The question “can you give some more info on this” after your first pitch almost always gets answered by another slide deck. These “follow on decks” have a different purpose and context than your main pitch deck:
- The audience knows/has bought into the main idea of your story, so no need for “emotional story telling drama” here, the recipient just wants to get specific questions answered here.
- The content of the slides will be more factual, data-intense
- The substance of the deck is likely to be very specific for this particular requester, and you are unlikely to have time to invest 2 weeks of design effort in follow up slides to dozens of investors / prospects.
Some design guide lines for these types of decks:
- Answer the questions asked in a focused way, don’t just dump more slides from the appendix in a new file. You can even set up the deck in a sequence of alternating trackers with the question, plus a slide with the answer.
- Don’t stick in the exact same slides as you had in your first deck. People can read/hear, and apparently they were not clear enough the first time around. If you have to, use an existing slide that she already has seen, but add big circles, or bright explanation boxes with the required clarification
- Use a sober, down-to-earth format (like the one used here at SlideMagic), that makes you look credible and professional, transparent (no flashy graphics are needed to clarify your points), and efficient (you did not waste a lot of time/money on over polishing a deck that is basically just a quick memo).
Cover image by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash