What is the best product pitch (deck, video, one pager, website) you've ever seen/heard and what made it stand out?

This pitch deck is commonly sited as one of the best: https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0

And I’m not surprised to see that because it has all of the elements you’d likely see in a pitch deck: a unique market shift and the challenges it presents, how your product solves, and customer proof points. It’s short, sweet and to the point.

The only challenge is that it can be very difficult to find a market shift / trend that’s truly unique, so more often than not, a lot of pitch decks have the same setup, pointing to their product as the solution. I’ve heard this a number of times from CIOs who’ve expressed frustration about “long lead ups” in pitch decks and that they wish it would just get to the point faster. If you can nail the market shift and customer pain points well, and how your product uniquely solves, you’re golden.

What makes the best product pitch (deck, one pagers, videos, webpages, etc.) is that it is not a standalone asset. I've see lots of strong product pitch assets, however, if they exist in a vacuum/individually rather than as part of a larger journey or campaign then they can become forgettable pretty quickly. 

The assets that usually stand out to me are the ones that clearly articulate the problem being solved and have captivating CTAs that lead the audience to the next relevant part(s) of the learning journey. Your user may not always follow the desired path, but giving them the opportunity to hear/see/read about what challenges your product addresses, how it works (and fits in with other products), why it's best solution for them (now) across different mediums helps to build momentum with your message. Also, with decks, (demo) videos, and one pagers--the more concise, the better.

My best advice here is not to skimp on establishing credibility: lead with something compelling that tells your pitch audience why they should listen to what you’re about to say, and why they should believe you above other companies they may be hearing from. All other things being equal, brand reputation and domain expertise go a long way.

A great way to do this is with some signature research. You’ve probably seen a lot of organizations making this a big part of their GTM strategy: “State of [Department]” reports, or “Top 10 Challenges Facing [Persona] in 2023”. These can give you some compelling stats to lead with in pitches, validate your buyer challenges, and provide long-form content that can become part of your demand generation strategy. Again, not to be too self-promotional of SurveyMonkey products, but this isn’t a heavy lift: you can target anyone you want to hear from and get reliable market data at scale in literally a matter of hours these days. Bringing proprietary insights to the party is really easy to do, and the audience will lean into your pitches.

If you don’t have a lot of great data or think you’ve got something truly cutting edge that the market doesn’t yet understand, get creative. I think a lot about the introduction of the original iPad in 2010. The first thing Steve Jobs does after walking onstage is quote a Wall Street Journal article: “The last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.” What he’s really saying is, “There’s a ton of market demand for what I’m about to show you.” But before getting to that, he spends the next 5 minutes repositioning Apple as “the largest mobile devices company in the world.” He is asking the audience to change the way it thinks about Apple, so that they’ll believe he has the authority to make claims that are coming about the mobile device market, and why you want a third device between your laptop and your smartphone. It’s an absolute masterclass in setting up the conversation.

But most of us don’t possess the power to bend minds like that — much easier to show up with some great market and customer insights to support your pitch ;)