Helping investment bankers communicate with an authentic voice

use study

Investment banking is not sexy. But selling a middle-market business should be. For The DAK Group this intersection of ‘flash’ vs. ‘substance’ was the challenge.

The DAK Group offers investment banking services to middle-market private companies looking to sell their business. Specializing in business sale, divestitures, M&A, recapitalizations, valuations, fairness opinions and exit strategies.

We’ve built presentation decks for their clients as well as their own organization. This project—a capabilities deck—is completely different than a storytelling sales pitch.

A different kind of deck

Capability decks are a slide-by-slide, standalone integration of substance & flash.

Capability decks aren't for every situation or sector

Rather than giving a cohesive live sales pitch, capability decks are often used after an initial sales pitch deck for a more informal, detailed meeting with a prospect. Internally we call them "brochures on steroids." Each slide has a thorough subject copy with the word count somewhere between 50 and 80 words in a staged hierarchy.

before

300

words

challenging to read

after

263

words

only 37 less words but so much more inviting

How we arrived at

a better slide

Start at the top

Lead-in statements can be challenging. They’re often thought of as titles or descriptions. In this case too many words made the top of the page uninviting. But simply cutting words is an inelegant solution and can lead to cutting meaning. So we took a step back in order to understand the essence of what needed to be conveyed, and then applied our knowledge about how humans absorb information.

words

Keep slides singular in purpose and move this distraction to its own valuable slide.

Seek categorization to make content more digestible, depending on the audience’s preference.

Where do your eyes go?

The optic nerve is actually part of the brain, not the eye. It's called the second cranial nerve. The optic nerve transfers visual information from the retina to the vision centers of the brain via electrical impulses. In order not to flood your brain with information we want your eyes to have a clear starting point and a strong sense of order.

Client Quote

"Presentation Partners has done a great job in helping us articulate key messages to our multiple audiences, and conquering the more important challenge of getting excellent response. They are amazing at marrying the words and images to create a powerful presentation that drives action."