These days, everyone is looking for investors—a state of affairs that has left the pool feeling smaller and many investors wary of your “hook.”

Given that, how can you present your product/idea/brand in a way that gets investors to do more than nibble …

How can you get them to bite?

Here is my bait:

First: Yale University did a study of the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. They discovered that the most persuasive word in the English language is “you.”

Second: Harvard-based social psychologist Ellen Langer says one word in the English language increases the possibility of cooperation from 60 to 94 percent. (No that is not a typo: 60 to 94 percent.) This word is ”because.”

Lastly: The Duncan Hines Cake Mix Marketing Theory. When Duncan Hines began making cake mix, the decision to have cooks at home add the egg was made in the marketing department. Why? Because they realized that when we add the egg, we feel proud because we contributed: we baked!

How does this become bait for a potential investor?

Well, it would sound like: “I wanted to speak with you about this idea because you were the person who saw the potential in X investment (do your research: choose something from their track record) and not many people would have had that vision—but it left me thinking you would understand the potential of this product/idea/brand.”

Their vision is the egg that gets them as invested in landing you as you are in catching them.

What I’ve discovered over numerous fishing expeditions is that this formula wriggles like a worm in the investor’s mind, leaving them thinking, “That’s true! I was visionary about X … let me think how I might be able to land this… .”

So hang out those “Gone Fishin’” sign. You never know who might bite.