The problem is that they think a bewildering onslaught of complexity is the way to do it.
Views vary, but consensus is that the average time spent on a deck is around four minutes.
Have you ever taken a four-minute drink from a fire hose?
Would you willingly suffer financial force feeding?
Put yourself in the investors’ shoes. What would you think as you trawl through a deck you are struggling to understand? Probably things like:
- How am I going to communicate all this to the CIO / investment committee?
- Am I ever going to understand anything these guys say?
- What if things go wrong? Will they be able to explain what happened? Will I be able to explain it to my boss?
- When will this end?
And maybe the most dangerous one of all:
- If these guys can’t explain this to me in simple terms, do they understand it themselves?
What will the investor likely do in this case? Unfortunately for you, they will probably gently slide your deck into a real (or virtual) recycling bin.
Your deck should be so much more than this…
What is your deck actually for?
The best marketing decks entice investors.
They provide enough information to arouse interest. They don’t try to answer every question an investor might have about the fund.
The aim is to encourage investors to reach out. To secure a meeting. To get them asking questions. To get them to lean in.
The urge to over-explain can be powerful – but it must be resisted. An investor will learn far more from a simple document they read than from a detailed document they don’t.
Investors are busy. Your deck isn’t the only one on their desk. It isn’t special to investors. You must earn the right to be read cover to cover.
How can you earn that right?
It should be a joy to read.
And it should be memorable. There’s little reward from them reading it if they forget about it straight away.
Do that by telling an engaging story that is easy to follow and simple to remember.
Avoid long tracts of text: they will be skipped.
Avoid jargon: it confuses the message, and your audience.
Identify the thing that makes your fund interesting and unique. Focus on that.
Show the investor why you do what you do. Why you love what you do. That is what will resonate with them.
Build an emotional connection
Great stories appeal to us emotionally. They compel us to read them to the end. They make us want the hero to succeed – especially if we can see the hero in ourselves.
They affect us.
Think about the last book you couldn’t put down, despite how late it was.
Or the great show on Netflix that compelled you to watch one more episode before going to bed.
You can harness that same energy in your deck.
Don’t let the investor even consider skimming those last pages so they can get home in time for dinner.
If you are doing it right, they won’t be thinking about dinner. They will be thinking about why they should invest with you.
They will be thinking:
- This proposition makes so much sense, it will be easy to explain it to the investment committee.
- They are good communicators - it will be easy working with them.
- If something goes wrong, they will be able to explain why.
- I really want this team to succeed.
If you can get investors thinking along those lines, your chances of winning an allocation will increase dramatically.
You just need to find your own compelling story. If you need help with that, reach out to our team. We will be more than happy to help.
