What Brands Want to See in a Pitch Deck

A pitch deck has one job: get a marketing director interested enough to want a conversation. Most decks never get that far. They land in an inbox with hundreds of others, they look like every other racer's deck, and they say a lot about the racer and almost nothing about the brand.

So I asked the people who open those inboxes what makes them stop and read. The answers were more specific than you might expect, and more useful than any design template.

Show them the whole person, then the numbers

Ben Dolan, VP of marketing at VP Racing Fuels, described the best deck he had seen in a long time at my Motocross Sponsorship Summit. It came from a well-known racer in a major series, but what made it work wasn't the name. "He put together a deck that really showed his personality," Dolan said. "So we knew that he was probably a good culture fit for us." ▶ Watch Ben Dolan on this

The racer covered the basics first. "He had the typical, which is always required. What are your plans for the next season? What are your current followers? What's been your reach and your engagement? Some of the KPIs that you would expect to see," Dolan said. "But then he added that personal level of a peek behind the scenes into his life, where he could use all the other products that we offer." ▶ See the full session

That last part matters because most racers pitch VP as a fuel company and nothing else. "We're perceived as being a very narrow piece of the market when we have aerosols and cleaning products, detailing products, oils, coolants, all these other products that people aren't aware of commonly," Dolan said. "And typically the people who are pitching us aren't aware of that either." If your deck shows you using a brand's whole catalog on your snowmobile, your UTV and your tow rig, you've given them more places to put you. ▶ Watch the Decks & Proposals session

Prove you already use the product

Joe Bowman, marketing director at Slime, went back through the teams Slime has sponsored to see what they had in common. "They all came up to me. They already knew about Slime and they used it," he said. One racer ran it in his trailer tires to get to and from the races. Another was a lumber salesman whose crew used it in their work trucks all week. ▶ Watch Joe Bowman on this

Bowman also gets calls from retailers asking for appearances, and the first thing he checks is geography. "We get AutoZone or Napa or Walmart contacting us. Hey, can you appear at this X event? My first thing is, where are our teams located around the country? So add that in your deck." ▶ See the clip

He had two more items most racers skip. "Sometimes the decks don't even include the racing schedule. Like, where are the races and what towns are they in? Because a lot of people think that, oh, you already know where we race. But a lot of these sponsors will not know where you race, when and where." And: "Put some video links, YouTube or whatever, to maybe a testimonial you did for another sponsor that was super successful for them." ▶ Watch the full session

Do the homework a job applicant would do

Chris Meyer, senior marketing specialist at Maxxis, reads decks the way a hiring manager reads cover letters. The good ones understand that sponsorship is a business and that the racer has to fill a hole the brand actually has. "It's no different than taking the time to research the company that you're applying for a job with, and sprinkling the language that you find on their website into your pitch deck, and making sure that your photography is of a professional quality, that you're taking this seriously," he said. "You're asking someone to give you money. What are you trading for?" ▶ Watch Chris Meyer explain this

Megan Meyer, the two-time NHRA world champion who builds decks for racers, takes the homework one step further. She puts the target company's logo on the cover and carries its colors and branding through every page, "so that way they can see that this was custom made just for that company." ▶ Watch Megan Meyer on this

Keep it clean, short and honest

Brett Carpenter, who manages the racing program at Polaris, reads every deck and email that reaches him. He saves the strong ones and bookmarks some to come back to. What earns a bookmark? "Something clean. Like I want to see it just, you know, professional. I don't need fluff." He wants to know where you race, where you come from and what you did last year. "I'd love a bio, a clean bio. I don't need two or three pages, but elevator pitch me in a few paragraphs," he said. "Give me a roadmap, and what your goals are over two to three years." ▶ Watch Brett Carpenter on this

Megan Meyer puts a ceiling on length. "I would say no more than 15 pages for a deck, and again, the deck needs to be all about the company that you're trying to pitch to," she said at the Drift Sponsorship Summit. "I am not a fan of having just a generic deck that's all about your history and your accomplishments and your race schedule. That's more for like a resume or your website." ▶ Watch the drift session

Notice that Bowman wants your schedule and Meyer doesn't want a resume. They agree more than it sounds. Include the where and when so a brand can picture you at its events, but build the deck around what the brand gets, not a list of your trophies.

Show what you've done for other sponsors

Tony Yorkman, senior partnership manager at K&N Engineering, sees more than 500 requests a year. He told me a deck doesn't have to be custom built for K&N to catch his eye, as long as it proves you can deliver. "Show me what you've done for some of your other partners. I think that's just as valuable to me, so I can know your potential," he said. If a current sponsor features you in its own marketing, put that in too. "Show me what they do for you. I think those are pieces that I want to see in that deck." ▶ Watch Tony Yorkman explain this

Make it something they can hand to the boss

Remember who else will see your deck. Dave Gowland, vice president of motorsports at Monster Energy, doesn't make the final call. "I get stuff that's on, you know, people that just write it out on a piece of paper. I can't give that to a CEO of a $6 billion company," he said. "I'm just providing the options to our CEO, who then makes a decision." ▶ Watch Dave Gowland on this

A deck that looks homemade puts your champion in an awkward spot. A professional one gives them something they can forward without apologizing for it.

Ask before you design

The most useful deck tip came from a mistake Megan Meyer almost made. She had built a deck around social media and brand exposure for a company she was pitching. Before sending it, she sat down with them and asked what they measured. They wanted email sign-ups from a specific kind of customer, which her deck never mentioned. "As soon as I had that meeting where I asked them, what are your goals, what metrics are you going to be looking for, then I had to completely change it," she said. "If I would have showed them that first deck, it would have been a no." ▶ Watch the clip

The takeaway

• Cover the basics a brand expects (next season's plans, reach, engagement), then show how you use their products in your life away from the track.
• List where you race and where you live. Brands match teams to retail events by geography.
• Use the brand's own language, logo and colors, and professional photos.
• Keep it under about 15 pages, with a short bio and a two-to-three-year roadmap.
• Show results you've delivered for current sponsors, including any testimonial videos.
• Ask what the brand measures before you finish the deck, not after.