Over the last ten years coaching and helping CEO’s create investor presentations, I’ve learned to adjust my technique to the skill level of the CEO and the quality of the presentation first offered to me as the starting point for my coaching. My approach to salvage a misguided mess is not the same as what I do with an already excellent presentation to take it up a notch.
But I found I had trouble convincing other people that guidelines and coaching had to be matched to presentation level. In particular, I have a running argument with venture advisors and event organizers who insist on imposing something like a twelve-slide template (or the “10-slide Rule,” or similar formulas) on all companies, with no regard for the skill and experience of the CEO presenter. In my experience, the templates are a lifesaver for some, yet a condescending and destructive intrusion for others.
Enter the BizClarity Presentation Scale. I devised it at first to argue against forcing all companies to squeeze their story into the same template. Now that I’ve worked with it for a while, I serves as a tool for making intelligent decisions about presentations at any level on the scale between disaster and perfection.
The BizClarity Presentation Scale maps four levels of presentation quality:
- Train Wreck
- Good Enough
- Outstanding
- Insanely Great
Trainwreck
A Trainwreck is a presentation that is, at best, confusing and forgettable. At worst, it alienates investors who remember the presentation–and the company–as a waste of time. A Trainwreck is characterized by any or all of the following:
- Wrong content, big gaps in the business story
- Too much detail
- Too technical, full of jargon and acronyms
- Too salesy, loaded with product features
- Bad slides, cluttered and unreadable
- Poor delivery, poor contact with the audience
- Rushing, or taking too long
- Bad attitude of the presenter
Trainwreck is not too strong a word for some of the regrettable presentations seen at every venture fair or endured by investors in private meetings. At the risk of being overly dramatic, I use the word to drive home the point that trainwrecks can’t be ignored because they’re a drain on the entire venture network.
Companies who show up at venture fairs or at investors offices unprepared and expecting to “wing it,” or who are ignorant and ill-advised, not only waste a good opportunity, but they do lasting damage to their reputation and their ability to raise money. Investors waste time and are unhappy. When otherwise deserving companies blow their presentations, the venture community could be missing out on a promising technology.
The good news is that Trainwrecks are avoidable. With the right knowledge and tools, it is possible and worth the effort to fix them.
Good Enough
A Good Enough presentation avoids the utter embarrassment of a Trainwreck. At a minimum, it is an organized run-through of a checklist of topics that investors expect to hear. The slides are legible, though often they still suffer from too much clutter.
A Good Enough presentation can be created by:
- Following a list of “recommended slides”
- Following basic rules for good slide design
- Targeting the presentation to the investor audience, and no other
- The CEO rehearsing the presentation, and responding to feedback
- Keeping within the time limit without rushing
A Good Enough presentation is accepted as the standard in the venture community. Although it may lurch from one idea to the next and force the audience to decide for themselves which ideas are primary and which are secondary, it gives enough information for investors to decide if they want to follow up. They may not remember the company a day later—presentations that follow formulas tend to all sound the same—but at least they weren’t left with a negative impression.
Good Enough delivery is confident, but not inspiring. The CEO demonstrates familiarity with the slides and expands what is on the screen while making good eye contact with the audience. (Curiously, it’s common to see a CEO give a limp delivery, then come to life during the Q&A.)
The main problem with a Good Enough presentation is that it gives investors just enough information to say “no.” It doesn’t make the case well for how the company is different or convey an urgency for investment.
Outstanding
An Outstanding presentation showcases the company as a special opportunity—the company stands out. It leads the audience to understand, without straining, the key ideas that make this company unique. It anticipates and counters major objections before investors can dwell on them.
An Outstanding presentation is constructed to highlight the core story that animates the company. The ideas unfold in a way that build the story from the beginning, ending with a persuasive argument for investment. All the elements—narrative, slides, and delivery—contribute to the impression of a quality company led by a CEO who communicates well.
An Outstanding presentation is full of reasons why investors should want to know more and say ‘yes’ to a second meeting. It is the one that investors recall first when asked that evening, “See anything good today?” Because the company’s story is so cogent and repeatable, it creates buzz.
Insanely Great
An Insanely Great presentation is very rare. The audience becomes so engaged from the first word and image, they forget to take notes. They follow the story, get excited, and make it a priority to follow-up to find out more. The quality of the presentation itself creates buzz.
Insanely Great presentations are the artful merging of ideas, images, and showmanship. They require the highest skill and inspiration to create. Many iterations of slides and content and hours of rehearsal are what it takes to rise to the pinnacle of Insanely Great.
The phrase “insanely great” is a Steve Jobs expression. His presentations are notorious examples of how exceptional communications can be a decisive factor in a company’s success.
Although Insanely Great is a level very few companies will ever achieve, it serves as the epitome of perfection, an ideal to aim for. The hope is that by working to be Insanely Great, more presentations will be Outstanding, and not just Good Enough.
How to Use The BizClarity Presentation Scale
The BizClarity Presentation Scale is offered as a tool to guide the efforts of CEO’s, advisors, and coaches. It is a language for talking about what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Specifically, it’s a framework for making tactical decisions about how much time and effort to commit to the investor presentation. What minimal effort is needed to avoid a disaster? How far do you want to take it? Is it worth it? What do you address first, second, third? What results can be realistically expected? At what point do you ask for help?