2.4 – Presentations and Pitches
A CEO or founder has a couple of core responsibilities, one of which is communicating the company’s strategy and vision–externally to investors and internally to the team. Another responsibility involves selling to clients, recruiting team members, and wooing investors to raise capital.
These responsibilities boil down to selling, communicating, and pitching.
The topics of this module include:
- Elements of an effective pitch deck
- Best practices for creating a compelling presentation
- Elements of a sales pitch vs. an investment pitch
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Outline the key elements of an effective pitch deck
- Identify best practices for creating a compelling presentation
- Create a pitch deck
Section A: Elements of a Good Pitch Deck
Best practices related to pitch decks can apply to any presentation regardless of audience, including presentations to customer prospects, to potential and existing team members, or to investors.
Please note: Don’t focus on creating too many marketing materials to support your pitch deck. At the beginning, focus on developing some lean marketing material and defining roles; don’t waste time overthinking elements that will probably evolve over time such as:
- Job titles – It’s important to know who’s responsible for what activities, but the actual job titles aren’t important at this stage.
- Logo – A logo really isn’t needed until you start to find users for your minimal viable product.
- Website – Get a Square Space, Wix, or WordPress splash page up quickly for minimal cost and effort.
10-20-30 & Simplicity Rules
Venture Capitalist, Author and early Apple employee Guy Kawasaki has a simple rule for a good pitch deck, the 10/20/30 rule. This means:
- 10 pages
- 20 minutes
- 30 point – use nothing smaller than 30 point font size
Here is a modified breakdown of the slide order based on Guy Kawasaki’s template:
- Problem – The best approach is to frame your problem as a story: who has this problem or why this is a problem. Investors love a narrative because it’s more captivating and helps create empathy for the customer and the problem.
- Your solution – What is unique about your solution? Why is this the right time for this solution? What has changed that others before you missed?
- Business model – How do you charge for your product or service? How much does it cost to acquire a customer? How much revenue is generated from a customer after acquiring them?
- Customer acquisition strategy – What does your marketing or sales strategy look like? What channel will you use to acquire customers? How much will this cost? How long is the sales cycle?
- Traction – What have you achieved so far? What does your sales funnel look like? What customer validation do you have? Have you run any experiments and yielded any results so far?
- Team – What domain expertise, industry experience, or special knowledge of this problem or solution gives you a competitive advantage?
- Competition – Who is your competition or what alternatives do your potential customers currently use?
- Projections and milestones – With the investment funds you expect to raise, what will you accomplish over the next 6 to 18 months?
- Summary and call to action – How much are you raising, on what terms? What do you want from the people to whom you are pitching?
A similar approach by Chance Barnett, Founder & Chairman, Crowdfunder.com, recommends the following slide order:
Slide 1: Vision / Elevator Pitch – One-sentence summary of your business and the value that you are providing to your customers. Keep it clear, concise and to the point.
Slide 2: The Problem – Use this slide to discuss the problem that you are trying to solve with your business and identify who experiences this problem. If you don’t have a clear problem that you are solving, you will have a hard time convincing your audience about the value of your business.
Slide 3: Market Opportunity – Building on the previous slide, get into more detail about how many potential customers exist, and how you plan to position your company in the market. Be careful not to be too broad with your target market. Showing a large market size is good, but if you aren’t specific enough you will deter potential investors.
Slide 4: Product / Service – Introduce your proposed solution to the problem identified in slide 2. You may be tempted to include this slide earlier in the pitch deck but it’s important to clearly define your problem and target audience before introducing your product / service.
Slide 5: Revenue Model – Put simply – how are you going to make money? Even if you have a clearly defined problem with a revolutionary solution, if you cannot explain how you plan to make money you will lose interest from your audience.
Slide 6: Traction / Validation – It’s time to talk about any sales, early adopters, or interested customers. Showing that you have already obtained interest or buy-in from other parties will go a long way in convincing your audience in the quality of your business.
Slide 7: Marketing & Growth Strategy – How do you plan to attract customers and what will your sales process look like? Identify any key tactic that you plan to use to set yourself apart from the competition.
Slide 8: Team – Highlight the expertise, experience and capabilities of your team. What makes your team qualified to deliver your product / service. The quality of your team can make or break a partnership or investment.
Slide 9: Financials – Use this slide to provide a high-level overview of your financial projections and expected sales for the future. It’s important to be realistic when working on these projections and be able to support your financials with sound logic and reasoning.
Slide 10: Competition – Every business has competition. Use this slide to identify other organizations that are attempting to solve the same problem as you. You can also use this slide to further explain what sets you apart from the competition. Never say “there is no competition”. Even the most revolutionary ideas have competition in the form of the existing process. For example, the competitor to the first automobiles was the horse and buggy.
Slide 11: Investment ‘Ask’ – It’s important to end your pitch with a clearly defined ‘Ask’. How much funding are you seeking, how will the funding be spent, and how will this funding will support the growth and success of your business.
What to avoid:
- Don’t talk about every feature, function, and button.
- Don’t use technical jargon. Demand from customers for a solution to the problem is more important than the “AI” or “Blockchain” technology.
- Don’t forecast capturing “1%” of the market. This is a lazy approach to market sizing analysis.
- Don’t say “everyone” can be your customer. Be focused on a specific target customer profile.
- Don’t say you don’t have any competition. Every product or service has an alternative even if it’s pen and paper.
Pitching your idea can be intimidating! In this video, startup founders Martin Magill, Sarah Butts, and Sinan Mohsin provide some useful tips to keep in mind when preparing for your pitch.
Plan
Open up a program and start drafting your sales pitch. Start with slide headings above.
Optional Reading
Section B: Sales Deck versus Investment Deck
It’s a common mistake for startups to try to repurpose their investment deck for sales purposes. These are two very different tools. A sales deck is directed at the customer problem and the benefits of your solution.
Similarities
- Narrative and storytelling is important.
- Clean design and obvious messaging.
- Follow the 10-20-30 rule.
Differences
- In a sales deck, it’s more about the problem and solution, zero about the business.
Sales Deck Format:
- What is the problem you’re solving?
- Who has it?
- What are the associated costs of the problem?
- What are the existing solutions and their shortfalls?
- What has changed to enable a new solution?
- How does your solution work?
- What is the qualitative/quantitative proof that yours is a superior solution?
- How much does it cost?
Optional Reading
Kazanjy, Peter “To Build An Amazing Sales Team, Start Here First.”