Richard Bran­son

When you are sure of your con­cept for a busi­ness–but wait­ing for the world to catch up–how do you sell an idea based on pas­sion rather than on num­bers?

Karen So­ef­fk­er

Sell­ing an idea isn't easy. I re­mem­ber stand­ing in a tele­phone box ear­ly in my ca­reer, try­ing to get po­ten­tial ad­ver­tis­ers to buy space in a mag­a­zine that didn't yet ex­ist, so I know all too well how frus­trat­ing it can be when peo­ple won't give you a chance. How­ev­er, I deeply be­lieved in my idea and I learned then that hav­ing con­fi­dence in your­self breeds con­fi­dence in oth­ers.

I wouldn't wor­ry if your idea hasn't caught on with oth­ers yet. It could mean you've spot­ted an op­por­tu­ni­ty be­fore any­body else has. All you need to do now is make your first sale, and the rest will fol­low. The key to mak­ing that first sale, though, starts with per­fect­ing your busi­ness pitch.

A great pitch can do many things. It can con­vince po­ten­tial in­vestors and clients that you are worth tak­ing a chance on. It can al­so help you re­cruit top tal­ent that can help your busi­ness ex­pand. These are es­sen­tial in­gre­di­ents for a suc­cess­ful ven­ture.

The first step to­ward de­liv­er­ing a great pitch is to keep it hu­man, since far too many pre­sen­ta­tions and speech­es can turn ar­ti­fi­cial and wood­en quite quick­ly. Let your pas­sion shine through by be­ing your­self and al­low­ing your points to come across nat­u­ral­ly. Use hu­mor to con­nect with your au­di­ence and demon­strate your cre­ativ­i­ty.

One of the best pitch­es I ever re­ceived was from a man who owned an el­e­va­tor in­stal­la­tion busi­ness. He knew that peo­ple fre­quent­ly gave me their "el­e­va­tor pitch" and thought it would be more ef­fi­cient and fun to be in an ac­tu­al el­e­va­tor. While the idea wasn't ul­ti­mate­ly vi­able, it made me smile. I'm sure he has gone on to great things.

Of course, facts and fig­ures are im­por­tant. If you have da­ta that sup­ports your po­ten­tial busi­ness, that's great. But re­mem­ber not to drown peo­ple in num­bers (my eyes tend to glaze over as soon as too many stats are rolled out dur­ing a pitch). If you don't have any sup­port­ing da­ta avail­able for your idea, you have to sell peo­ple on your vi­sion and your dream.

Tell them ex­act­ly why you want this busi­ness to suc­ceed. Ex­plain the prob­lem that you want to solve with your prod­uct or ser­vice, and why you be­lieve it needs solv­ing - even if oth­er peo­ple haven't re­alised that yet. And be sure to cite re­al-life sto­ries that re­in­force your points and make your idea more re­lat­able and per­son­able.

Keep in mind that peo­ple want to in­vest in peo­ple. So talk about your pre­vi­ous suc­cess­es. For in­stance, if you have suc­ceed­ed in a busi­ness once be­fore, peo­ple will be­lieve that you can do it again. If not, high­light your skills and con­nec­tions: What abil­i­ties of yours will help make this busi­ness a re­al­i­ty? What deals or part­ner­ships have you put in place to help ex­e­cute your vi­sion?

You must al­so make sure that you get out there and are vis­i­ble. You are, af­ter all, your com­pa­ny's great­est as­set. I have al­ways been right at the heart of pro­mot­ing Vir­gin's new ven­tures and our ex­pan­sion in­to new ter­ri­to­ries be­cause po­ten­tial in­vestors and cus­tomers will re­mem­ber a busi­ness or brand if they can as­so­ciate it with a face.

How­ev­er, don't make the mis­take of try­ing to do every­thing your­self. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go to­geth­er.

En­tre­pre­neur­ial sup­port is plen­ti­ful these days, and there are many peo­ple and or­gan­i­sa­tions out there that can help you for free. For in­stance, or­gan­i­sa­tions like Vir­gin Start­Up in the UK of­fer free men­tor­ing ses­sions for en­tre­pre­neurs, and Vir­gin Me­dia's "Pitch to Rich" com­pe­ti­tion of­fers new en­tre­pre­neurs a chance to win fund­ing to get them start­ed, plus men­tor­ing ses­sions with me and ex­perts with­in the Vir­gin Group.

Go on­line and look for en­tre­pre­neur­ial sup­port groups in your area, and get these ex­perts to as­sist you in re­fin­ing your pitch or busi­ness mod­el. Ask them for help­ful con­nec­tions in their net­works. If you have ex­ter­nal sup­port­ers on your side, you are more like­ly to con­vince oth­ers that your busi­ness idea is an op­por­tu­ni­ty they shouldn't miss.

Build­ing a busi­ness from scratch is tough, es­pe­cial­ly when you are sell­ing a con­cept that no­body has come up with be­fore.

But re­mem­ber: many peo­ple thought Al­bert Ein­stein and Isaac New­ton had crazy ideas in their time. But it is pas­sion­ate and tena­cious thinkers like them who tend to change the world for the bet­ter.

Don't give up on your vi­sion, and you will get your break.

(Richard Bran­son is the founder of the Vir­gin Group and com­pa­nies such as Vir­gin At­lantic, Vir­gin Amer­i­ca, Vir­gin Mo­bile and Vir­gin Ac­tive. He main­tains a blog at www.vir­gin.com/richard-bran­son/blog. You can fol­low him on Twit­ter at twit­ter.com/richard­bran­son. To learn more about the Vir­gin Group: www.vir­gin.com.)

(Ques­tions from read­ers will be an­swered in fu­ture columns. Please send them to Richard­Bran­son@ny­times.com. Please in­clude your name, coun­try, e-mail ad­dress and the name of the web­site or pub­li­ca­tion where you read the col­umn.)

The Per­fect Pitch

In or­der to con­vince po­ten­tial in­vestors and clients that you are worth tak­ing a chance on, you have to ef­fec­tive­ly con­vey your pas­sion for your idea. Here's a few things to keep in mind when mak­ing your pitch:

1. Keep it hu­man: Let your pas­sion shine through nat­u­ral­ly. Make sure your pre­sen­ta­tion is not too stiff, and use hu­mor if you can.

2. Tack­le the is­sue: Ex­plain the prob­lem that your prod­uct or ser­vice would solve, and why you be­lieve it needs solv­ing.

3. Tell sto­ries: Be sure to cite re­al-life sto­ries that re­in­force your points and make your idea more re­lat­able and per­son­able.