Presented by David Shore of local investment bank Stirling Mercantile, this week’s seminar is titled “Perfecting Your Pitch.”
David will talk about communication, focus, and performing a financial presentation in this seminar.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Sometimes when taking pitches on behalf os Stirling Mercantile, 20 minutes into a one-hour presentation, David won’t have a clue what a company does or is about. This is a big problem and can make or break millions in funding or a key strategic partnership deal.
David points out that textual presentations don’t work well—people will read the text on the slideshow faster than you are speaking it, and you’ll become out of sync with your audience.
Apple is a good example of this. In Steve Job’s keynotes, the screen behind him typically has very few images and words, often a single image and a single line. It emphasized what he talks about and makes it obvious but his own words clarify and expand on the topic, grabbing the audience’s attention but still utilizing the slideshow.
An effective powerpoint presentation is graphic-based and minimalist in design. Do not distract your audience from your verbal presentation!
At 6:20, David says to never sit behind your audience so that they can be closer to your slideshow (as happens with text-based slideshows). Stand up front beside your screen and make eye contact and get a feel or the audience’s body language.
Avoid videos unless you feel they are truly an integral component of your presentation. It can disrupt the flow.
David’s slide then goes blank, a black screen. Everyone suddenly pays attention. Did it break down? No. It’s a tactic you can use to command attention and turn everyone’s focus to you so that you can make a key point.
FOCUS & PRESENTATION: BREAKING IT DOWN SLIDE BY SLIDE
Describe the problem you solve. This is the whole point of your existence.
Then say, we sell X product or service that helps Z (target market) to either save money or make money. If you can’t, is your business model really viable?
Each slide should last for anywhere between 10 seconds to two minutes each, depending on their importance and the length of your presentation (is it fifteen minutes long or an hour?). While not mandatory, 10 to 12 slides is generally a good number (less is okay, more usually becomes problematic).
At 6:35, David suggests to start with a title slide that displays your logo and is uncluttered. One type of slide early you can use is a “snapshot,” an image of your product with a punchy one-line that sums up a key aspect of what your business does or can do.
After the opening slide, start with your team. David says team slides often occur at the end, but there are advantages to having it at the beginning. It lends credibility to everything you say afterward and establishes you as a team of humans who have valuable knowledge and experience. Include titles and past stints, but keep it as succinct as possible.
The second-most important thing to get across to your audience (and therefore the third slide at this point) is the industry problem. What is it? After that, follow up immediately with your solution in slide four: this is how we’ll solve that problem.
Next, talk about the size of your addressable market. Throw up a pie chart that breaks down the market so investors can see the potential.
At this point, if your product is software or something otherwise demonstratable, such as a hardware prototype, bring it out and show it off at this point.
Next, David says to highlight your competition and how you can positively differentiate for them. After that, discuss execution: your sales strategy, your marketing strategy, your channels and partners—the real mechanics of how you’ll be able to succeed with your product in the market. If you’re an established company, you can use a visual timeline to keep the slide graphical; startups can use a roadmap chart.
What’s left? Financials, of course. But companies often struggle predicting future revenue. The trick is to realize that this is not trying to predict the future, it’s about saying “These are the numbers we’ll hit if we reach our planned milestones on point.” Include things like gross revenue, direct operating expenses, profitability, etc., each year for one, two, three, four, and five years. No need to go after five years but never go below that; investors don’t want to do the math for you and if they do, it will probably be underestimated against your favour. Use a graphic chart to portray this data visually.
Even if you don’t feel tremendously confident that your money numbers are accurate, you simply must have these numbers regardless: if an investor doesn’t see that you have a plan of what to do with his or her money, that’s a huge red flag. Know your “runway”—that is, how long you have before you run out of money, or runway, and your plane, or your business, doesn’t take flight.
Your final slide should be a summary that you leave up that succinctly summarized your team, market opportunity, timing, etc. (and include contact information as well). This summary allows investors to recall the presentations and makes for a superior Q&A session, which is often at least as long as the presentation itself—sometimes twice as long!
In the slide that you send to the audience ahead of time, include a detailed appendix that includes everything your 10 to 14 slide presentation doesn’t have room to include. And have these on your slide in the presentation too, just don’t use them unless someone references it in a question afterward. Then you look tremendously prepared with your response.
To follow up to the presentation: send off a short email to the audience that same night.
NEVER SAY…
“Our projections are conservative.” Investors won’t believe you.
“We have no competition.” Is this because your product is not needed, or because you’ve failed to adequately research your industry?
“We have a first-mover advantage.” First movers are often at a disadvantage. Facebook, Ebay, PayPal, etc. all beat the true first movers. (It does work sometimes though; think Groupon.)
“We only need to capture x% of the market share.” It’s a cop-out that shows you don’t know how to execute on your business plan.