The Horrors Of The Crummy Old Pitch Deck!
-
-
By MWS
-
Leave a Comment
Before we begin with how the pitch desk met with its unsavoury death, lets us ask you a couple of questions. How many pitch decks or sales pitches have you seen? The second question is even more important. How many of them do you remember?
If your response to these two questions were none, then you are like most other people. Simple pitch decks have nothing memorable about them they are simple slide presentations about business plans which make use of Power Point or Keynote or such similar tools. And they are mostly ubiquitous.
But what caused the death of pitch decks?
The main reason behind the death of the good ol’ pitch deck is due to the fact that after 10 minutes of the presentation an average listener will only remember about 50 percent of the content and after a week the number will drop to 10 percent or less.
So, why do business people even bother about pitch decks and sales decks? As nobody remembers them then it is probably safe to say that they are not the best way to make a memorable impression. Even the most attractive pitch deck will probably not help you stand out as an exciting start-up to potential investors or customers.
We think that instead of spending all that time and energy into research for preparing a customer deck, you should put in that energy on something else: real conversations. If you are spending time on pitch decks, then you are only investing in ideas before you can truly understand what is going to happen.
The best approach you can take is to go off the cuff when it comes to interacting with your customers, you will be able to learn what he and she needs instead of predicting things that have not occurred yet. While predicting future outcomes and foresight is crucial for smart entrepreneurs but gaining momentum and traction always comes first.
Why choose conversations above presentations?
Pitch decks usually contain boilerplate information about the business which can at best offer the audience with general knowledge, but this maybe available on your website as well. And the worst part about them is that such events do not answer the client’s needs and business owners do not get any other hot at closing the deal.
While at a typical pitch deck, people explain a lot about what potential customers want, why they need it and why they should choose your company for the job. But these features can be discussed better even in case of an interactive, live conversations where one can discern a real customer’s needs and tailor their responses to person sitting in front of them.
Only after you have had discussions with the people you will be better able to put something in the paper. If the interested people have to read then they will only seek the most valuable information relevant to them and not the generic stuff. As time is money in business, take a different approach with written communications; use it only for post-pitch summarizing instead of using it to draw in leads.
3 things you must do to compensate for killing the pitch deck!
You must first get over the thinking that simply because you have put in so much in your pitch deck that it is vitally important. But that is far from the truth as you can still meet those same customer needs more effectively in several other ways.
Here are three things that will help compensate against the loss of the sales deck:
You must have a clear, concise and accessible website:
Make sure your company’s website has every bit of information about your business that you would like to showcase in a deck. Remember that buyers like value systems that are easy to use and accessible.
Prepare your talking points in the right order:
The main goal of killing the pitch deck was to start a conversation. But people often make the rookie mistake of pulling out the pitch deck and giving birth to a presentation. Instead of that circumvent the need for a deck with a well-prepared list of great talking topics.
Make sure your answers and ready and waiting:
You should have a list of common questions and answers prepared and readily available for anyone whose looking for them. The best approach you can choose to answer common questions that people do ask about businesses and new products is to put up case studies of one’s prior works which should include your best projects on your website.
Closing thoughts:
Entrepreneurs who think they can come with the best business solutions without needing their customer’s inputs are unrealistic and are probably dreaming. To understand how to best serve the customers based on their needs one must first glean such insights from the clients. Our advice to future entrepreneurs is to bid the sales pitch deck a happy farewell, save power point presentations for company staff and start with real conversations. Deal closings depend on real communications and not just slideshows.
We can help you be successful future entrepreneurs while you are still in B-school pursuing an MBA!
How?
Practice your business skills and invest time and energy into things that really matter, and for your MBA assignments, trust your project submissions with the essay writers at Management Writing Solutions.
