We have all heard the folklore and tales from Silicon Valley about super human entrepreneurs dazzling an audience of investors, convincing them to fork over a large sum of money. Shortly after, a pitch deck gets circulated on the internet, and it is heralded as the magic bullet. The truth is, sourcing investment takes time. Loads of time and energy. More importantly, every pitch deck needs to be crafted for a specific audience with a specific purpose. Pitch decks are not just for securing funding, they are also essential to an organization’s sales toolkit.
There are a handful of essential components that should be present in a Pitch (or Sales) deck that we’ll take you through to help shed some light on how to show up to your next prospective meeting with a set of winning slides.
Context & Guidance
Before crafting a narrative, identifying the audience is vital. Establishing the “Who”, “What”, “How” and “Why” as well as the objective will set the tone for all future work.
The most impactful slide decks typically run approximately 10-15 slides, and can flex depending on how much time you have to show and articulate. Timing is key, because no one should spend anymore than 2-3 minutes per slide. When factoring in pleasantries and banter, a 10-15 slide presentation takes you to approximately 35 minutes.
Q & A should be the largest part of the meeting if you’re sitting with a prospect.
Pitch Decks are never final. The document would be a working document, in that it will certainly evolve.
Flow & Needs
- Cover Slide – Make it sexy and captivating
- Frame the market – provide a key statistic, or grounding detail
- Frame the problem – how is this statistic or thought relevant to your audience
- Theorize where the friction is and how the problem manifests inside their organization
- Introduce the pay-off and solution
- Define and elaborate on the solution
- Continue elaborating on the solution as it relates to the initial problem
- Identify how your solution will scale (market opportunities)
- Contextualize past success, introduce the team, establish credibility
- Draw parallels to measurement and “why your idea is great”
- Clearly delineate your “ask”
- Establish next steps and clear aspirations to form an agreement
