing. This is important to minimize misunderstandings and to consider what the other side is actually trying to communicate.

When employees or customers demonstrate an understanding of each other’s cultural background, greater trust is built. This creates a feeling of being a team and it enhances collaboration.

Increasing productivity and profits

Improved communication and trust promote greater productivity of all. The improved communication between colleagues boosts productivity in numerous ways, including reducing misinterpretation and a better understanding of strategies and goals.

With greater trust, participants can focus more on their aspect of the common work. All without the worry of whether the other participants are fulfilling the requirements of their respective tasks. Furthermore, greater trust also promotes collaboration and a sense of unity amongst team members.

Incentives

Another reason why cross-cultural communication is important is that it impacts the understanding of the different incentive drives of participants. By applying good cross-cultural understanding, we cater to these various incentives and create an inclusive environment. Consequently, there is an improvement in productivity when the participants are appropriately incentivized.

Appropriate incentives make employees or customers feel more valued because they recognize that attention has been paid to their relevant cultural norms.

Creativity

With a larger pool of cultural influences and views, creativity is improved as well.

Because of the greater variety in cultural influences and views, there are more inputs to any creative endeavor. This cultural diversity is important because it provides a larger selection of possible solutions to any problem or challenge faced in the workplace. 

Also, a better cross-cultural understanding is important to develop open-mindedness. It promotes the understanding that there’s more than one solution that’s suitable for any given situation or challenge.

In today’s rapidly changing markets and fast-paced lifestyles, improved creativity and problem-solving can provide a business with a noticeable edge.

Human resources

The importance of cross-cultural communication and understanding has its part in a business’s human resources department as well. When they have the ability to recruit globally and successfully integrate international talent, a business can make use of the most talented people, irrespective of their location. 

Not only would such diversity improve productivity, but it would also have a positive impact on the company’s image. It demonstrates that they value ability and talent wherever it comes from.

Challenging the status quo

Cultural diversity means that more questions are asked between participants as they seek to ensure effective communication and understanding. This results in the challenging of the status quo which often leads to potential improvements that would have been missed in a monocultural environment.

Moreover, frequent improvements often mean more efficient workflows, which can also drive greater success within the workplace.

Local needs

In utilizing cross-cultural communication and the application of a diverse talent pool, businesses can adapt to regional requirements with greater finesse and understanding. By making use of the relevant knowledge from within their global workforce, they’re better equipped to adapt to and understand local needs, habits, and requirements.

Demonstrating such local understanding could be a primary determiner of success in a local market. By catering to local culture, your business is almost certain to have a competitive edge over any rivals.

A great growth opportunity

While there are numerous challenges that occur when different cultures interact, there is a great opportunity too.

Ideally, the development and implementation of cross-cultural communication should take place from the top of the organization. When the leaders set an example and demonstrate their awareness and adaptability, they pave the way for everyone else in the organization to follow suit.

The benefits of effective cross-cultural communication, not only toward success and profit, can be immense. It generally outweighs the challenges posed and has major long-term benefits.

To start the development of cross-cultural communication, keep the above in mind. Remember to actively listen to all participants. And, always pause before reacting, in case there has been a cultural misunderstanding.

Conclusion

Society’s integration with technology and the resulting development of global culture has placed greater pressures on business. It highlighted the need for developing and training cultural understanding and the importance of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, breaking the cross-cultural communication barriers in the workplace goes a long way towards increasing success. 

What is local presence dialing?

Local presence dialing is a sales and marketing strategy that aims to increase engagement and response rates by displaying a local phone number to prospects, rather than a toll-free or out-of-state number. The theory behind local presence dialing is that people are more likely to answer a call from a number that appears to be local to their area, versus an unfamiliar long-distance number.

How does local presence dialing work?

To use local presence dialing, you need to purchase local DID numbers from a service provider such as VoiceSpin which offers international local numbers from 160+ countries. These providers maintain a pool of numbers with local area codes from various geographic locations. When a business initiates outbound calls using the dialer software for call center, the dialing system automatically selects a number from the pool with the same area code as the recipient’s location. It ensures that your prospect will see a local number on their caller ID screen, helping your business appear legitimate, more credible, and trustworthy.

For example, if you are calling prospects located in New York, the dialer system will select numbers with 212 or 315 area codes from your pool of purchased numbers. From the recipient’s perspective, the call appears to be coming from a local business. The best part is that your agents don’t have to select numbers for each location manually. The dialer system automatically detects the location based on the area code of the prospect’s number and adjusts the local caller ID accordingly, saving your reps a great deal of time and effort.

How can local presence dialing help you improve sales

Before we go into more detail, first let’s see how local presence dialing can help you improve sales.

Local presence dialing increases your call answer rates

Low call answer rate has always been one of the biggest challenges sales reps face when making cold calls. There might be several reasons why your prospects aren’t picking up (e.g., you might have called at the wrong time). But if you call your prospects from numbers with local area codes rather than toll-free numbers, that can dramatically change the outcome.

According to research by Software Advice, people are nearly four times more likely to answer calls from local numbers. While only 7% of the respondents said they’re likely to answer a call from an unknown caller with a toll-free area code – that number leaps to 27.5% when the unknown caller is using a local area code.

Local presence increases the efficiency of your outbound calling campaigns

Leveraging local presence dialing doesn’t just improve call answer rates – it can also have a significant impact on the overall productivity and efficiency of your outbound sales team. Since more prospects are likely to answer calls from local numbers, your sales reps will engage in more conversations with potential customers rather than wasting time dialing numbers and waiting for calls to connect.

This boost in productivity is compounded by the cost-effectiveness of using a local presence dialer. Rather than having to staff separate call center teams in each location you’re calling, you can simply purchase bulk local phone numbers from a DID provider and have your agents call prospects from those local presence numbers, regardless of their actual physical location. This allows you to streamline your operations and focus your resources on generating more sales opportunities, rather than managing complex multi-site infrastructure.

Best practices for using local presence dialing

Since we’ve established the benefits of local presence dialing for sales without further ado it’s time to explain the best practices that you can incorporate to .

Purchase local numbers from reputable providers

To ensure you get the maximum out of local presence dialing, purchase local DID numbers from a reputable service provider. Carefully research different VoIP providers, paying close attention to customer reviews and factors like availability of numbers in your desired geographic regions, pricing, per-minute charges, any restrictions and limitations, and the quality of customer support.

Keep an eye on the reputation of your numbers

When using local presence dialing, it’s essential to constantly monitor the reputation of your numbers to ensure they don’t appear as ‘Scam Likely’ on your recipients’ phone screens as it may negatively impact your call answer rates. If you are making large volumes of outbound calls in a specific area, you should have multiple numbers in rotation to ensure the same number isn’t used multiple times in a row. That will also naturally reduce the number of phone calls made per hour from each of these numbers. And if some of your numbers get flagged for suspicious calling behavior, it’s important to timely take them out of rotation and replace them with fresh numbers.

Combine local presence dialing with other strategies

While using local presence is an effective tactic that can improve your outbound calling success, use it alongside other strategies like:

• Use predictive auto-dialers: Predictive auto-dialing solutions can help you further improve the efficiency of your cold calling campaigns by increasing agent talk times and reducing idle time between calls. Predictive dialers use AI and machine learning capabilities to ‘predict’ agent availability based on real-time and historical metrics and connect agents to answered calls as soon as they complete their previous interaction. That means each agent can handle more outbound calls in less time, helping you maximize conversions.
• Call during the recommended times: Calling your prospects during recommended times and days of the week can also make a difference, increasing your call answer rates. For example, research by CallHippo revealed that the best time of day to make cold calls is between 4:00 – 5:00 PM, following the second best time between 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM. According to another study by Revenue.io, decision-makers are more likely to engage in the late afternoon, with the best times to cold call between 4:00 – 5:00 PM, followed closely by the 3:00 – 4:00 PM and 5:00 – 6:00 PM hours.

Conclusion

Despite the low average success rate for cold calls, cold calling remains an effective outbound sales strategy many businesses and organizations rely on. Using local presence dialing when running cold calling campaigns is an excellent way to improve your call connections and increase the efficiency of your cold calling campaigns. When prospects get calls from a number with an area code that matches their location, they are more likely to answer even though the number is unknown. Combined with other effective strategies and tactics, local presence dialing can make your outbound sales team much more productive and efficient and help you boost sales.