An agency client pitch deck should connect a research decision to an agreed method, sample, deliverable, fee, and next step. The purpose is to help the client approve a specific study. Use the editable five-slide PowerPoint to adapt that structure to your next engagement.
The template works for agencies, consulting firms, and research teams. User Intuition supplies the AI-moderated interview workflow; your team owns the study design, interpretation, and client recommendation. Start with the agency research workflow if you are deciding how this capability fits your services.
What should the five-slide pitch include?
Use one decision per pitch and make every slide support its approval. The downloadable PowerPoint is fully editable: replace bracketed text, adjust the sample and deliverables, and apply your presentation identity. The default language describes the division of work without claiming that another company’s technology is proprietary to your agency.
| Slide | Purpose | Replace before presenting |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Research proposal | Identify the client decision | Client, study title, agency or team, date |
| 2. Research brief | Connect learning goals to scope | Decision, audience, markets, interview count, deadline |
| 3. Method and sample | Explain who does the work | Guide approval, sample source, evidence review |
| 4. Evidence and deliverables | Show what the client can inspect | Outputs, evidence access, readout and revisions |
| 5. Commercial scope | Make the engagement approvable | Client fee, included services, milestones, approver |
Keep detailed screening criteria, contractual terms, and the full guide outside the five-slide pitch. They still need to be agreed. The editable research proposal provides a place to record those details so the short presentation does not become the only record of scope.
Slide 1: Name the decision the research will inform
Lead with an action the client is considering. For example, a packaging study might inform which two concepts deserve another development round. A churn study might inform which onboarding problem to investigate first. These are specific choices with a research role, rather than broad promises to understand every customer need.
Ask who owns the decision, when it must be made, and what the team already knows. A date matters only if the study can inform an action before that date. If procurement, recruiting, or stakeholder review cannot fit, change the scope or timing before the client approves the engagement.
Avoid estimating how many past client decisions lacked evidence unless the client has supplied that information. A hypothetical deficit can distract from the current problem and create an argument about invented numbers. Use the client’s own brief, existing data, and confirmed uncertainty to establish why this study is useful.
The first slide should also identify the presenting organization and the proposed study. This makes the file usable when it is forwarded to someone who missed the meeting. Keep its headline short enough to explain aloud in one sentence; move the detailed research questions to the next slide.
Slide 2: Turn the decision into a research brief
List three learning goals that would materially inform the decision. Each should describe evidence the team needs, such as a recent purchase experience, a trade-off between alternatives, or a barrier that changes behavior. Check whether a participant can answer from experience and whether an interview is a suitable way to explore it.
Define the audience using eligibility and relevant experience. Demographic categories alone rarely establish whether someone can speak to the question. A study of a recent service cancellation needs a time window and a clear definition of cancellation; a study of buying committees needs the participant’s role in the decision.
Use the scope table for markets, languages, target quality interviews, and the client deadline. Interview counts should follow the learning goals and segment needs. More interviews do not automatically make qualitative findings representative of a wider market, and a large total can conceal inadequate coverage of a priority group.
Record exclusions as well. If the project studies current customers, it may not explain why prospects never enter the funnel. If it studies one market, it should not promise conclusions across all regions. These boundaries help the client interpret the eventual findings and help your team recognize when a request expands the work.
Slide 3: Explain method ownership and sample choice
Describe the research team’s responsibilities alongside the platform workflow. Your team designs the study, approves the discussion guide, sets screening requirements, reviews evidence, and develops the recommendation. User Intuition runs AI-moderated interviews and provides recordings, transcripts, and analysis support. This division makes accountability visible throughout the engagement.
You can preserve your methodology and use your own sample with User Intuition. Alternatively, recruit through the User Intuition 4M participant panel. Panel size does not establish availability for a particular specialist audience. Confirm feasibility, recruitment terms, and any incentive arrangements before giving the client a committed fieldwork schedule.
Explain how you will test the participant experience. Review the guide, stimuli, language, and interview flow before launch. If a sensitive topic, complex stimulus, or particular audience makes the method unsuitable, address that in the design discussion. The pitch should give the client a basis for assessing fit rather than treating AI moderation as appropriate for every question.
Show where human review enters the workflow. A useful plan identifies who checks the coverage of learning goals, follows findings back to source material, and investigates conflicting accounts. Interview quality checks and researcher judgment serve different purposes; neither should be presented as eliminating the need for the other.
Slide 4: Demonstrate the evidence and client output
Show the output the client will receive and the evidence they can inspect. The User Intuition research preview contains complete calls, transcripts, and a presentation from an illustrative 43-participant Walmart shopper study. Use it to demonstrate the format, then explain which outputs are included in the proposed engagement.
Walk through a concrete chain: the research question, the participant’s account, the interpretation, and the proposed implication. Let the client inspect enough surrounding context to judge whether the evidence supports the interpretation. A persuasive quotation is useful, but it is not a substitute for the complete exchange or a description of conflicting evidence.
Keep the source of every example clear. The public shopper study is an illustrative example, and an agency’s own case study requires permission to share. Do not imply that a sample deck is a commissioned engagement or that its findings will recur in the client’s market. The example demonstrates a deliverable format, not a guaranteed result.
Agree the deliverable details that change workload: presentation scope, evidence access, stakeholder readout, and revision rounds. If the client expects a workshop or an additional executive presentation, include it in both the proposal and the budget. A short slide label such as “final report” leaves too much room for different expectations.
Slide 5: State the fee and the approval step
Present the total client fee with the services it covers. User Intuition does not set an agency’s resale fee. Build your quote from the proposed work, your delivery costs, and the value of the engagement. Use the editable project budget to check the economics before presenting the fee.
For User Intuition Starter voice, platform usage is $30 per quality interview with your sample or $60 with standard panel recruitment, with no monthly Starter fee. Specialty audiences are quoted separately. Incentives you arrange for your own sample and your team’s design, analysis, and client service are additional costs. Check current pricing when preparing the quote.
The client slide should name the approver, research owner, and next action. For example, approval can trigger completion of the guide and confirmation of the sample. If you offer a paid first study, scope it explicitly and confirm what the client receives before it begins. Any agency-funded work is a separate commercial choice, not an assumed platform entitlement.
Use milestone dates for guide approval, fieldwork, evidence review, and readout. Record dependencies and the process for changing scope in the proposal. This gives the client a schedule they can manage and gives the delivery team a way to respond when approvals or recruitment take longer than planned.
How should you handle client questions in the meeting?
Answer questions about research quality with the proposed review process and inspectable evidence. If a client asks whether AI moderation can support a particular discussion, examine the guide and example interviews together. A claim that it always matches a senior moderator does not resolve whether it fits this audience and decision.
Answer sample questions with screening criteria, recruitment source, and coverage requirements. Distinguish reaching eligible participants from establishing population representativeness. If the client needs a market prevalence estimate, discuss the additional design required. Explain what you will do when a priority segment cannot be recruited or when a participant’s experience falls outside scope.
Answer confidentiality questions with the actual proposed data-handling terms. Identify who receives access, what material can be shared, and which retention requirements need confirmation. Avoid inserting generic security promises that have not been checked against the agreement. The research lead and client should know who resolves these questions before launch.
Close by checking whether the study, fee, and approval process are understood. If the client needs another stakeholder involved, send the short pitch alongside the detailed proposal. The complete agency research guide provides broader operating context; the User Intuition agency page shows the interview workflow and sample outputs.
Prepare the editable kit for client use
Replace every bracketed field in the PowerPoint and Word document. Reconcile interview counts, markets, dates, and deliverables across the two files. Keep the internal budget separate from the client proposal unless sharing its assumptions is part of your commercial approach. Review the calculations after changing the sample source or delivery effort.
Have the delivery owner review the pitch before it is sent. That person should be able to explain how the approved brief becomes a guide, how participants are recruited, how findings are checked, and what marks completion. A useful pitch is one the team can deliver without rediscovering the scope after the client signs.