As a first-time entrepreneur, you must be aware that the process of pitching an investor for funding is a long and tedious one. The first step towards this daunting task is putting together a pitch deck. However, the first step leads to another direction as your business model determines how much effort should go into making or customizing your pitch deck. In either case, you need to show the potential investor/s that your business idea has concrete plans and intentions to succeed. For this, you can use our 10 frequently asked questions on presenting strong and best pitch decks:
10 QnA To Ask In Pitch Deck
1. What Is a Pitch Deck?
A pitch deck is a presentation that basically includes information about:
- Who You Are
This segment should include general information about yourself, such as your name, designation, prior experience, etc.
- What You Do
This part focuses on the problem your business idea aims to solve and how it will change the lives of the people involved in the chain.
- How You Will Do It
Here, you must present information about your team members and their role in making your business a success. Also include details about future expansion plans.
2. Who Is the Target Audience?
When you are looking for investors or pitching to venture capitalists, you have an audience consisting of experienced investors and first-timers. Be aware that most experienced VCs would want to know more about your operational expertise. At the same time, first-time investors may be more interested in learning about the passion behind starting up.
3. What Type of Data Should You Include in the Pitch Deck?
Any good presentation has data that supports the information contained within it. This could be anything from graphs/charts to screenshots of web pages or even videos demonstrating your product in action. Here you should decide what information is pertinent but make sure not to overload the audience with too much data as one may lose interest in reading through everything in detail. Also, don’t use outdated data as it can mislead the audience.
4. What Is the Format of Your Presentation?
The format is all about how you intend to present your ideas /information in the pitch deck. It could be anything from bullet points to paragraphs or even slides displaying data with images and videos for better understanding. You will need to decide what works best but ensure that the format goes well with the genre of your presentation, whether it’s a business plan, a fun infographic, or even textual data. Also, remember not to have too many different formats going on simultaneously, as this may be confusing for your target audience.
5. How Should You Introduce Yourself in a Pitch Deck Presentation?
Your introduction should strike a chord with your audience and get them interested in you and what you have to say. It should be something that makes the potential investor curious about everything else. Including a video or an image of yourself can help build a more personal rapport between you and the VCs. If you think your presentation skills are lacking, you can hire a public speaking coach who will walk you through the process and show you how to deliver the ideal presentation.
6. What Style of Language Should You Use?
The language style of any presentation depends upon its genre. For example, a very professional language would do best if it is a formal business pitch. Therefore, ensure that there are no spelling or grammar errors while using appropriate words at all times. On the other hand, if it is a more informal board meeting, feel free to develop humor into your presentation. However, keep in mind that jokes may not be appreciated by everyone, so use them sparingly when presenting to any investor, even if they are very informal in nature.
7. What Should the Layout of Your Pitch Deck Contain?
You need to ensure that your pitch deck has a proper structure by including an executive summary with the business idea, the market analysis with data supporting it, management team information, and future expansion plans. A generic layout for any pitch deck could include these segments. In contrast, customized ones will depend on what kind of information you want to present while pitching to the audience.
8. How Do You Intend to Differentiate Yourself from Competitors?
You should detail how you plan to differentiate yourself from competitors while providing proof of how well you have executed this strategy until now or at least some evidence that you can do so in the future. This differentiation need not be limited purely to your product being better than that of competitors but could include anything from lower production cost to faster delivery time, etc.
9. How Long Should a Pitch Deck Presentation Be?
For a business plan, a pitch deck needs to contain all the essential information displayed clearly and concisely to ensure that everyone present understands it entirely with ease. Therefore, it is best to keep short with less than 10 slides simultaneously, with each slide containing only 3-5 lines of data. Slides that are longer may be confusing for some people as they won’t bother reading through everything and move on without taking anything in. This will be a waste of an opportunity to present your ideas well. So keep it short, simple, and to the point, just like you would do in any other presentation.
10. What Are the Different Types of Pitch Decks?
Some of the different types of pitch decks are:
A) Problem/Solution Deck
This is where the problem faced by your target audience is clearly explained, along with details on how your product or service would provide a solution to it. Mentioning current issues related to the problem can be added for further clarification because, remember, people rarely change anything unless there’s a significant reason for them to do so. So if your product offers something that no one else can, then you stand out as someone who could effectively change their minds about how they look at things because this fact will hit home once they see it.
B) Business Plan Pitch Deck
This pitch deck effectively displays all information about your business plan. It includes everything from market analysis to management team profiles. However, we recommend that you first write a proper business plan. It is more detailed than a pitch deck. It provides the necessary information for those who want to understand what you are trying to achieve with your product or service. Writing such a lengthy document can be complicated, so some people prefer using templates available online while others prefer doing it themselves.
C) Board Meeting/Investor Pitch Deck
This one considers how investors look at different ideas and may contain very little or no information on the product if not required by an investor. This investors deck is more focused on the business plan and how it can be turned into a success in the future. You will need to present your ideas using only relevant data, which you also need to back up with proof at this particular stage.
D) Team Presentation Deck
This one is meant for internal purposes and usually contains all the data required by management teams to know what needs to be done. It considers team roles and responsibilities along with details on what they should do and when by including information such as significant events in the near future, deadlines, customer requests, etc.
E) Marketing Pitch Deck
Suppose you intend on marketing your product or service yourself. In that case, some specific things must be included in your pitch deck so that people understand what you are trying to sell. This includes details on how your product or service can solve their problems and how it is more beneficial than others found online or somewhere else. Marketing pitch decks can be detailed and overwhelming, so ensure that infographics are used to transform complex data into digestible visual content. Work smart, so make use of pre-made designs like Venngage infographics.
F) Storytelling Pitch Deck
This one uses fictional stories to tell a story of how things can be changed for the better with your help through your product or service. We recommend using this type only if your idea is something out of the ordinary. It really needs telling because most business owners and investors won’t bother reading through a fictional story when they could be working on their current ideas instead.
G) Plain/Simple Slide Deck
If you want to keep things simple, we suggest keeping all information in bullet points with no fancy and flashy graphics or animations.
H) Animated Storytelling Pitch Deck
This type uses animated visuals to tell a story that, similar to the previous one, is made up of fictional stories aimed at highlighting the product’s features and benefits for consumers who find them more entertaining.
I) Hybrid Pitch Deck
Finally, a hybrid deck contains a mixture of different types mentioned above, depending on how you want your pitch to be perceived by people. It has relevant information in all cases for maximum impact.
Final Words
If you are still unsure which type of pitch presentation is best for you, research pitch deck examples for inspiration. The best pitch decks have one thing in common: they are not made from scratch! They are created from pre-made templates. After all, to be successful, one must work smart, not hard. Venngage offers a variety of modern and effective ready-made pitch deck templates. All there is to do on the user’s end is incorporate their data, branding, and structure. Create your best pitch deck by signing up with Venngage today!
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