There’s a new slide I’m starting to see in fundraising pitches that’s quickly become my favorite.

It’s titled “The Usual Objections.” It fits neatly towards the end of a fundraising deck that’s less than 12 slides and it lays out the top objections the entrepreneur has heard in the course of raising money for and building their business. Here’s a composite version:

I love the slide for a bunch of reasons:

It shows an entrepreneur that’s thoughtfully listening to the objections that are being raised. Some of these will be real obstacles that the business needs to navigate; others will be misperceptions that the entrepreneur can show data to debunk. In both cases, handling objections starts with hearing and confronting them.

It forces the entrepreneur to build solid data-driven cases to counter each objection.

It shows an entrepreneur confident in their business and their understanding of the business.

It does a lot of work for the investor, which can fast forward the discussion to the more salient points. The investor doesn’t need to point out the obvious objections.

It puts the objections on the table, where you have a chance to hit them head on.

It frames the objections as mundane and ordinary, diffusing the chance that an investor will become attached to or enamored with their own objection.

There’s nothing to be gained by leaving this slide out. If you’re talking to good investors, you’re talking to smart investors. As the discussion of your deal winds from partner to presentation to memo to committee, it’s unlikely they’ll miss an objection only you know about.

What’s far more likely is that that objection will come up in private discussion without you having a chance to address it, or that you’ll be given a chance to address that objection far too late in the conversation and after firm points of view have formed around that objection.

So hit it early and as part of ordinary business, as just one of “the usual objections.”