Life is selling. Despite what many of us have been groomed to believe – there is truth in that statement. We sell ourselves for every pay raise, we sell our kids on eating their vegetables, and we sell our partners on spending a lifetime with us. And when it comes to being an entrepreneur, there is no success without selling. If you’re a CPG founder, this post will help you make some of the most important sales of your life – the pitch to your team, retailers and investors.

Types of CPG Pitches

There are three main types of CPG pitches. The core of these pitches are the same, but each has nuances that are crucial to success. Let’s take a look:

Team Pitch: Pitches to your internal team are pivotal to alignment, motivation and growth. The goals of these presentations are to review past performance and discuss your plans and goals for the future. These points may be specific to each department in your company or a general overview of the entire company. How did you do on your marketing campaigns, revenue, and profit in the past quarter? What strategies will be employed for the next quarter? What targets should you all align to hit? As a founder, your job is to remind your team of your shared failures, successes, values and mission consistently and with enthusiasm.
Investor Pitch: If you’re seeking capital for your business, you will need to perfect this pitch. When it comes to pitching to investors, your story and mission will be important but investors will be viewing your business from an ROI perspective. Data will be a big piece of this pitch to ensure the investors understand why it makes business sense to invest in your CPG company.
Retailer Pitch: Whether you’re looking to have a retailer carry your product for the first time or expand your shelf space – you will need to pitch them on your ask. Similar to the investor pitch, data will be essential for retailer pitches. However, during this pitch, you should focus more on the retailer’s motivations, the local market, and the retailer’s shopper marketing programs.

Now that we have the three types of pitches laid out, we’re going to dive next into the specificities of the pitch decks you’ll be creating – particularly for investor and retailer pitches. While team pitches are important, they can be more flexible in their structure as they are presented only within your organization. In other words, you can create team pitches however you see fit. For investor and retailer pitches, there are models to be followed. Firstly, because most investors and retailers will expect it. Secondly, because these are the models that have proven to be successful.

Questions to Answer

All great pitch decks answer a set of foundational questions. They tell the investor or retailer who you are, why you started the business, the problem you’re solving, and how you’ll solve it. Paired with these key points will be data that shows the market opportunity, your company’s traction thus far, as well as, your financials and plans for growth.

To make sure you provide all of the necessary information, answer the following questions in your slides.