Competition Slide Pitch Deck: What to include?

Competition Slide: All You Need to Know

Knowing all there is about a competition slide of a pitch deck is an easy task we will summarize for you here. By the end of the article, you will know where to position the competition slide and why along with what to put into the slide itself to make the best of your pitch deck presentation.

In general terms, the competition slide will come right after the market size and right before you go into the uniqueness of your product or service. There is a reason for that and we will cover that along with this article.

In case you are wondering about the use of the competition slide for demo day, precisely, we do not only have a video made by Caya, our CEO, that goes over how to deliver a startup pitch deck, but we also wrote an article on it, in case you are more of a written reference kind of person.

In a nutshell, this is how you should arrange your overall list of slides for demo day, the competition one highlighted in bold below:

• Cover
• Traction/Milestones
• Problem
• Solution
• Product Demo
• Business Model
• Market Size
• Competition
• Underlying Magic
• Go to Market
• Team
• Fundraising Information

In case you are interested in seeing how a CEO on presentation software delivers a pitch during demo day, we also have this recount of DreamIt by Caya you might want to check.

Other than that, let’s get to our competition slide basics.

Related read: How to create a pitch deck for investors

Competition Slide Basics

This part of any pitch deck is probably one of the most important ones. As such, it should brilliantly outline the competitive landscape of a service or product, which is not exclusive of exquisite simplicity.

What we are looking to make clear with this slide is where the product stands within a given market. While it should be informative thereof, the slide and our presentation in front of an audience put together should moreover demonstrate exactly how well we know our industry and its respective challenges and possibilities.

We are of course presenting our competitors here and, rather than shame, there should be a sense of pride in knowing them inside out. How well you know your competition should shine out of this section of your upcoming pitch deck presentation. No pressure!

The Location of the Competition Slide

Understanding where the competitive landscape is presented in essential to understanding this precise slide’s content.

Over the course of a pitch deck, we will generally have talked about our industry’s problems, the solution our product or service will help solve to a lucrative extent and this data will be backed by punctual and very relevant information on the respective market’s conditions, its size, state and potential risks and opportunities.

It is precisely then when we will insert information on our competition as a way of going more in-depth into our chosen market’s workings. From here, we will also naturally move into explaining how we plan on exercising our go-to-market strategies, which is also a nice-to-know detail in order to spin off of this slide into those coming sections in a rounded manner.

Which Tools to Use for Competition Slides

Your competitive advantages should be one of the two most common items on which to think when considering how to fill your competition slide content. The other one is the competitor positioning tool called the magic quadrant on which we will expand below.

Presenting your Competitive Advantages

First of all, make sure you include competitors to your business offer analysis. Hiding the competition, failing to acknowledge it or emptying the graph is of no use to your presentation nor to your business. Especially if you reference a competitor earlier in your pitch, make sure to include those competitors as part of your competitive advantage slide.

One way to present your competitive advantage is through the use of a matrix. Through it, you can highlight the advantages of a product or offer has when compared to each of the identified competitors. Or, you can furthermore use a power grid; one that details benefits in a column versus the amount of competitors on a row.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in Pitch Decks

The main competitors to a market and their relative positions are the main scope of Gartner’s magic quadrant, which is the most well-known graph in competition slides, to be honest. Most people tend to go down this graph route as this tool truly presents this information quite succinctly and clearly, and it also does so by allowing a very open and wide vision. Going for this quadrant, of course, bears the risk of commonality.

In general, you will need to define the two most relevant differentiators in your given industry, which will constitute each of the quadrant’s axis, and then plot your competitors based on them. You will literally position them graphically based on the analyses you have drawn on your competitors.

Petal It Out If You Have More

Should you have more than two variables upon which you would like to base your advantage, you can stretch your graph’s structure to a petal one. Or use the power grid we mentioned earlier.

Going for a petal graph, for example, means you will be able to position diverse competitor types across more axis, which should help position your startup or business at the center of a more complex web of differentiating factors. Only do this when it truly serves and gives strength to your vision and message. Otherwise, there is a lot to gain with the traditional quadrant’s analysis, as well, as we will see next.

Play Around with the Quadrant

Some might disagree with the use of this quadrant altogether. However, if you modify variables to it, meaning you mold what criteria weighs in on your competitor analysis, then your quadrant works its name’s magic to help you create new and diverse analyses tailored to new markets or clients.

You name if you will use the graph or lose it; however, the ability to mold the variables in it should enforce your ability to make decisions based on a myriad of considerations, which should serve as a zooming lens to your business needs even if only kept to your team and yourself.

Make the Best of Your Competition Analysis

Beyond your pitch deck presentation or demo day, the competition slide can help your internal vision about your own business in very effective ways. In fact, this slide allows reflection on your business goals altogether, on what risks and challenges you face, as much as your opportunities.

The competition slide should be enlightening of your needs, yet also help guide your priorities. Use it to the best of your ability not only to portray where you stand in regards to your competitors, but to also reflect upon that to your business’ profit.