087. Capital Mastery Series—Putting Investors First in Your Pitch Deck

Connect with the host:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-e-jenkins/

Website: https://www.birchprosper.com/

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If you're an active syndicator, then you know how important it is to craft the perfect presentation for your deal.

Putting together a solid pitch deck isn't easy.

The key is to focus on providing the relevant information in a very clear and concise way, so investors have the data necessary to make an informed decision.

That said, investors care about how the story is told. Your presentation needs to flow in a logical, coherent manner.

In this episode, I provide you with a framework to help you clearly communicate investment opportunities to your investors in a way that gets them excited to partner with you!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello, what's up, and welcome back to the Capital Stack. I'm your host, Brandon Jenkins. Have another quick uh Monday short for you today, and um, I thought I would kind of add some some value, direct value for active investors. I'm gonna start with a quick story. So, for those of you who've who've kind of listened to the show for a while or who know me personally, you know that I spent a number of years in the oil and gas business, in the corporate space. And um, so I remember uh one project that I was working on when I was a petroleum engineer, uh, where I had to sort of work with a senior manager in the company. Okay, and so I needed to get with uh the senior manager because we were working on some of the same data sets, and so um we had to kind of work together so that I could pull some of the data, work with it on my end, and and and turn around kind of a work product for the asset. So I went to meet with the senior manager one day and um you know, really respected guy. He'd worked with with the company for about 20 years. So I sat down and um we were talking about the data, but then we we kind of veered off and talked about some other topics. So we started to talk about the various approaches that um you should take or you can take when sharing your results in the workplace. Okay, so I was always taught to kind of keep your head down and get the work done, and you'll get noticed. You know, just just keep grinding away and the rewards will come. Okay, so when I shared that with him, uh he looked at me and he said, you know, listen, I understand where you're coming from, but that's a bit naive. And so it kind of took me back, right? So I'm sitting there hearing it, and um, and my first thought is, well, but what do you mean by that? You know, because this is kind of for me, this is new, and and and hearing someone say that putting in hard work and um and expecting to sort of get results eventually, or even putting in work without expecting results, but just realizing that it'll be recognized at some point. That was a bit of a new concept. So I said, Well, what do you mean by that? And he said, Well, you know, look, people are busy, and why should you expect them to stop what they're doing, come over to see your work product, and promote you or promote it for you, you know. So, and that's the wrong approach. In the corporate environment, you know, you need to get proficient at elevating your work, and there's nothing wrong with that. Well, that concept kind of applies to the real estate investing space. You know, as general partners, we have to elevate and share the things that we're working on so that our network understands our level of commitment to what we do, but it also uh allows them to sort of be warm and informed uh whenever we present opportunities, okay, because we don't want the relationship to go cold. So one great way to do that is to share what you're working on. Now, when you actually have a deal in front of you or when when you're presenting an opportunity, one of the most effective ways to finally uh, you know, once once they're already warm, but one way to, you know, uh share the opportunity is through a deal deck, okay, a pitch deck, a deal deck. And so I'm gonna give you kind of a quick overview of how to do just that. And the reason I'm doing this is because I see a lot of deal decks that, in my opinion, could be re uh reworked, restructured, so that they're more effective and so that they put the the investor in front, okay, instead of the the the team in front. So here, so I'm gonna start off with the first section, which is the introduction and the problem. So it's good by setting the stage to kind of address what the problem is in the marketplace that your opportunity solves. This is a great way to sort of rise above the herd or the crowd of deals, especially for people who see deals all the time. Okay, the question is well, what you know, what what does your your your opportunity solve or what is it offer that's different from all these other deals that are out here? Okay, so that's the first thing. Second thing is market research, right? So share some of the insights that back the potential of the opportunity. You know, like what is the opportunity about? Okay, what's the data that really kind of comes uh behind that? This is a part of shaping up the story of the deal. So market research is a way, a great way to do that. Number three, do a property overview. So highlight some of the key property details. We're all visual, make sure you include plenty of pictures of the property, okay, interior, exterior, you know, some things to really help your viewer and your listener connect with exactly what it is you are trying to convey here. Okay, number four, what's the deal structure? So explain the investment participation, explain the ownership, explain the returns, okay. Explain how the deal is structured in a way that will allow the investor to uh not just fully understand it, so simple, keep it simple, but you also want to make sure that they connect with the opportunity and they see that okay, this is something that I could benefit from. Okay, number five is underwriting, right? So get your anal your deal analysis uh slides in there. So underwriting, overview, projections, right? Present a very transparent uh uh picture of the cash flow and the returns for the investor. Okay, number six, investment highlights. So showcase some of the selling points, the unique selling points, because again, we're trying to rise above the herd of other opportunities that are presented in the marketplace. So you want to have something that really shows or showcases something that's unique about your opportunity. Now, look, uh one thing you notice is I've gone through all these things. I've gone through six things so far. So introducing the problem or the uh uh introduction and the problem, market research, property overview, deal structure, underwriting, overview, and projections, investment highlights. Now I'm getting to the team expertise where you start to showcase who your team is, why this team, okay, why we have the qualifications necessary to execute this business plan. But you see how I put everything before that, because investors want to know within a relatively short amount of time what the opportunity is, what the story is. Okay, so once you've um adequately sort of captured the the and made that connection, now you can talk about who's behind the deal. Okay. Um, so that's important. Now, I uh uh the only point that I'll make here is listen, if if if you're a more experienced team and you're at the point where your investors are 90% reinvesting in this deal because they've been with you for some time, then you can maybe you can put the team up front. But my point is for the the vast majority of the deals that I see having the team after you've explained the opportunity and the deal, I think it makes a lot of sense. Okay. So then after that is case studies, if you have any, maybe just a deal that kind of showcase the a similar business plan. And then after that, risk mitigation. This is a big one, especially now in the marketplace where we have a lot of deals that are um in trouble, distressed. And so the the uh it's important to highlight what do you plan to do to mitigate risks, to reduce risks? Have you addressed the key risks in terms of property, you know, things like property taxes, um, which there's nothing we can do about, but have you adequately captured and uh modeled for that? What about debt? You know, if you have a certain uh debt structure that is not say fixed at a low rate, which you know right now that's a struggle to find. And so do you have something that that does the deal hold up regardless of what the debt profile is? Okay, that's the main point. Have you mitigated risks? You know, what about what about if you have a uh a heavy lift on a heavy capex plan, then what what are you gonna do to make sure that the deal holds up, even if we don't realize this uplift in value from putting in all these capex dollars? And then the investor benefits. So outline the advantages of the opportunities is kind of rounding out the story. You start off with the with the story, with why the investor should care, then you come back to again here are the benefits of this deal. Number um uh the 11th point here is the exit strategy. So, what are you going to do to execute the deal? And then when you exit the deal, what's the timeline? What are the very scenarios of those exit strategies? Plural, right? Not just one, maybe a primary, but then what happens if that one doesn't pan out? Okay, so what are the exit strategies of the deal? And the last one is the next steps in call to action. And I would recommend just being very simple and clear with it, having three easy steps to sort of uh partner with this on this deal. Very simple, very clear, okay, because a confuse a confused mind says no, right? So so just very important things to kind of highlight. And I want to just step back. The reason you want to have a pitch that is going to speak to your investor and to your opportunities because it aligns your mission with your investors' goals. It offers clarity for your investors, and it also motivates and convinces people to act, okay, which is ultimately ultimately what we want. All right. So again, just wanted to share that very uh specific point and hoping to add some value here. But that is how you can create a perfect pitch deck so that you are confident when you um have a deal, when you present a deal, okay, to your investors. All right, I hope to see you next time and uh have a great week. As always, thank you so much for tuning in to the show today, brought to you by Bridge Prosper. If you enjoyed today's episode and you'd like to learn more about commercial real estate investing, please like, subscribe, and share. And we'll see you again next week. I'm Brandon Jenkins, and this is the Capital Snake, where we help you learn, apply, and