Why Every Ambitious Business Leader Needs To Create A PitchDeck

Unless you currently are or have previously been seeking external investment or large scale loans or grant funding, you may have never needed to have a PitchDeck.

Other than its format, on face value there is nothing unique about a PitchDeck, it appears to be basically an executive summary of a business plan for your company. Its USP seemingly being that its presented in bullet point and infographic format on slides using a dozen or so fairly standard slide headings.

But what really differentiates PitchDecks is that they are designed to sell the business vision and its money making potential to 3rd party investors. Whereas most business plans are used internally with little emphasis on having to prove business viability. A PitchDeck’s emphasis is on selling the vision and on convincing others that the business has the potential for high profitable growth. It’s this big point of difference that also makes it so useful as a review tool within the business. After all, do you want to be investing your own time, energy and money on a business that doesn’t have this sort of growth and profit potential?

A good PitchDeck has to provide actual proof and hard evidence that:

• Your target market is substantial, sustainable and accessible to you and your business with no insurmountable barriers to entry.

• Your product or service is unique and protectable and solves a significant customer problem better and is more desirable than those of any competitor.

• Your strategies for pricing, marketing, customer acquisition and retention are proven beyond doubt to be cost effective and fully scalable.

• Your vision is to create a substantial market leading business generating significant profits and shareholder returns.

• Your leadership, your team and your collective business acumen is capable of creating just such a high growth business.

• Your operational and technical capabilities are capable and easily scalable to handle high levels of growth.

• Your financial projections are based on sound evidence of your ability to grow and on previous traction.

In fact it’s because of this very high bar and required proof of concept and viability that 98% of PitchDecks fail to raise investment from Business Angels and Venture Capitalists. That’s not because their authors didn’t check out all the online templates and examples, nor did they fail to get some pretty infographics done. Because in nearly all cases they will have. It’s because most businesses simply don’t have the irrefutable facts and the figures or the evidence to provide a convincing and compelling vision of success. They lack the concise and considered detail needed on each slide. This is where most PitchDecks, indeed most businesses fall down. They simply don’t have the proof that their business can be very successful. They are living in hope rather than acting on hard evidence.

As many investors have often said to us:

“There is no shortage of great business ideas. The real shortage is of business leaders who can prove beyond reasonable doubt they can turn their ideas into a highly successful business”

Now there are literally hundreds of websites, YouTube videos and templates all about PitchDecks. You can see endless completed examples (yet rarely knowing if they were successful or not) even some of the mega superstar companies have published their PitchDecks online. So you would imagine wouldn’t you that if you wanted a PitchDeck it would be easy enough to put one together.
HOW WRONG CAN YOU BE!

Creating a PitchDeck good enough to secure external investment from Business Angels and Venture Capitalists is a very hard thing to do. Most businesses either haven’t yet got what it takes to be as successful as investors want or they lack the skill to present themselves convincingly.

But you might say, I don’t need external investment or grants. Okay, but let’s not forget that you the Business Leader are a prime investor in your own business. You are investing your time, your energy, your money, your reputation and your career. So don’t you also need to know that you are investing in a viable, worthwhile business capable of achieving real profitable growth?

Why You Need The PurePitchDeck Programme

Unlike most things you will find about PitchDecks online, the PurePitchDeck Programme is somewhat different. My colleagues and I between us have spent over 30 years advising thousands of SMEs on business growth and investment readiness. We have worked with pretty much every type of business in every industry and in every market. We know what success looks like and we have worked with investors and funders and know what they are looking for.

Yes of course The PurePitchDeck Programme also gives you a basic template, you will need one. We even show you how to make it look pretty, but………the bulk of our eight step process isn’t about that. You get six hours of expert video, a self-assessment for each step to benchmark and test your business, we describe the required content slide by slide, what you need, where to get it and how to present it.

It sets a very high standard, the sort of standard that investors and grant funders expect to see. A standard you may or may not initially be able to meet, but at least you will know where you and your business stand and where you can act to significantly improve.

So don’t you owe it to yourself and your business to make sure you have a viable plan, a good pitchdeck for your own sake whether you are looking for external investment or not?