Presenting to Investors
Episode #9 of the course How to conduct a market research survey by Nick Freiling
We’ve learned how to clean and analyze your data. Now it’s time to get your findings in front of the right people: investors who can bring your product to market.
Once you’ve cleaned and analyzed your data, it’s time to put the graphs into a presentation. Typically, this is done in PowerPoint—it’s a common application used by businesses around the world.
Executive Summary
Like it or not, your audience likely wants to know just a few things about your survey: whether consumers liked your concept, why they liked it, and what kinds of people liked it the most. That said, answer these questions right away—in a single slide at the beginning of your presentation. Tell your audience what’s in all the graphs that follow, so they can get the gist without having to dig too deep into the data.
If your investors had any specific questions, definitely answer those quickly and succinctly in this section of your report.
Optimized Graphs
Different graphs work for different kinds of survey questions. Here are some rules of thumb to follow when deciding what kinds of graphs to use to present your findings to investors.
1. For questions with logical or chronological scales, use bar graphs. These are the types of graphs you see most often: vertical or horizontal bars associated with individual answer options to your survey questions. Make sure your bars are aligned in an order that makes sense (for example, for an age question, youngest on the left and oldest on the right).
2. Do not include more than four slices in pie graphs, and never use them for scale questions. Just trust me on this. Too many slices make pies hard to follow, and it’s just not intuitive to view scales in a circular format (no beginning, no end).
3. Condense multiple questions into single graphs, wherever possible. There’s nothing worse than having to dig through dozens of slides in order to get a general sense of how respondents answered your survey questions. And in many cases, your investors will want to see how respondents answered groups of questions together—not just one question at a time.
Branded PowerPoint
Last, but not least, make sure your PowerPoint looks sharp. Brand it with your own logo. If you don’t have one yet, use a built-in template to make sure the slides all look similar, so formatting issues don’t distract from what’s most important.
Don’t be afraid to spend some money on Slidesmash or to ask a graphic designer friend.
Rules of thumb for your PowerPoint deck:
1. White space is your friend! Don’t fill space just because there is space. Leaving white space on your slides helps keep the focus on your findings.
2. No word art. Just pick one easy-to-read font and use it throughout your presentation.
3. Divide slides into sections and include section title slides. This makes it easy for investors to flip through your slides and quickly view the sections that most interest them.
Lastly, NO TYPOS. This is non-negotiable. Read your presentation three times over before sending it to anyone else.
Next, we’ll discuss next steps once your market research survey is complete. While you’ve just gathered invaluable information, it’s only step number one toward a successful product launch.
Recommended book
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds
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