Changing Presentation Standards

Obtaining investors or donors is never easy. But lately it’s gotten even harder. The obligatory general overview PowerPoint presentation used to be adequate in the late 90s.

Then, in 2000, storytelling — "weaving a tale" — became all the rage in presentations. In this fast era of vision, astronomical growth, and competition for attention, leaders took courses in literary skills: how to develop a theme, stimulate excitement, and build anticipation. Conferences like the International Leadership Association in Seattle in November 2002 had corporate staff with the job title "Conference Weaver."

Now, investors want entrepreneurs to accurately — and in great detail — convey the history of their business operations as well as its predicted future with facts, not assumptions, as the key proof points.

The reason for this new thoroughness is obvious; investors have been burned and they’re more wary than ever.

Consider Working with a Communications Firm

The caliber of the presentation becomes critical, in two distinct ways:

• the effective transmission of the business
  proposition; and
• the stylistic manner by which the company demonstrates its presentation (i.e., sales) ability
• This higher level of scrutiny may make it worthwhile to bring in a qualified communications firm to help create, package and help deliver the investor/donor presentation opportunity to potential investors/donors. Typically, $10,000 is a basic starting fee for greatly improving your presentation strategy and structure, content, branding and design, and presentation images tips and tactics.
• The firm you work with must be educated thoroughly about your organization and your key messages. It must also understand your audience’s characteristics. By signing a non-disclosure-agreement (NDA) with the communications firm, a company or organization can protect its valuable and confidential information while providing the key information needed by communications firms to prepare winning communication presentations and strategies.

Source Information from Over 20 Documents

Regardless of who does the presentation, the content of the investor/donor presentation must lay out kernels of wisdom and the key business facts derived from at least twenty separate documents. These documents — some obvious, some not so obvious — become the source material for your presentation.

• Current and previous business plans
• Competitive analysis
• Summary of recent investments/large donations in your industry
• History of all prior investments and donations in the organization
• Current operating budget (annual) and all previous annual reports
• Resumes of all key personnel
• All graphics, logos, key words and phrases used to describe your organization
• A graphic presentation of the business model
• Time line showing all milestones to profitability and/or key goals
• Key risk factors
• Risk management strategy and all legal protections for the organization’s branding, logos, technology and intellectual property
• Marketing materials
• White papers, research papers, and books authored by the organization
• Press mentions, acknowledgements, and press releases
• Complete financial history
• Private placement memoranda
• Firm or organization resumes of all outsourced partners (legal, accounting, etc.)
• A thorough list of frequently-asked or anticipated questions with detailed answers to each.
  
  

Key Objectives of a Successful Presentation

This source material must be structured into a brief, factual, cohesive presentation of 10 to 15 minutes.

Key objectives for a successful presentation are as follows:

• Define the problem in the marketplace/society
•  Show the organization’s ability to solve the problem and stay ahead of the competition
• Show that the organization fully understands the economic challenges the organization faces
• Lay out all of the finances of the organization’s past and future
• Present the management team accurately
• Show the uses of the money being sought
• Explain the return on investment (ROI) projections for each investor or the social returns that will result from the donations — and tell them when they will see this return.
  
  

The Importance of Presentation Style

These facts and projections are essential when seeking funds from donors and investors. However, while facts tell most of the story, the impact of the quality of the presentation cannot be underestimated.

As John May and Cal Simons clearly state in their book, Every Business Needs An Angel: "… he also invested because of the strength of Bob’s presentation. Presentations that are world class make a huge difference in the results they produce."

A successful presentation, then, includes a professional, compelling look and feel and a smart information design approach to how the content is arranged and presented.

The presentation design should encompass the following attributes:

• Highly refined, no-nonsense
• Efficient, but with no key fact left out
• Balanced and thoughtful
• Direct and honest, without pretense
• Moreover, the presentation should be visually consistent with all of your organization’s other communication materials — a clear reflection of your organization’s integrated brand.
  

Herb Rubenstein is the President of Growth Strategies, Inc.
Adam Levin is the Executive Vice President for Information Experts