When an entrepreneur is looking for a potential investor, partner or even customer, she makes a pitch. A pitch is the process of describing the primary features of your product or idea – generally in five minutes or less. In the world of entrepreneurship, having a good pitch is critical to a founder’s success and even the success of her startup. There is a lot an entrepreneur can do to perfect her pitch, but there is one thing in particular every entrepreneur must do when creating a pitch.

During the “GIST TechConnect: Perfecting Your Pitch,” a panel of expert entrepreneurs highlighted the golden rule all entrepreneurs must follow when creating a pitch: identify and understand your audience. Whether your pitch is going to be just 30 seconds or 30 minutes, the experts agreed that without proper research on your audience – your pitch will likely fail. This is particularly true when you are pitching to investors.

“An important aspect is knowing your audience – and this gets ignored often,” said Jainesh Sinha, founder of GyanDahn. “I’ve seen several of my friends using the same pitch, the same practiced pitch, to several investors. But the reality is different investors value different things, and therefore the pitch to investors has to be different.”

Sinha explained that failing to understand the type of investors you are pitching could mean telling that investor the wrong information – or telling that investor something they are not interested in hearing. If you do this, the Sinha said you’re likely not going to convince that person to give your company money.

Michelle Messina, CEO of Explora International, said it is also important to understand that investors, unlike potential customers and partners, are interested in very specific details about your startup. She said this is because many investors actually specialize in specific types of funding for startups. In order to convince an investor to partner with you, Messina said you need to make sure you are telling that investor the right details.

“The investor’s overriding objective is that they want to get a return on investment,” said Messina. “If you have taken a round of funding already and you’re pitching to funders for your next round, you need to be articulate in communicating the technical and commercial milestones your company has received in the first round of funding.”

If you take the time to understand your audience, the Sinha and Messina agreed your pitch is likely to go well. But the golden rule alone does not make a perfect pitch. The panel explained there are several other skills and strategies you should practice in order to make the perfect pitch.

To get the full discussion on perfecting your pitch, including other useful tips from the panel, click here. Messina also provided a 10 step guide to making a good five-minute pitch, which you can find below.

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