One of the most difficult things to do as a business is to peruse, prioritise and accept feedback. All too many entrepreneurs and would-be businesses have failed at this.
Quite why all humans experience anti-input cognitive biases, is a question for another article. However, we do need to master this technique to be successful in business. Built on work with start-ups through coaching and mentoring, a 7-step programme for start-ups to consider has been developed. These steps can be utilised whether you are getting ideas from team members, customers, investors or mentors.
Know Their Background
When pitching your start-up idea at a meeting you will more than likely have some knowledge of the background of the people you are pitching to. It is a good idea to check out their bios or LinkedIn profiles beforehand to understand a as much as you can about each of them and where they come from.
Maybe one of the mentors has practised in an industry that is significant to you, others may not have any relevant experience at all. Subsequently, knowing their backgrounds will help understand their biases and allow you to more accurately review the substance of their feedback.
Record Meetings
When attending a meeting it is a good idea to record discussions, especially if you are gaining feedback.
However, you will need to ensure you have permission beforehand from all participants. Following the meeting you can then listen to the feedback and jot down comprehensive notes.
In the heat of a meeting, it can be difficult to properly understand the inference in someone’s tone or their level of enthusiasm. This is due to our adrenaline levels being raised in the stressful environment of an investment meeting. It can be difficult to actually hear what people are saying when our adrenaline kicks in as it activates our fight or flight reflex. All the more reason to record that meeting.
Listen – Do Not Argue
Due to this adrenal condition, it is vital that you use the majority of your time to actively listen to the feedback your given. Unless you are asked a specific question try not to argue about things that are being said by the other participants or look for an immediate counter argument. Take your time to consider what is being said.
However, if the listener exhibits a clear lack of understanding of the pitch, you may need to clarify things. This may come across defensive, which in turn can set the wrong tone, so do try not to become argumentative. Techniques for this vary, a coach can usually help with this.
Ask Clarifying Questions
The majority of entrepreneurs spend the majority of their time trying to refute or shape listener’s beliefs. If you are going to speak, the best use of your time is often to ask questions.
A principal question to ask is; Why or What?
As in why do you feel that way? Or, what experience have you had that makes you believe this will be the outcome?
These types of questions assist you in gaining further clarity, in regard to what the expert is respectively suggesting. This is especially relevant for customer interviews, wherein you want to gather knowledge about the user’s experience of working with your company.
Examples include; what is the problem? How does this solve the problem? How do you solve this problem? (without this item).
Try to think of your mentors or perspective investors as “clients” they buy in by agreeing to mentor you or invest in you, this may assist when managing your Q&As. Steer clear of questions, such as “what would you do? Or what do you propose we do”? These types of questions can make you appear weak and lacking in market knowledge and stance. Its preferrable to devise it as “what experiences have you had that are similar and what did you do?”
Process Offline with Your Team
The time to exercise feedback is after a meeting not during.
Designate and schedule in a time with co-founders and others involved after the meeting to analyse feedback, make notes and refine what was learnt. If you possess a recording this can be played back at the meeting. Its our recommendation that you wait at least one day before you try to to coordinate feedback. This ensures you are relaxed and rested and have had time to reflect on what happened. Such time helps with clarity and thinking space.
Compile in a document
When you have received all feedback, compile and put it in a shared file. You may want to divide it into units of your business pitch (e.g., Product, market, team etc) or by feedback type. Either way it would be an advantage to note the primary feedback, the person who specified it, and whether it was negative, positive or impartial.
You can also use the answers to shed light on your questions and fill in the spaces of your understanding. Additionally, do not hesitate to follow up with those prospective investors and mentors should you need to do so afterwards.
Look for Patterns
As you absorb the content of your feedback, your aim should be to look for patterns.
Pattern matching can be crucial when deciding what to do next. An example of this, is feedback indicating that a specific category or aspect of your project is facing a lot of competition and is therefore going to struggle to do very well?
Once you have heard this a few times from different areas its advisable to rethink your market focus consider a pivot.
As you are viewing feedback patterns, ensure you include a “weighing” element based on the source’s interest and experience. The example above, a single point of target market feedback would hold more influential weight, if given by a prospective business owner opposed to one from a junior venture partner. As with VCs you are attempting to match patterns and find an advantage in selective signals from noise.
Deciding What to Do
After following the process and receiving a potentially vast amount of feedback you are then faced with the decision of what do you do with these details.
How do you transform this feedback into actions that will have a positive impact?
Firstly, its vital that you remember this is your start-up. In the long run you and your co-founders are responsible for making the decisions, investors, mentors and customers have other priorities. Ultimately you are the one who will be living, breathing, eating and sleeping your start-up. If anything does not sit right with you it is entirely ok for you to simply decide not to do it.
Beyond that, you are considering patterns and people who are trustworthy and have good judgement on the matter. Its paramount that you are aware of the occasions when feedback you are receiving refutes your plans or visions for the future. This is frequently the area where you gain the most interesting facts and results. Try not to be over reactive. There are ever so many start-ups that have been forced to rethink their strategy after only one investor meeting.
Finally, be honest with yourself and keep going.
But pay heed to a wise man’s advice, “If ten people tell you you’re drunk, lie down.”
If you are just starting out, or even if you are only in the first stages of thinking about doing so, it can never hurt to talk to people with experience.
Get in touch today for impartial and professional advice.
Call us on 0203 150 0565 or email info@thealtitudeagency.com
