11 key tips to Successfully Pitch Mobile App Opportunities to Your Company’s Key Decision Makers

By Sam Furr

Business opportunities are derived from several places. Whether you’re trying to implement new marketing avenues, improve in-house operations, solve pain points or overcome challenges, all these typically have one main goal, to maximise revenue. However, as we’re living in a fast-paced digital age, the ways in which companies are able to act on these opportunities have changed; especially through mobile app technology.

Mobile app opportunities have begun to surge in the world of business. From streamlining the customer experience to enhancing internal systems, there’s pretty much nothing a mobile app can’t solve, making them crucial to pleasing the mobile-first consumer and workforce.

But if you’ve identified a gap within your workplace that could be filled with a mobile app, failing to successfully pitch your idea to the companies’ main powerhouses (directors, investors or board members) to obtain funding can stop your innovation in its tracks.

If you’ve got a well-researched mobile app opportunity, here’s how to nail your pitch and leave your idea irresistible to your company’s decision makers.

Prioritise Return Over Cost

If you have meticulously researched your mobile app opportunity and can fully demonstrate the benefits it could have for the business, cost shouldn’t be the investor’s main focus. It should only come into a conversation for calculating ROI, for example, if your mobile app idea will cost £2million but the return is £15million, it’s clearly a worthwhile investment.

And remember, ROI doesn’t just relate to raw profit, it comes in many forms, such as:

Automation = Reduced Costs

A mobile app could replace tedious, manual and sometimes unnecessary tasks for employees, e.g. administrative responsibilities, scheduling. This way, they can invest their full attention into what they’re employed to do, instead of focusing on what could easily be automated.

Improve Employee Retention

Research has identified that 95% of employees consider a mobile-first working environment crucial for reducing staff turnover. Here lies an opportunity to invest in a mobile app that allows staff to work remotely, which will ensure they are working just as effectively outside the office.

Eliminate Unnecessary Subscriptions

An Adobe study on the increase of enterprise mobile apps discovered that 69% of departments are using between two and five mobile apps, while 27% are using six or more. Have a look into how much your company is spending on third party subscriptions and compare it against the initial cost of developing a mobile app. Despite the larger up-front investment, a mobile app should could out as a more cost-effective solution.

Create a Road Map

Unsure of what a road map is? It basically communicates the ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘when’ behind your development project, which is key for guiding its strategic direction.

Aside from logistics, a road map is about determining how your mobile app’s goals align with broader business objectives and vision, whether it’s a worthwhile investment and how it will fit into the overall business plan.

However, a common mistake with road maps is believing they have to be set in stone when they should accommodate for change. This is ideal if you’re launching an MVP (minimum viable product), as it helps to keep features minimal and prioritises what’s required to get it on the market. Let data decide what happens after that. Seeking help from experts, such as app developers is a good way to streamline your MVP and outline the broad steps.

Post-Launch Data and Updates

Then, you can start to evaluate how future iterations of your mobile app will look, and what they will set out to achieve next. This will open the doors to bigger thinking and a better-finished product.

Collating user feedback is a great way to identify which areas of your mobile app are performing well and where you could improve. Behaviour patterns will establish users’ true wants and needs so you can decide where future versions will develop.

All of this will not only reassure stakeholders than your mobile app opportunity is realistic and commercially focused, but it’ll also get them excited for the world of potential your mobile app could unlock.

Delivering Your Pitch

All your hard work comes down to this crucial point, but if you’ve covered all of the above, then putting these last few tips into practice should leave your app idea utterly irresistible to your audience.

Have a Solid Elevator Pitch

This involves summarising the benefits of your mobile app project in around 30 seconds or less, discussing the problem your mobile app will solve and how. The purpose of this is to quickly assure your audience that you’re not wasting their time and spark their intrigue for your full pitch.

Be Visual

Your audience won’t be engaged if you simply say how a company problem can be solved “with a mobile app”, you need to show it. Remember, the mobile app market is only around 10 years old, meaning it’s still a relatively new concept. This is why many investors find it challenging to understand how a mobile app will function if they can’t see it. With a demo, prototype or even just some visuals, your app idea will seem a lot more realistic. Anyone can have a great concept for a mobile app, but its execution is what matters most. If you aren’t willing to invest some time in creating a prototype, why should an investor fund your project?

Share an Engaging Story

Did you know that brands who consistently use storytelling throughout their marketing outperform their competition by 64%? Storytelling sells, so the same strategy should be incorporated into your pitch to make it more compelling. You could tell a story by using visuals and sharing a user journey that aligns with the current business objectives.

Refer to Your Roadmap

Use your roadmap to demonstrate what your solution will encompass and its short, medium and long-term rewards. You shouldn’t solely focus on the logistics of building the app here, you need to focus on how the solution benefits the overall strategy.

Demonstrate Integration Possibilities

Nobody likes to rock the boat within a business, which is why many companies believe shifts in operations will create additional work, stress and behavioural changes. But this is your chance to show them otherwise! Preferably, your mobile app solution should integrate with existing business processes and systems, not work against them. Advertise how your mobile app will simplify processes and not create more tasks or operations.

Identifying a great mobile app opportunity can open up your business to many rewards, but ultimately getting the go final-ahead on your idea will come down to your pitch. If you can successfully outline how you envision your idea moving forward and demonstrate it’s true ROI, investors should jump at the chance to implement your mobile-first solution.

Author Bio:

Sam Furr, Tappable Founder & Head of Product Strategy

Sam has been developing apps for over 10 years and founded a successful, award-winning, international digital app development & product design agency; Tappable. Whether you’re after a commercial, enterprise or consumer-facing product, Tappable will help turn your opportunity into a mobile-first solution that delivers.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking