What Is a Pitch Book?
A pitch book is a marketing presentation used to persuade investors and stakeholders that a product idea should be implemented. Pitch books tend to focus on the financial aspects of launching a product and don’t typically discuss marketing strategy like traditional pitch decks do. An engaging pitch book presentation is integral to transforming an idea into a fully realized product or service.
Why Is a Pitch Book Important for Launching a New Product?
Before launching a new product, companies need to pitch their idea to potential investors. A pitch book can help teams prepare their case and ensure stakeholders have all the necessary information to decide whether an idea is worthy of investment. Pitch books also enhance presentations by providing investors with a reference for the key points outlined in the presentation, which they can review before, during, and after the pitch.
What Should Be Included in a Pitch Book?
At its core, a pitch book is essentially a deep dive into a company’s financials, but it can also include other important details like a company overview. Below, we outline some of the most common elements found in pitch books and provide recommendations for effectively using them.
Company Overview
Provide a brief overview of your organization. The goal is to make your company look attractive. You can start by sharing the highlights of the company, including:
- History: Share who founded the company or some key milestones the company has reached.
- Valuation: If your stock is performing well, make sure to include a chart to visually demonstrate its dominance compared to competitors.
- Strategy: Discuss key details on what makes the company’s strategy strong.
- Corporate finance transactions: Note important financial transactions of the company.
- Ownership: Share who owns the company and at what percentage.
- Other highlights: Discuss any other metric that shows the value your company brings.
Include a business model slide showcasing your organization’s competitive edge; teach investors how your company stands apart from its competition. Consider also including slides on financial forecasts, shareholder analyses, and liquidity analyses.
Industry Overview
The following section should provide a general overview of your industry and its major players. Provide context around the problems facing consumers and opportunities for companies to capitalize on competitive solutions. Create a slide showcasing your core competitors and share their similarities and past corporate financial activities. You’ll also want to discuss key industry trends in the industry overview.
Valuation
The valuation section may be the most crucial part of the pitch book. It covers your company’s past and current financial data. For investors, it’s an important part of determining if your company is worth investing in. Here are a few things to consider adding in this section:
- Historical Share Price Performance: Briefly share stock performance and other key events during your company’s history.
- Valuation Summary: Discuss what a valuation analysis revealed.
- Comparables Overview: Share the assessment of a company’s value relative to its peers.
- Precedents Overview: Discuss the results of a precedents transaction analysis.
Transaction Opportunities
In this section, you’ll set up a structure for the company’s current dilemma and then share a solution. Start by creating a problem slide that discusses what the company wants to achieve and the roadblocks getting in the way of success. The problem slide should focus on the pain points facing existing customers or companies.
Next, you’ll share the solution to the company’s problem. A solution slide will cover why prospective customers will respond positively to your proposed product feature. The solution slide will share in-depth information on how it will resolve a problem and ultimately make the company grow.
At this point, you will want to move into a product slide. You may want to include a brief product roadmap in the product slide. The goal is to show how this solution will fix a problem or fill a gap in the industry. With the right funds and resources, your company can deliver on building this product and launching it.
Team Overview
Investors invest in more than just a product – they are also investing in the team behind it. In this slide, you’ll want to convince investors that they would like to partner with the people in your team. Share who is on your team and their accomplishments.
Appendix
It’s easy to cram too much information into a pitch book. After writing a rough draft, you should go back and take out anything deemed non-essential. The process will ensure you only present key information and have a tight product pitch.
However, you may determine that the non-essential information is necessary to back up the data presented in the pitch book. The appendix is a great place to put this information since it’s easy for investors to access it without getting distracted from the main points.
Benefits of Using a Pitch Book as Part of Your Product Launch
Leave a Memorable Impression
A high-quality pitch deck will leave a lasting impression on investors. Besides catchy headlines, pitch decks can demonstrate your professionalism and commitment to your proposed product. It can also help reinforce your message and key points of your pitch.
A Pitch Book Is More Than Just a Sales Pitch
You may view pitch books as part of elaborate sales pitches, but it does provide value to investors. It provides an overview of company finances, shares the competition and industry trends, and how your proposed product will solve customer problems and increase revenue. All in an easy-to-read document.
Provide a Reference for Future Discussions
You may choose to share your pitch book directly with investors. It’s a great way for them to revisit your pitch and share it with other relevant stakeholders. Sharing your pitch book also allows you to follow up with investors to see if they have any further questions.
Tips for Pitching Your Product Launch to Investors
When you want an investment, you need more than memorable and easy-to-understand slides. You also want to give an excellent pitch along with your presentation. Here are a few tips to pitch your product launch:
Define Your Target Audience
Every business and investor is different, which means you need to tailor your pitch book to them. You don’t want to pitch to just anyone. You want to carefully select people who will benefit from listening to your pitch and presentation. It will help save you and your investors time.
Have A Strong Opening
First impressions matter. You need to create a strong message and share the bigger picture of your business and product. By having a clear message in your pitch book and presentation, it’s much easier for investors to grasp your concept and ensure they retain the important details.
Create Financial Projections And Key Metrics
Financial data needs to be easy for investors to understand. Creating graphs and charts with relevant pictures can help make your pitch book easy to read. It will also help key information stand out and aid in answering questions the investor will most likely have in mind.
Take Feedback
Preparing for a product pitch can take a lot of time and effort. Even with all this preparation, investors can still turn down your idea. Take it as an opportunity to discover why they decided not to invest. Maybe they need some objection handling to discuss their concerns. Once you’ve collected their feedback, you can start to make changes to your pitch book and presentation to make it more persuasive to the next investor.
Key Takeaways
Finding the right investors can be time-consuming, but it’s a necessary first step in launching a product. A pitch book is essential to raise capital and gain approval from stakeholders regarding your product idea. As such, it requires accurate information presented in a reader-friendly format. An effective pitch book can help you stand out from your competition, attract investor attention, and showcase why your organization is worth investing in.
