If you are looking for some tips and tricks about pitch decks that means you are in the
market to build or grow a business. This is an exciting time for you and ten points for
deciding to look for reference so that you get it right.
Let’s take a look at what a client gave me, how I improved it and go over what works
and what doesn’t.
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Before we start, let me introduce myself, I’m Antonia from aok.com.au and I’m a
strategic business advisor and angel investor and have been helping my clients for over
23 years to develop a compelling business message and winning pitch decks that have
successfully raised my clients millions in equity.
I’m going to start by showing you a presentation one of my clients was working with. They began
to lose confidence in their pitch deck when investors didn’t respond well to their pitch.
As you can see, there is no clear branding and there is too much information on each
slide. And the key points investors are looking for are missing or jumbled up with other key points.
Overall, their message wasn’t clear for investors and feedback wasn’t favourable.
That’s why they came to me for assistance.
I have the advantage of being objective about the content in my
client’s pitch deck and can quickly see where their message is letting them down or
where content is missing.
When it’s your own pitch deck, you can become too close to the content and lose the ability
to put yourself in an investors shoes and look at your business clearly.
It becomes even harder if your business is highly technical or a medical solution. Engineers
and researchers feel the need to explain their results with too much data without understanding
that it doesn’t add to the story.
That was the case for this client. Getting them to let go of some of their data wasn’t
easy, but it was worth it in the end.
After reviewing their presentation and learning more about their business and what they were
looking to achieve, I was able to send them the presentation you are now looking at.
I’ve sped it up for you so that you don’t nod off.
As you can see, from the start the pitch deck has impact, is easy to follow and strongly
branded. It clearly states their business goal, why that’s a game changer and what
kind of investment they were looking for.
If you are developing a pitch deck, your goal is to make sure your message is crystal clear
and ensure the points investors are looking for are covered in your presentation.
If you are presenting a complex idea, illustrate it simply by boiling down the facts to its
key information. As a matter of fact, you can use that as your golden rule for your
entire pitch deck and all your content.
If the investor is interested in more information, you can always send them your Capability Statement
or Business Plan which will go into greater detail.
You may be tempted but please don’t add too much animation to your pitch deck. A little
will be fine but a fully animated presentation is better suited when pitching to an audience
where you can have control over the pace of the presentation.
If you need to advance and backtrack through your slides, while you’re chatting one-on-one
with investors, animation can slow you down. Only add animation if it adds to your message
and doesn’t detract from it.
What do you find is the most difficult part of developing a pitch deck.
Let me know in the comments.
Pitch decks are never a one-size-fits-all, and as time goes by, you can expect to fine
tune your message and hide, add or subtract slides to suit your audience.
As to slide number, a general rule is no more than 20 slides. You should be able to cover
your key points in that much time. If your business is complex, like a theme park, you
may need a few more, but don’t think that gives you the right to go gangbusters
with your content.
Your goal is to keep your message clear and simple, compelling and easy to act on.
Burying your investors in tonnes of slides is going to do the exact opposite.
Without a doubt a strong presentation is going to be crucial if you are going out and look
for investors. You are definitely going to need a well thought presentation with the
key points investors are looking for.
If you need help with figuring out what those key points are, download my pitch deck guide.
It’s free and will give you some tips on how to expand on those points. I’ve successfully
used it for my clients and I know it works. You'll find a link for the pitch deck guide in the description below.
I also made a video about it. Click on the info card above or in the
descritption below to watch it.
If you already have a pitch deck and it’s failing to excite investors, email it to me
and I’ll review it for you and let you know if you’ve missed anything, or if you are
on the right track. I’m not exaggerating when I say, fine tuning your content and message
could make a multi-million dollar difference.
Take a moment to like my video and give me a thumbs up and remember to subscribe to my channel.
Finding investors isn’t easy so remember to keep on pitching with passion!