The 2019 Guide to Pitch Decks that Close Deals

Presenting a pitch deck can be intimidating and terrifying. After all, you are presenting to people who hear pitches all day long. Essentially, a pitch deck is a presentation of slides that introduce your business or product. Unfortunately, putting together a slide show about your business isn’t as simple as you think. It requires a lot of research, analytics, and most importantly, creativity. 

Don’t be discouraged though! 90% of start-up businesses fail because of budgeting. Presenting a powerful pitch deck can go a long way when it comes to the success of your business. 

In fact, some of the most successful start-ups out there today gained their success all from a strong pitch deck. Airbnb, for instance, has become a classic example of how a pitch deck can close deals. This popular rental company all started with a presentation that instantly hooked its audience. It is really all about putting together an appealing presentation that is like explaining to a 6-year-old about your business. Just because you are presenting to a group of leaders, does not mean they know everything about your business. 

To avoid falling into that 90%, you need to have an epic pitch deck. With 3 easy steps, you have the potential to become just as successful as Airbnb and the other successful organizations. 

Step 1: Tell A Good Story

Your presentation should take your audience on a journey. Think of it as reading a short book or watching a short film. Every good story has some sort of problem, right? Although you are trying to win your audience over, don’t be afraid to identify the problems you will face. Your audience will appreciate the transparency, that way they are not completely shocked when you encounter problems down the road. 

Once you identify the problems, suggest innovations and improvements. This will show that you are ready and prepared to take on any complications down the road and won’t completely drop the ball. 

Have you ever interviewed for a job and were instantly impressed with the company? You start picturing your days at this company and what your day-to-day life would look like. You think of all the great things to come and all the potential that is there. When your audience sees your pitch, it’s no different. They should leave your presentation feeling excited and confident in your product or business and that will result from the good story that you tell. 

Step 2: Make A Strong Impression

If you have ever sat through a presentation before, you probably can tell right off the bat how the presentation will go. The introduction sets the tone for the presentation which is why it is so important to start off strong. 

As mentioned above, Airbnb and the other successful pitches that are most referenced, all started out by hooking their audience. 

Your presentation should be long enough to tell a story but not long enough to bore your audience. 

Additionally, your presentation should flow in a way that makes sense. Open up strong, show interesting facts in between and close strong! 

Step 3: Keep Your Audience Interested

Within seconds, your audience can get off track and totally disconnect. One of the quickest ways to lose your audience is to overwhelm them with facts and content. As important as information is during your presentation you don’t want to just provide them with text. 

Your presentation should include a combination of text and visuals such as photos, graphs to show data, or even short video clips. Keep in mind that it will be easier for your audience to create a picture in their head if they have some sort of visual to go off of. 

Step 4: Be Transparent 

Addressing sore topics such as money, or any problems can be intimidating and as a result, it is often left out of presentations. Everyone knows that a perfect presentation is not realistic. 

It is better to be upfront about issues you may encounter down the road than everything exploding and having no plan. 

It’s also important to use metrics. Investors want to see where their money is going which is why some companies provide analytics to show how things are being done. This can include financial projections which are always appreciated. 

Every company starts somewhere. Airbnb, Facebook, YouTube, and many other successful organizations have started with a successful pitch deck. These pitch decks included a story, transparency, creativity and hooking their audience. 

Want to learn more about how to create a great pitch deck that will close deals? Contact an expert today!