The problem with most pitch decks (and presentations of all kinds)

Probably more than 90% of the entrepreneurs I help prepare to pitch for funding make the same mistake. (Frankly, more than 90% of all presentations make this mistake.) In a practice session with an entrepreneur this week, it surfaced immediately, on the second slide… and all those that followed.

The problem?

Putting too many words on the slide. 

To be fair, pitch decks do need to have a fair amount of detailed information included—after all, there’s a decision to be made. And entrepreneurs need to be ready with an answer for the questions a would-be investor will ask. So, they often put a lot of words on slide. 

But let’s be honest: the other reason they have text-heavy slides is to help them remember what to say. (Guilty?)

Why is too many words an issue? 

In a word: neuroscience. The brain is hard-wired to prioritize visual inputs over auditory ones. That means that if you load your slides with lots of text, the audience will be reading them instead of listening to you. If they only needed to read your slide deck, why bother pitching live? (Or why bother having a meeting or an event if a slide deck is all an audience ever needs?)

Investors only partly invest in the actual idea/venture being pitched; a huge part of their decision is driven by their confidence in the person or team at the helm—which they determine based on the entrepreneur’s experience and their interaction with him/her. (The same applies to other audiences as well: they only “buy” the idea being presented if they find the speaker credible.) When you use text-heavy slides, you’re effectively forgoing the opportunity to interact with them because they’ll be reading.

The part that makes me the saddest (and sometimes frustrated on their behalves) is that this problem is easy to solve.

What to do instead:

• If the text is on slide for the sole purpose of reminding you what to say next, simply move the content to the speaker notes and present using “presenter view.” Better yet, know your content well enough that you don’t need the notes. After all, this is your venture that’s on the line!

• Distill the slides to show only the most essential information—a single, core message on each—eliminating most or all of the text by instead representing the information in a graph, chart, diagram, or image. Create an appendix with supporting content that you can put on screen when/if their questions warrant it. That way their eyes (and ears) are on you during the pitch but the supplementary information is available as necessary and all in one deck. 

• Alternatively, consider creating two decks. One to present and one to send ahead/leave behind. The version you’ll present should be stripped of all unnecessary words and have as much information conveyed graphically as possible. The other can include much more text but should still only supply what’s truly necessary for the investor/audience to understand your idea as though you were in the room to explain it. 

Our audience’s attention is our most precious commodity—a truth that’s even more relevant in the virtual world where distractions abound. If you’re fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to pitch, don’t squander their attention with text-heavy slides.

Your venture might just depend on it.