The 11 Slides You Need to Have in Your Pitch Deck for 2024

What is it about success that’s most important to you? What drives you? Perhaps it is fame, glory, or money. Or perhaps you’d like to see your ideas reflected in the wider world. Whatever your answer is, keep it firmly planted in your mind while reading this article on how to structure the perfect pitch deck.

For many founders, a pitch deck is so much more than just a presentation – it’s a business plan. If not the foundation of your business, it’s paramount to talking through your product vision and offering to partners and institutional investors. Of course, legal issues will vary by industry and country. But one thing remains constant: startup funders expect you to test out your idea thoughtfully.

I’ve taken the best the most successful products and pitch in different categories, from Kickstarter to billion-dollar startups, and have studied how they position their products.

Pitch Deck

A pitch deck is a detailed document that is used by sales leaders and clients as an outline of ideas for selling solutions. It outlines a story with action steps and potential outcomes – the backbone of every sales discussion. In sales, teams use pitch decks to boost enthusiasm and overcome opposition. Sales teams have several advantages over marketing teams when it comes to using pitch decks effectively.

Your pitch deck should serve as an advertisement, but it should primarily be used as a way to explain your business idea.

Main purpose of Pitch Deck

Pitching your product or idea to a client is an art form. Before you even begin, you need to know the purpose of your pitch. Is it to sell the idea? Or is it to get the client to do something? Different businesses need different approaches for their sales presentations. However, one thing is consistent: the purpose of your pitch deck should be based on the value your product or service provides and how it will help the client achieve their objectives in this product or service. It’s like sales call: the ultimate goal is not to sell, but to schedule another meeting. The pitch deck is above all a tool for getting to the next meeting.

The goal of every pitch deck should be to clearly explain the business idea to investors without wasting their time. When you’re giving your pitch, don’t just be interested in persuading them on that particular day. Your goal should be to make them interested enough to want to invest again in the future.

Historically, for businesses that have gone through successful financing rounds, there is a typical business plan format. Let’s know about these 11 slides for your pitch deck.

1.Vision and Preposition value

Here is a summary of what your business is about, along with what value you bring to your customers. Keep it short and sweet. Showing your business, in a nutshell, may help in saving time for both your company and your audience.

To convey their value proposition, companies often compare themselves to well-known firms. A company should prove by its pitch desk that they come up with unique ideas of business.

Don’t make statements about high firms like Uber’s growth potential when you’re talking about a completely different company. If you are referencing a business model that is very similar to yours, then you should always cite the example.

2.The Problem

Your business will only be worth anything if it solves some problem in the world.

You need at least one sentence that clearly identifies the problem you’re solving and who has that problem. It’s a waste of time to go over industry solutions in your presentation; instead, talk about how you’re solution is unique and better than the rest.

Avoid listing a lot of facts and figures. Tell a story. An effective short sentence can be just as powerful as a long, rambling one. Just tell a story that proves how the problem is real.

3.Target Prospect and Market

You should also include information about your target market, both by demographic and psychographic factors. Investors want to know how much people or companies are currently spending in the market, so they have an idea of ​​the size of the market. It’s time for you to tell the story about your company scope and other market strategies.

If you’re too broad with your targeting, your product becomes irrelevant to the majority of people. Not only will it make your marketing more effective, but it can also save you money on production costs. Here, you talk about the market size. If you’re doing business in a complex market, it may make sense for your business to have different offerings that are marketed differently.

It’s a crucial step to make your vision about investors. Investors may worry that a big market will lead to competition. They also want a smaller, more specific market now.

When you pitch to investors, you will need to clearly define the market that you’re going after and explain why it makes sense to focus on this specific market instead of trying something broader

4.The Solution

The idea is to come up with a headline that simultaneously says something about your product/service and the problem it addresses, while also being pithy. And yes, you are going to have a customer use of the product/service in this sentence.

When you are going to explain what your product is and why the world needs it, you’ll want to give a brief overview of other existing options that do something similar.

The best way to attract investment is by making your pitch deck easy for investors to read and understand. Referring back to your customer’s problem is a great way to keep the pitch concise and relevant.

Think about including a picture in your pitch. They’re a great way to depict a concept.

5.Revenue or Business Model

This is the most crucial part of your sales page because you need to convince your customers that they should spend their money on your product. Go into as much detail as possible.

Remember to use the competitive landscape as fuel for creating content that is unique, and to research how your target market feels about each competitor.

6.Traction and Confirmation/ Roadmap

If you have early adopters who appreciate your product, that’s a sign that there will be other people who appreciate your product.

A potential investor wants to know that they won’t lose their money, so the more evidence you can provide that the product works, the less risk there is and the more likely the investor is to invest.

If you want your accomplishments to be memorable, you can outline your milestones. What milestones have you achieved so far, what are your next steps, and how will you accomplish them? A product roadmap is helpful here.

7.Sales and Marketing Approach

Stakeholders are usually very concerned with how you plan to attract customers, especially if the product is a high-risk one. To market a product, you can either convert leads into customers or build brand awareness. The key is to make sure you have a balance between the two.

You should describe your tactics for winning customers. For example, is this going to be a direct-to-consumer model, or do you plan to sell through other retailers?

If your process is similar to the competitors, then you should craft a message that makes the readership feel like they’re special.

8.Teams

How do your experiences match up with those of your team? What accomplishments do you have that are relevant to this position? Remember that you’re the most qualified person to build and grow this company, so speak as confidently as possible.

You can scale your team based on your immediate needs. These roles are essential to the growth of the company, so get them before they are gone.

9.Financials

To investors, it’s important to know how your business will evolve and where you plan to take it in the future. A pitch deck should be short and it shouldn’t include detailed metrics slides that include every number the company will generate. Include charts and graphs that are easy to see during the demonstration.

Be ready to explain how your sales goals are connected to other financial targets.

Remember that projections are only estimates, so it’s best to be conservative and reasonable. Investors know that they can’t expect your company to grow at an exponential rate, so account for realistic projections of growth in your business plan.

10.Competition

The level of competition you encounter will depend on your price point, the value you offer, and how much of an impact you can make in your customers’ lives.

Don’t just describe how you’re better than the competition. Describe what makes you different and better. If you’re trying to stand out from the competition, you should explain where you stand concerning the rest of the market and what makes your products or services unique.

The more you can say about how you are different than the competition the better because it emphasizes why a customer should do business with you.

11.Asset and Fund Usage

Don’t waste the first two slide’s time telling your potential investors how the company “is worth so much”. Tell them what you’re looking for.

You should also be prepared to discuss why you’re looking for a loan and what you plan on using that money for. In a business plan, it’s important to detail the money that’s been invested and how that money will be used. If you’ve already shown that you’re a talented entrepreneur, your success in raising money from other investors is something you should discuss.

Click Here to Read: Implement a Governance, Risk & Compliance Strategy in Your Business

Some Other Slides to Include In Pitch Desk

To be honest, you may need to extend your pitch deck a bit if you have extremely complicated concepts to communicate. Don’t wait until you’re about to do a presentation or give a speech to decide what you’re going to say. Then, you can always look back on your presentation for ideas and data to help support your key points. Here are some slides that you might want to include in an investor presentation.

• Departure strategy
• Partnerships
• Screenshots and Demos
• Other Documentations

1.Departure strategy

To get investors, you need to convince them that they will be able to make money from your endeavors. You do this by outlining the company’s three to four key metrics that you use to assess whether you are successful or not.

If your business has a strong competitive position and its value potential exceeds the cost demanded by acquiring companies, then an IPO is a reasonable option.

2.Partnerships

You need to be sure that this intellectual property is legally protected, and that your distribution partner is capable of getting the product to market. If your success will hinge on influential people endorsing you, then you should stress that prominently.

3.Screenshots and Demos

If you have a prototype of your product and want to show it off, and screenshots of your products, make sure to document the key features, how they work, and why they are important.

4.Other Documentations

An effective pitch deck is built around a single, cohesive story. It doesn’t require an extremely long introduction to make its point, nor does it include irrelevant information. It’s built around a single, cohesive story about why you’re building your company. The pitch deck is an important aspect of your pitch. It should highlight what you plan to say in the meeting. In addition to a short pitch, it’s a good idea to have detailed additional content at the ready. That way, you don’t have to try and cram too much information into your pitch.

Tips For Successful Pitch Desk

If you want to raise capital with investors, this is what you should focus on.

• Pitch your product, not you
• Keep it short
• Know your product
• Packaging essential – make it look as professional as possible
• Use an interactive, not static, presentation framework.
• Go over your notes before you speak
• Make use of visual aids
• Tell a story
• Do not forget a business card holder
• Don’t exaggerate your product
• Continue with your pitch even if you make a mistake
• “So what?” questions make people feel defensive. Don’t speak it at all
• Put yourself in their shoes and want they would want to hear from a publishing point of view
• Don’t talk about anything that isn’t relevant to what you are pitching
• Be an active listener
• Talk about financials
• Make pdf of your desk and send them

Documents You’ll Need for Investors to Accept Your Pitch

It’s worth noting that business planning doesn’t stop with the pitch deck, and a successful pitch doesn’t mean the business is ready to hit the ground running. Here are some additional documents you can send with your pitch:

Managerial Summary 

An executive summary is a high-level overview of your business and its opportunities. An executive or managerial summary is a written document used to provide an overview of your business. It’s typically included in a pitch deck.

Technical documentations

If this is your first attempt at a startup, or you’re building a prototype to say whether an idea will work, or if your company is a consulting business, you may not need to submit as much detail. Depending on the type of investors this type of company tends to attract, it may be important to explain technical features in more detail.

Financial Models  

Any potential investor will want to see detailed financial projections and make sure that you’re basing your financial assumptions on reasonable arithmetic.

Do you need money for something beyond your business’s current-planned expenses? Are you willing to see what investors are willing to invest in? There may not be a direct correlation between the estimations you make and the business outcomes that occur, but it will still be valuable to prepare them if only because they’re necessary components of other financial documents.

Comprehensive Market Research

While it is important to have a well-defined target market, I urge you to consider whether you should expand this market. There are a lot of elements that go into a presentation, and having this information available in advance can make it easy to put together your pitch.

Develop Your pitch desk

Are you ready for a quick start? Just download our free PowerPoint and Keynote pitch deck templates. Your pitch deck is an important tool in a successful marketing campaign. Use it to give your company confidence that you are committed to the project and will see it through to completion. Some say the first step in any great business is finding a good salesperson. That person, in turn, should be an expert at selling your product or service. Salespeople are those who get the job done. Without a good pitch deck, you would find it very hard to convince potential clients or investors that your company is worth investing in.