5-Slide MethodologyQuestions
Slide questions are not set in stone. Focus your content on the most important and relevant questions for your
company and industry. You are not expected to incorporate every bullet under each slide as part of your fiveslide presentation. Instead, choose the most compelling elements that help you tell the most persuasive story.
Slide 1: What the Playing Field Looks Like Now
• Who are the competitors in this business, large and small, new and old?
• Who has what share globally, and in each market? Where do we fit in?
• What are the characteristics of this business? Is it a commodity, high value, or somewhere in
between? Is it long cycle or short? Where is it on the growth curve? What are the drivers of
profitability?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are its products? How much
does each spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
• Who are this business’s main customers, and how do they buy?
Slide 2: What the Competition Has Been Up To
• What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
• Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, new technologies, or new distribution
channels?
• Are there any new entrants, and if so, what have they been up to in the past year?
Slide 3: What You’ve Been Up To
• What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
• Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor’s key salesperson, or
licensed a new technology from a startup?
• Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had – a great salesperson, a special
product, a proprietary technology?
Slide 4: What’s Around the Corner?
• What scares you most in the year ahead – what are one or two things a competitor could do to nail
you?
• What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game?
• What M&A deals made by a competitor would knock you off your feet?
Slide 5: What’s Your Winning Move?
• What can you do to change the playing field – is it an acquisition, a new product, globalization?
• What can you do to make customers stick with you more than ever before and be more loyal to you
than to anyone else?
• Persuasively and logically present your “winning move
