How to Make a Pitch Deck for Investors and Lenders

Are you an entrepreneur who needs to develop a presentation to obtain a loan or attract investors?

You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Get your presentation wrong, and potential lenders and investors will lose faith in your ability to run a business and earn enough revenue to pay off debt or provide a dependable return on their investment.

This guide explains whether a perfect pitch deck and what you should include to build investor or lender confidence in your company, whether it is a startup or one you want to grow.

Set goals for your business presentation

The common mistake many entrepreneurs make when writing a pitch deck for a lender or investor is that they think they must sell their idea and raise the capital needed to start or expand the business right away. Urgency is not how things work when it comes to financing a company. Unlike the TV series Shark Tank, funding decisions are not made during a one-on-one encounter.

The real goal of the presentation is to generate interest in your proposal. Typically, the first meeting with investors or lenders is for them to learn about your operation, the financing you need, and how it can benefit them.

The important thing is that they are so interested in your offer that they want to know more. When developing your presentation, your goal is to generate enough interest to move on to a second meeting or the next step in the loan approval process. As you progress, you’ll have opportunities to go into more detail.

This type of presentation is commonly called a pitch deck. A pitch deck is a concise PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation that will help you deliver relevant information in a reasonable amount of time.

how to build a pitch deck

Here are some proven things you can do to optimize your loan or financing presentation.

tell a story

Most people do not remember facts and figures. However, they retain the stories they are related to. Remember, the first meeting with lenders or investors is meant to generate enough interest in your company to continue the conversation later, where you can share more detailed information.

Whenever possible, tell stories about real customers of your business. Describe their challenges and explain how your product or service solves them.

Also tell stories about yourself. This will humanize you and turn you into more than a talking head. Investors and lenders invest in people more than in their ideas. Tell them why you are passionate about what you do. Discuss the talent in your team. Explain why you and the people you work with are uniquely positioned to achieve the success needed to pay off your debt or provide a meaningful return on your investment.

keep things simple

Don’t go too deep into the weeds. With this type of presentation, less is more. Lenders and investors don’t need to know everything about your business. Your slides should highlight only the important things your audience needs to know.

Never use technical jargon, acronyms and buzzwords. Most people don’t understand them, which would make them incomprehensible.

Your slides should be simple, professional, engaging and easy to understand. They should give only the necessary information. Leave space and time for investors and lenders to ask questions.

Advice: The last thing you want is for anyone to read your slides. Your slides and talking points should be two different things. Keep slides simple and light on the text. never speak very fast, People will not understand you. Typically, if you have a one-hour meeting, plan for a half-hour presentation and a half-hour for questions. Give yourself time when practicing before the meeting. Thirty minutes pass quickly.

make realistic financial projections

Most businesses, depending on the goods or services they sell, can make a profit of between six and nine percent of sales. Operating profit margins above 12 percent are rare. Overly optimistic estimates damage your credibility. If investors and lenders are suspicious, it is unlikely that they will consider doing business with you.

When discussing sales growth, start with the number of units sold per month. Then discuss unit growth and conversion rates per month. Once you do this, you have a solid foundation to discuss profitability.

Be prepared to back up your slides

Of course, you never want to pack your slides with too much information. Take advantage of simple communication elements like images, charts and bullet points. However, you should be able to support your point of view if you are asked questions about it. Always have supporting material ready to back your claims.

You’ll Probably Need a Complete Business Plan [https://www.biz2credit.com/blog/how-to-write-a-business-plan-to-get-a-business-loan/] In which it contains backup data before render. You want them to ask for your investment plan or at least an executive summary of your business plan. If they do, then your presentation was a success!

what to include in a pitch deck

There are many pitch deck templates [https://pitch.com/templates/collections/Pitch-deck] available online. While all businesses are different, most templates include the following elements:

title slide

On the opening slide, include your company name and logo along with a one-sentence description of your company, something along the lines of your elevator pitch. If you have a marketing tagline, include it on this slide.

clarify the issue

If your business doesn’t solve a known problem, you shouldn’t be seeking money to fund it. A company that doesn’t solve a common problem can find it challenging to succeed.

Briefly describe the problem your product or service solves. Tell the story through the eyes of the consumer who has the problem. Now is a good time to start telling the story of your business and why you need the money. Don’t document the whole story on a slide. Instead, include a picture of a consumer experiencing the problem and your company solving it. In this case, an image is worth 1,000 words if it keeps people’s attention on you rather than on the words on the slide.

tell your target market

Continue the story by describing the customers you’re targeting, the estimated size of the market, and the total revenue you can expect to make from them. Answer the questions:

• Who is your ideal customer, and what problems do you help them solve?
• How many people have problems?
• How much does it currently cost them to fix the problem?

Answering these questions will help investors and lenders understand whether you are providing them with a viable market opportunity.

describe your solution to the problem

Explain your unique approach to solving your customers’ problems, often referred to as your unique selling or value proposition. Make your business idea memorable and find ways for the people you meet to ask for more. keep it brief. Never use buzzwords or acronyms. Continue telling your customer-centric story in this section.

Outline your business revenue model

This is one of the essential sections of the pitch deck. Of course, you need to show investors and lenders how you’ll make money. It helps to explain how they will get their cash back in a reasonable period of time or earn a decent return on their investment.

Be as accurate, precise and transparent as possible. If charts and graphs are easy to understand, take advantage of them. Explain your pricing policies and compare them with other companies in your sector. Tell them whether you plan to compete on quality or price.

Describe early achievements and next steps

Describe what your business has accomplished to date. Document initial sales results, key appointments and any significant work you’ve done. Also, determine the next milestones you will achieve after receiving funding. Finally, document your goals for the future.

Outline your marketing plan

Your client acquisition plan is another important part of your presentation to venture capitalists, angel investors and lenders. Explain how you plan to get your products or services in front of potential customers (whether through social media, advertising, public relations, or other means) and how you will sell them. Make it clear that you have a solid knowledge of your target audience, how to reach them, and understand how to sell to them. Highlight how your approach to marketing and sales is different – and better – than your competitors’.

Highlight Your Management Team

Reveal key members of your team. Provide a brief description of their skill set and career achievements. Also, explain the positions that still need to be filled and how you plan to hire people for them, whether through LinkedIn, a headhunter, or another resource. Demonstrate to investors and lenders that you are on top of things. This segment is crucial for tech startups who generally depend on top talent for their success.

Document your financial projections

Summarize your sales forecasts, profit and loss and cash flow projections and other financial metrics for three to five years. Summarize your information, don’t present the full financial model. Provide more detailed information in subsequent meetings. Be prepared to back up your numbers if you are questioned about them.

explain your competitive advantage

Document your primary competitors, including how your solutions and business model compare to theirs. Highlight how your company’s approach to marketing and sales differs from others in your competitive landscape. answer the question: How is your unique approach better than the competition, and why will the market love your way of doing business?

describe the money you need

Explain how much money you need and what you’re raising money for, whether it’s starting a company, buying real estate for expansion, launching a new offering, or other things. Include information about how much money has already been invested in your business and its current ownership structure, whether it’s a partnership, sole proprietor or some other form. Explain how the funding will help grow your business. Include a roadmap for the future you envision. Clarification will help investors and lenders feel more confident about funding your operation.

Explain what investors and lenders will gain from supporting your business

Whether you’re talking to investors or lenders, tell them how long it’s going to take to get their money back and what kind of returns they can expect for funding you.

Remember to thank them and provide contact information

Your final slide should thank the people you’re meeting with for their time and consideration. Provide clear contact information so they can contact you if they have questions after the meeting or want to continue discussing lending — or investing money in — your business.

Pitch Deck Presentations: The Last Word

Remember: The primary goal of a lender or investor presentation is not to tell the whole story. This is early in the funding process to get people interested in what you want their money to be used for.

Here are some other things to consider:

• Practice your presentation several times before presenting it to investors or lenders. Make sure you come across as relaxed, confident, professional, knowledgeable, and someone they can trust.
• Bring printed copies of your presentation to the meeting so people can write down questions and remember what you said later.
• After potential investors and lenders have asked their questions, try to summarize your presentation in a minute or two. This will ensure that they stick with the message you want them to remember.

Finally, make sure you have information that supports anything you say during your presentation. By following all of the advice in this guide, you will be more likely to persuade investors or lenders to provide you with the funds you need.