The Art of the Pitch (Part 2)

Designing a great pitch deck

“A picture is worth a thousand words”

A well-designed pitch deck enhances your story, creates images in the minds of your listeners and makes it easier for them to grasp what you are talking about.

Following my previous write up on “How to pitch”, I will share a few pieces of advice I give to companies on how to design a great deck.

Things to note:

• One idea per slide. Please repeat, One idea per slide. Don’t put different pieces of information on one slide. If you are talking about the problem, do that on a slide, when you talk about the solution, do that on a different slide.
• Use pictures rather than words where possible. Work with images, icons, diagrams to represent what you would have said in words
• Minimize the number of words on a slide. More than 7 words on a slide is too many, you want people to follow what you are saying and not get distracted by the excessive texts on your slide
• When using bullet points, animate them so they come in one after the other. That way, you can explain one before moving to the other.
• Use a common font, that is generally available on most computers, that way if your slide is displayed on a different computer it doesn’t mess it up.
• Make sure the fonts are large enough and use primary colours, they are easy to read.
• Put important text at the top of your slide not the bottom. That way it’s easier for people to read even if they are seated at the back.
• Avoid jargons.
• Avoid complicated graphs. The purpose of graphs is to make displayed information simple to understand not the other way around. Except your goal is to confuse the audience.
• Place your logo on every slide. Tip: by placing it on the master page, it appears on all other pages.
• White background is bae; colours, images, texts and graphs appear better on a white background.And lastly remember to practice, practice, practice and after you have practiced, practice some more.

Bonus Point- let the most compelling speaker on the team pitch, it doesn’t have to be the CEO.