Decision-makers read business cases looking for three things: is the problem real, is this the best way to solve it, and are the numbers believable? A competitor analysis is read with one question: what should we do differently because of what others do? Templates help with the structure, but each slide only works if it answers its question in the title and proves it in the body.
The business case, slide by slide
A business case deck for a decision meeting usually needs ten to fifteen slides, plus an appendix. The order follows the decision-maker’s logic, not the project team’s history.
| Slide | Question it answers | What goes on it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Recommendation | What are you asking for? | The decision, the investment, the expected return, in three lines |
| 2. The problem | Why act now? | The cost of the current situation, with a figure and a source |
| 3. Objectives | What does success look like? | Three to five measurable goals |
| 4. Options | What else could we do? | Do nothing, the cheap fix, the proposal, the ambitious option |
| 5. Option comparison | Why this option? | A matrix of options against criteria |
| 6. Costs | What will it cost? | One-off and running costs by year |
| 7. Benefits | What do we get? | Savings and revenue by year, with assumptions |
| 8. Financial summary | Is it worth it? | Payback period, net present value or ROI |
| 9. Risks | What could go wrong? | Top risks with likelihood, impact and mitigation |
| 10. Plan | How and when? | Phases, milestones, resources |
| 11. The ask | What exactly do you need today? | The decision, budget and owner, with a date |
| Appendix | Can I check this? | Detailed calculations, assumptions, sources |
Making the numbers believable
- Show assumptions beside every figure: “Saves 1,800 hours a year (12 staff × 3 hours a week × 50 weeks)”.
- Use ranges where you are unsure, and say which end you planned with.
- Compare with doing nothing — the cost of the status quo is part of the case.
- Name the sources of benchmarks and prices in small text.
- Keep the detail in the appendix, one click away for the person who asks.
Build the cost-benefit slide in PowerPoint
The financial summary is usually best shown as costs and benefits over time, with the cumulative line crossing zero at the payback point.
A cost-benefit chart with a payback lineWindows and Mac
Insert a combo chart
On a Title Only slide choose Insert → Chart → Combo. Set Costs and Benefits as Clustered Column and Cumulative as Line.
Insert Chart → Combo Enter the years
In the worksheet put years in the first column, costs as negative values, benefits as positive values, and the running total in the last column.
Worksheet with costs, benefits and the cumulative total Colour by meaning
Costs in a neutral grey, benefits in your accent colour, the cumulative line dark. Add a data label where the line crosses zero and write “Payback in year 2” beside it.
State the result in the title
Replace “Financial overview” with the point: “The portal pays back in 22 months and saves 1.4 m over five years”.
The competitor analysis, slide by slide
A competitor analysis deck should end in implications, not in a catalogue of other companies. Six to ten slides usually suffice:
- Summary: the three things that matter most and what they mean for us.
- The landscape: who competes, grouped (direct, indirect, new entrants), with one line each.
- Comparison matrix: competitors against the criteria customers care about.
- Positioning map: two axes that matter (price and breadth, for example), every competitor placed.
- Profiles: one slide per main competitor — offer, strengths, weaknesses, recent moves.
- Gaps and opportunities: where nobody serves customers well.
- Implications: what we should start, stop or change, with owners.
The comparison matrix
A table with competitors as columns and criteria as rows is the most-used slide of any competitor analysis. Keep it to five or six criteria customers actually choose by — price, ease of use, integrations, support, specific features — and five or so competitors. Use ✓, a partial mark and ✗, or a three-step rating, rather than prose in cells. Put your own column first or highlight it, and be honest: a matrix where you win everything is not believed.
Build a readable comparison matrixWindows and Mac
Insert the table
Choose Insert → Table with one column per competitor plus one for the criteria, and one row per criterion plus a header.
Insert → Table for a comparison matrix Use symbols
Type ✓ and ✗ from Insert → Symbol (font Segoe UI Symbol on Windows) or use icons from Insert → Icons. Centre them in the cells with Layout → Center and Center Vertically.
Highlight your column
Select your company’s column and give it a light fill of the accent colour with Table Design → Shading.
The positioning map
Draw two axes with Insert → Shapes → Arrow, label their ends (“Low price”, “High price”; “Specialist”, “Broad”), and place each competitor as a circle or a logo. Circle size can show market share if you have reliable figures. The empty quadrant is often the most interesting thing on the slide — say so in the title.
Mistakes that sink both decks
- Optimism without evidence. Benefits that rely on best-case assumptions, competitors described from their marketing.
- Too much detail on slides. Twenty-row cost tables belong in the appendix; the slide shows the total and the trend.
- No alternatives. A business case with only one option looks like a decision already made.
- No implications. A competitor analysis that never says what we should do is a research report, not a presentation.
- Stale information. Date your sources; competitors change prices and features often.
Example: the opening slide of a business case
The first slide carries most of the weight. Compare two versions for the same customer portal project:
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| Title: “Customer Portal Project” | Title: “A self-service portal cuts support costs by a third — we ask for 420 k to build it” |
| Bullets: background, project team, timeline, budget | Three lines: the problem (support calls up 40 % in two years), the solution (portal for the five most common requests), the return (payback in 22 months) |
| A stock photo of a laptop | A small chart of support calls per month rising, with the portal’s expected effect dotted |
| The ask on slide 14 | The ask on slide 1: approve 420 k and name an owner by 30 November |
The strong version can be understood in twenty seconds, and every following slide proves one of its claims. If the meeting is cut short, the decision can still be taken.
Presenting the options fairly
Show at least three options, including doing nothing, in one table: options as columns, criteria as rows (cost, benefit, time to value, risk, fit with strategy). Score each with a simple scale and colour the scores lightly. Then say plainly why the recommended option wins — and what would make you choose another. Decision-makers trust a case more when it shows the trade-offs it considered.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
Business cases and competitor analyses in ExpertSlides
The ExpertSlides library has the slide kinds both decks need, in many arrangements each: problem and solution, options and pros and cons, financials and unit economics, risks, roadmaps and project plans for the business case; competition matrices, comparisons, product comparisons, market and SWOT slides for the competitor analysis. Describe the decision, or attach your notes, a spreadsheet of costs or a market report, and the AI builds the deck in that order, with charts from your figures and nothing invented.
With web research (Pro and Business), the AI can look up public information for a competitor overview while it builds the deck — check those facts and their dates before you present. In the PowerPoint export (Pro and Business) the matrices are real tables and the charts real PowerPoint charts with their data, so finance can check every number.
More business formats: SWOT analysis slides, planning slides and presenting data. See also our page on business presentations and the Design Templates.
Questions, answered
What should a business case presentation include?
The recommendation, the problem and its cost, objectives, options and their comparison, costs, benefits, a financial summary with payback or ROI, risks, the plan and the specific ask, with detailed calculations in an appendix.
How long should a business case deck be?
Usually ten to fifteen slides for the decision meeting, with supporting detail in an appendix after the last slide.
How do I present a competitor analysis?
Open with a summary of what matters, show the landscape, a comparison matrix and a positioning map, profile the main competitors, and end with gaps and implications for your own plans.
How do I make a comparison table in PowerPoint?
Insert a table with competitors as columns and criteria as rows, use check and cross symbols or a three-step rating instead of text, centre the cells and highlight your own column.
Can ExpertSlides build a business case deck?
Yes. Describe the decision or attach notes and cost figures, and the AI builds the deck with options, financial charts, risks and the ask from the library’s business layouts, without inventing numbers.
