Insanely Effective Investor Calls: The Foolproof System For How To Ask Investors For Money (Including Word-For-Word Scripts!)

One of my first memories of asking people for money was going door-to-door in the apartment building we lived in at the time to sell tchotchkes for my elementary school fundraiser.

My basic “business plan,” if you can call it that, was – I would knock, smile sweetly when they opened the door, introduce myself and my school, and ask for the sale.

With that simple but deceptively effective business plan, I routinely sold enough goods and raised enough money to earn some pretty sweet prizes over the years.

However, once school fundraisers eventually phased out into online ordering, I found myself questioning my sales and people skills. As I went through college and my twenties, I stayed as far away from sales as I could, believing that it wasn’t right for me, and that others were better at it than I was.

But when I stumbled upon the opportunity to help busy people invest passively in real estate syndications, it was the first time in my adult life that sales no longer intimidated me. That’s because I realized that the opportunity to raise capital isn’t about trying to get people to spend money on tchotchkes; it’s an opportunity to help people transform their lives for the better.

Instantly, I was hooked. But that doesn’t mean that my journey of talking to investors about their money has been easy or completely seamless. Believe me, I’ve had my share of awkward moments.

Through it all, we’ve discovered an insanely effective capital raising system – one that allows you to be yourself, that eliminates those awkward cringe-worthy moments, and that just plain works for getting a potential investor to say YES to your offerings.

In this article, we’ll share with you the exact scripts we use when talking to an individual investor, the right questions to ask so that you’re providing the right solutions, the mistakes that most real estate small business owners make when they try to raise capital, how to get investor calls on your calendar, and much more.

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Bulletproof Mindset For Talking To Investors About Money

We get it, talking to people about money can be A-W-K-W-A-R-D. Money can be a taboo topic of discussion, even among your closest friends, so talking to strangers about money might be more than you think you can handle.

This is the place where many real estate syndicators and small businesses get stuck and throw in the towel. They would rather crawl in a hole than to ask people for money. And therein lies the secret – the one small shift that can change everything – the thought of “asking” people for money.

Rather than thinking about “asking” people for money, think about raising capital as presenting people with an opportunity that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access.

It’s like this. When you find a great hole-in-the-wall restaurant, what’s the first thing you want to do? Probably shout it from the rooftops and tell everyone you know, so that they can experience this amazing thing too.

It’s the same thing with real estate syndications. Assuming you believe in the real estate opportunities you’re raising capital for, this is your opportunity to shout from the rooftops and help all your friends and family to access this incredible way to build wealth too.

How To Effortlessly Get Investor Calls On Your Calendar

Once you’ve got the mindset piece dialed in, and you’re ready to go talk to some investors, the next step is to actually find those investors.

Sure, you might start with people in your existing database of friends and family, but that will only get you so far. Soon enough, those contacts will be tapped out, and you’ll need to find more potential investors.

As a business owner, you might be tempted to spend your time crafting the perfect solid business plan or fine-tuning your matrix of business decisions, but without investors to talk to, you won’t be able to raise the funds needed to close any deals.

You need a system that will attract investors to you, that will regularly get investor calls on your calendar without you having to spend thousands of dollars on ads or bang your head against the wall trying to meet the right people.

Here are the exact steps we’ve used to find the right people to talk to – those who are searching for the exact solution (i.e., real estate syndication passive investing opportunities) that we offer.

Step #1 – Define Your Investor Avatar

Before you start scouring various Facebook groups, meetups, and your friend networks for potential investors, start by figuring out your investor avatar. This is the ideal person you’d like to work with and serve.

When you have a clear investor avatar in mind, you can bring more personality and coherence to your brand and thus attract more of the right people. Without a clear investor avatar, your brand and marketing communications might become bland, generic, or disorganized, and thus not resonate with anyone.

Defining an investor avatar doesn’t mean that you will be excluding anyone; quite the contrary. By directing your brand toward a specific group of people, your marketing efforts will become more strategic and focused, which will lead you to appeal to more potential investors, and on a deeper level.

To define your investor avatar, start by thinking of the ideal person you would want to work with. You might think about things like…

How much money does this person have to invest?
Are they accredited?
How much experience do they have with real estate investing?
Are you looking for professional investors or newbies?
What do they do for work?
How old is this person?
Is this person male or female?
Where do they live?
Do they have kids? If so, how old?
What do they like to do for fun?
What are their money / financial / investing habits and goals?
How savvy are they with financial data and financial statements?
What are their expectations as far as return on their investment?
Why are they interested in investing in real estate?

Through answering questions like these about your avatar, you’ll get to know them better, understand their motivations, and thus be able to communicate more effectively to reach them.

We recommend being as specific as possible, down to creating a specific name for your avatar, occupation, city of residence, names of spouse and kids, and so on. Once you do so, your investor avatar will serve as the foundation for your brand.

Step #2 – Understand Your Avatar’s Pain Points

Once you’ve created your investor avatar, take some time to dig into their deepest pain points. What stresses them out? What do they struggle with? What keeps them up at night?

For example, our investor avatar is Jen – a 38-year-old mom of three with a busy full-time job in San Francisco. She wants to be the crafty mom who does all the art projects and goes on outings with her kids, but she constantly feels strapped for time.

The lack of time freedom, driven largely by Jen’s need to maintain a full-time job to help support her family, is one of Jen’s deepest pain points, and it’s what drives her to look for passive income solutions like investing in real estate.

Knowing this, we can then target our marketing efforts to speak to those specific pain points and thus attract people just like Jen into our funnel.

Step #3 – Create An Irresistible Solution

Once you know your avatar’s deepest pain points, figure out how you can help them start to solve their problems through a lead magnet – a simple guide or resource.

If your avatar struggles with lack of time freedom, you might create a lead magnet called, “Get Your Time Back: The Step-By-Step Guide To Creating Passive Income So You Can Quit Your Job.” Someone who’s stressed about lack of time would see that and instantly know that you understand them and what they need.

This is exactly the goal of this step – to demonstrate to potential investors that you understand who they are and what they need, which helps them build trust with you and see you as the answer they’ve been searching for.

The more specific you can get with the pain point, and the more that your solution can speak directly to that pain point, the more likely you are to attract the right investors.

Step #4 – Create A Simple Funnel With Automated Call Scheduling

Next, you’re going to want to take your lead magnet and use it as a carrot to entice potential investors to opt in and give you their contact information. This is something that many small businesses use to attract customers and set themselves apart in the competitive landscape.

Typically, this is done by creating a landing page on your website where you’ll introduce people to the resource you’ve created for them, what they can expect from it, why they will benefit from it, and how they can sign up to get it.

You’ll want to include a simple form that captures the most basic information, like first name and email, to ensure that the hurdle for opting in is as low as possible.

Then, in both the confirmation page after they sign up, as well as the follow-up email you’ll send with the link to the resource, you’ll want to provide your calendar scheduling link so that they can schedule a call with you.

This offer to schedule a call with you will do a few things:

It will capture them at the exact moment when they’ve already decided to do something about their pain point (i.e., to sign up for your lead magnet), meaning that their motivation is strong.
It will give them an easy way to get free additional support to help them with their problem or to learn more about your business model.
It will show them that you’re available and willing to help them, which further builds their trust in you and what you’re offering.

Once you have your funnel with your scheduling link in place, start to share it out with everyone you know, including on social media, via emails, at conferences and events, and more. As you get the word out, you’ll start to attract more and more of the right people into your funnel.

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Eek – An Investor Scheduled A Call! Now What?

How To Effectively Structure Your Investor Calls

If you’ve gone through all the steps above, you’ll start to see investor calls pop up on your calendar. Woohoo! This is the first step in converting a stranger from the internet into an actual investor and loyal fan of your brand.

But how do you structure an effective investor call? What do you talk about? And how do you make sure it’s not awkward, that it’s a good use of their and your time, and that you maximize the chances that they’ll actually invest with you?

First, remember that anyone who schedules a call with you is highly motivated. They want to “buy” what you’re selling so that it can help them with their pain points, so you just need to guide them toward the solution you’re offering (i.e., investing in your real estate syndication offerings) with authority, clarity, compassion, and kindness.

This is where the RAPID Investor Call Structure comes in. RAPID stands for:

Rapport
Agenda
Probing
Identifying the opportunity
Decision with deadline

When you structure your investor calls with these five components, you’ll give your investors what they need while maximizing the chances that they’ll turn into an actual investor.

Investor Call Part 1: Rapport

At the beginning of the call, start by establishing rapport, to build camaraderie and trust. You can do this by asking them some basic questions about themselves, their family, where they live, and how they found you.

Often, when people are hopping on a call with someone they’ve never met before, it can be nerve-wracking, especially if they’re new to investing and may not feel confident in their own knowledge and experience.

This is your chance to establish the tone of the call, so they can relax, establish a deeper connection with you, and start to build trust with you.

You’ll want to focus on rapport for just the first couple of minutes, to ensure efficiency for the call and show them that you value their time. Below are some ideas for questions you can ask to help establish rapport.

Example Investor Call Script – Rapport

“Hello! It’s wonderful to meet you, [Investor Name]. How’s your day going so far?”

“Agreed, I’ve been buried in meetings for most of the day myself, so I totally understand the Zoom fatigue. What type of work do you do?”

“I love it. Sounds like you love your work but it can also be quite stressful. Remind me, whereabouts are you based?”

“I love the photo behind you. Is that a picture of your kids? How old are they?”

“Well, I’m so grateful we have the opportunity to chat today, so that I can learn a bit more about you and see how we might be able to support you in reaching your goals. Before we dive in, I’m curious – how did you first hear about us?”

Investor Call Part 2: Agenda

To deepen the rapport you’ve already built, you’ll want to establish the container for the call, so they know that you’ve got them and that you’re leading them.

Setting the agenda for the call will help your investor to relax, knowing that you’ll guide them through the call.

Below is a simple script you can use for this portion of the call.

Example Investor Call Script – Agenda

“So I want to be respectful of our time. I know that we’ve set aside X time for today’s call. I want to hear about your goals and what you hope to get out of investing passively in real estate. We’ll also talk a bit more about the kinds of investment opportunities we offer, to help you determine whether we might be a good fit to help you accomplish your investing goals. To start, tell me a bit more about why you became interested in investing in real estate syndications in the first place, and what you hope to get out of passive investing.”

Investor Call Part 3: Probing

Now that you’ve established rapport and set the agenda, it’s time to get into the heart of the call – learning more about them so that you can help them determine whether investing with you is the right fit for their goals.

In this section of the call, you’ll want to ask open-ended questions to learn more about them and their goals. This is the part of the call where it’s key for you to tune in and listen actively and deeply, so you can discern as much of the following as possible:

Whether they’re eligible to invest with you (i.e., if your deals are only open to accredited investors at a $50k minimum, you’ll want to make sure they meet that threshold)
Why they want to invest and what their investing goals are (diversification, cash flow, certainty, etc.)
Their timeline and motivation to invest
Prior experience with investing, whether with real estate or other assets
How likely they are to invest, assuming the right deal comes along
Their appetite for risk
Their questions and concerns related to investing
If they have a spouse or partner, whether that person is on board

It’s fairly straightforward and easy to ask questions like “What are your investing goals?” or “What’s been your experience with real estate in the past?”

When it comes to asking about money, however, things can get a bit awkward. But! Don’t let the potential for awkwardness stop you from probing about their financial situation. You need that information in order to help them.

Below is a simple script you can use to help alleviate the potential awkwardness.

Example Investor Call Script – Probing

“Thank you for sharing a bit about your investing goals. That gives me great insight into what you’re looking for and how we might be able to help you. Next, I’m going to ask you a few questions about your financial situation. Some people find this section to be a little uncomfortable, but I promise that I’m not judging your financial situation as good or bad, and that I won’t share your information with anyone. This is just so that I can help you determine which of our investments you’re eligible to invest in, so I can help guide you more meaningfully toward your investing goals. Sound good?”

Investor Call Part 4: Identifying The Opportunity

Now that you have a much clearer picture of your investor’s goals, motivations for investing, what they’re looking for, their prior experience, and their financial situation, it’s time to offer them a potential solution.

In the back of your mind, you know all the ways that you might be able to help this person, including…

Sharing a current investment opportunity so they can consider making an equity investment
Giving them educational resources about passive investing
Teaching them about crowdfunding offerings open to non-accredited investors
Sharing a sample deal so they can better understand the types of opportunities you offer
Helping them understand the difference between funds and individual assets
Offering a follow-up call to do a deeper dive on their questions or to have their spouse / partner on the call
Connecting them with a CPA, attorney, or other service provider who can help with their specific situation and concerns

As you’ve been listening to their responses to your probing questions, hopefully you’ll have identified one or more of these opportunities as a potential next step or solution to their immediate needs.

This is the part of the call where you share more about the opportunity that you’ve identified specifically for them, based on what they’ve shared with you.

Example Investor Call Script – Identifying The Opportunity

“Okay fantastic. Now that I have a better understanding of your financial situation, as well as your investing goals, I do have an opportunity to share with you that I think would be a good fit for your goals. Would you like me to tell you a bit more about it?”

Assuming your investor affirms that they would like you to continue, proceed by walking them through the opportunity you’ve identified for them, speaking specifically to the pain points and goals that they’ve already shared with you earlier in the call.

The more that your opportunity can mirror your investor’s own language, the more they’ll connect with the solution you’re sharing with them.

Investor Call Part 5: Decision With A Deadline

Once you’ve walked your investor through the opportunity, it’s time to help them take action toward the solution. This section of the call may be a little more technical or logistical, with you helping them to think about the practicality and specific steps needed to proceed.

This is the part of the call that may feel a little pushy or sales-y, especially if you’re new to investor calls, but it’s crucial that you do not skip this section. After all the work you’ve done in the call to get to know your investor and help them, this part of the call is perhaps the most important, as it will lead them to take the action they need to get the result they came for.

Depending on your investor’s specific needs and goals, below are some ideas for questions you may want to lead them through in this part of the call.

Example Investor Call Script – Decision With A Deadline

“Fantastic. It sounds like this opportunity might be a good fit for your overall investing goals. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being all-in, where do you feel you are with this investment?”

“Have you thought about the range of investment capital you might put in?”

“Do you have access to those funds now, or do you need to pull those out of a 401(k)?”

“Is there anyone else that would be involved in making this decision or proceeding with this investment?”

“As a next step, I’ll send you a follow-up email immediately after this call, with the investment summary for this opportunity. Feel free to take your time in reviewing the details, and then we can talk further about any questions that come up. If it works for you, let’s go ahead and put a follow-up call on calendar. We can always cancel it if you decide you don’t need it. How does that sound?”

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Following Up After The Investor Call

Once you complete your investor call, the most important thing to do is to follow up. This shows your investor that you do what you say you’ll do, that you’re committed to helping them, and that you’re organized, detail-oriented, and trustworthy.

Remember, at this stage of the relationship, your investor still doesn’t know very much about you and your business yet, so they’re looking to every little detail to see if they can trust you.

That’s why it’s so important for you to follow up, not just once but consistently. Your investor leads a busy life, which is why they need the solution you’re offering. However, as part of that busy life, they may not immediately respond or follow through.

This is where you need to continue to nudge them and help them take action. Rather than thinking of it as a burden or worrying that you’re bothering them, remember that they want to take action toward the solution, to ease their pain.

By following up, you are helping them to take action toward their ultimate goals. Seeing your reminders and follow-up emails, calls, and texts will remind your investor that you’re there for them, and that you’re not going anywhere.

Next Steps

If you’re raising capital for real estate and are trying to connect with more potential investors, we’re here to help! Start by educating yourself through reading articles like this one, creating a simple lead magnet and automated funnel, and spreading the word on your business plan, to convince investors that you might be the right fit for them.

If you haven’t already, be sure to craft a compelling story through your website and marketing communications so that potential investors can understand your track record, the positive impact you’re making, and why you’ve decided to pursue this business idea – all so that investors can build trust with you, see that you can help them make a reasonable return on their investment, and consider investing their personal funds with you.

If you’d like support with any of this, including marketing, branding, investor call scripts, how to effectively raise capital, how to get calls with multiple investors every week on your calendar, how to automate your marketing funnel, and more – we’re here to help!

Through our Real Estate Accelerator program, we’ll give you all the resources, tools, and vendors we’ve used to help our coaching members successfully launch their own funds, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Learn more and apply today.