At a recent CEM event, I sat in on a number of 20-minute investor meetings between CEOs and investors. One CEO, in particular, stood out. He was articulate, energized, and confident—clearly experienced. But afterward, he came up to me and said something I’ve heard many times: “It felt like a good meeting, but I’m not sure it really landed.”
What I saw in the meeting was a CEO doing many things well. But the investment thesis wasn’t clearly framed. The supporting visuals lacked strategic function. There were too many details, not enough synthesis. The investor stayed engaged—listening politely, even asking questions—but in the end, there was no follow-up. The conversation didn’t create traction. And what the CEO experienced as “engagement” was, in truth, a polite pass.
The Invisible Gap: Why CEOs Misread the Room
In our work with dozens of CEOs and IR reps, this disconnect is more common than most realize. Executives often walk away from investor meetings feeling they’ve succeeded—confident delivery, thoughtful answers, a handshake and a follow-up promise. But the outcome? No traction. No momentum. No conversion.
Why? Blind spots.
These aren’t just surface-level habits—they’re cognitive blind spots, grounded in behavioural psychology: patterns operating below conscious awareness; unseen patterns that shape how we communicate and how we believe we’re being received. Without expert feedback, these patterns become fixed. And because they feel natural—or have “worked” in the past—they go unexamined.
The cost? Subtle but decisive. A missed connection. A disqualified opportunity. A moment that could have moved capital, credibility, or conviction—quietly lost.
Investors employ a range of strategies when evaluating CEOs, and one of the most common—especially when they’re taking 18 or more back-to-back meetings in a single day—is to disqualify as quickly as possible. As one investor put it to me recently: “Initially, I’m not trying to qualify the opportunity—I’m trying to eliminate what doesn’t fit for me. If they’re not ticking the right boxes early, I move on.”
With this volume of meetings, cognitive overload is inevitable. That’s why precision isn’t a luxury—it’s a survival strategy. Investors are looking to simplify their field of vision. If something doesn’t add up, lacks clarity, or doesn’t map to their mandate, they’re out. No feedback. No follow-up.
As boxers often say, “It’s the punch you don’t see that knocks you out.” The same is true here: the blind spot you’re not aware of is often the one that silently disqualifies you.
This pattern isn’t abstract—it plays out clearly in the structure of a typical CEM event.
The Most Common Blind Spots
Blind spots can take many forms. Here are some of the most common patterns we’ve seen in real meetings:
- Excessive detail too soon: The core message is buried. The investor doesn’t know what to focus on.
- Failure to state the investment case clearly: The critical answer to “Why you, why now?” isn’t front and center. (Learn more about ‘The Hook’ in our recent article)
- Disconnected messaging: Presenting ideas that don’t add up to a single, compelling narrative.
- Overuse of jargon or insider language: Overuse of jargon reduces clarity, which lowers trust and engagement.
- No clear ask or call to action: There’s no indication of what success looks like from the investor’s perspective.
- Failure to address the investor’s perspective: The investor’s mandate, criteria, or mindset is not acknowledged.
- Inconsistent messaging across formats: The story changes between the deck, the meeting, and the follow-up—and trust erodes.
Many of these issues persist not because CEOs are unaware, but because no one has ever reflected the gap back to them. And in the absence of trusted feedback or performance analysis, even top-tier communicators can fall into these traps.
From Blind Spots to Strategic Advantage
That’s where professional insight comes in.
Think of a professional golfer: a less than 5% adjustment in technique can produce massive upside in performance. That’s often the difference between contending and winning. In capital markets, that margin might be the difference between being seriously followed—or quietly dismissed.
This is why elite organizations invest in presentation coaching—not as a remedial tool, but as an amplifier. Not to change what makes someone effective, but to optimize it.
Recently, we worked with a CEO who believed more detail was more convincing. He was well aware his approach wasn’t working as well as he’d like but didn’t know what was missing—he thought more was better. Through our investor-centric approach, we streamlined his focus on the core investment case. The result? Strong positive investor feedback and measurably improved engagement.
At CEM, we’ve built an ecosystem that allows us to do just that. Through our investor meetings, both live and virtual, we have the infrastructure to observe and diagnose what’s really happening in the room. We work side-by-side with CEOs to understand what’s working, where the gaps are, and how to strategically improve—based not just on theory, but on actual performance.
Unlocking Your Full Potential
This isn’t about replacing your strengths—it’s about optimizing them. Diagnosing what’s missing, tightening what’s loose, and elevating what already works. It’s strategic intervention, not reinvention.
This is precisely what we do at CEM Advisory. We help identify the specific blind spots that prevent your message from converting—whether it’s burying your investment thesis, overwhelming with detail, or missing the investor’s decision framework. Once these invisible barriers are eliminated, your natural abilities finally create the impact they should.
This is how marginal gains turn into strategic advantage. And this is how potential becomes performance.
Want an expert perspective to help identify your pitch blindspots? Contact us today for a complimentary discovery call with Patrick Finucane.
CEM Advisory Services | Connect with CEM on LinkedIn | Book a Complimentary Discovery Meeting