How to create a high impact corporate sales deck
Presentations are key for sales teams. The difference between a good and bad presentation is made up of many factors:
1. Take the reader on a journey
A good sales deck has a flow and a talk track that moves from today’s situation through to a better world by working with your company. We advocate using the SPIN selling framework to plan out the flow, as it forces us to always start by talking about the customer and their problems – not us and our solutions.
Decks that solely focus on the vendor seldom succeed. Our council is to anchor it to them, always, and be cautious about talking about yourself too early.
2. That journey needs to be flexible
Slides at key moments need to be easy to personalise – and we’re talking about more than the customer name and logo. Think pain points and implications. Once uncovered, this should mean different elements of the solution can be shown.
Practically, this means less is more on the page. Too much text forces your presenter to skip parts or, worse still, talk about areas they know to be irrelevant.
3. The sound of silence
Like Simon & Garfunkel, don’t undervalue the sound of silence. A strong sales presentation deck should allow plenty of moments for natural breaks. No one likes being talked at.
As part of this, inflexion points where questions can be asked are vital. These questions have three purposes:
i. Give the presenter a break. Yes, really. Collect your thoughts and take a moment to pause.
ii. Adjust the presentation based on audience feedback. In our experience, with practice, this allows you to tailor your delivery “live”. It also means you are under less pressure to get everything ‘perfect’ in advance. The core of your deck can be made highly relevant based on information you discover, increasing impact by demonstrating you are listening and understanding the audience.
iii. Most importantly, questions keep your audience engaged. Listening can be passive; answering is active.
4. Tailor the content
This may sound obvious but, over time, we’ve built a small list of elements to tailor each time – including sector insight, audience-specific branding, case studies used, impact statistic calculations, and, if selling professional services, the people and their experience featured. All of these elements do not tie you into a fixed talk track but demonstrate relevant expertise.
5. Performance and theatre
A good sales deck that is well delivered is unbeatable. In our experience, a strong performance comes from specific factors:
i. Chemistry and fun: Enjoy what you do, share yourself, and make sure you show that the audience would enjoy working with you personally. After all, often without admitting it, the audience is thinking: “Would I enjoy working with them?”
ii. Engage: Questions, listening to answers, tailoring content, and the occasional joke show that you’re fully serious about your proposition. If you’re engaged, so are they.
6. End on clear next steps
A good sales deck has a simple and clear next step called out. What do you want them to do to move ahead? We’ve found making this simple to do with some commitment on their side – e.g., time and/or budget – means you can qualify interest and reduce delays.
Part of this is providing a singular option to reduce choice; too much choice can complicate decision-making. One option simplifies it to “Do I move forward?”
7. Design and accuracy
No typos. Simple.
Visually, it needs to look strong, too. Use consistent fonts, appropriate imagery, and an overall format that is fit for purpose. We’re finding that, for most clients, PowerPoint is the best option as it supports landscape outputs (better for digital consumption), creativity, and control.
8. The importance of an exec summary
When sent by email, we recommend a singular summary that also signposts the page for costs. Why? TLDR. AKA, ‘Too Long, Didn’t Read’. And, yes, I realise the irony of putting this point last. After all, the exec summary is exactly that: a summary of the entire offer.
Most importantly, we find that when planning a sales deck, the crucial starting point is understanding who uses them and when. Many use decks for qualification, while others use them as a proposal. This changes the content, flow, and depth.
Finally, a good sales deck does not stand still. It evolves and moves with the times. If your deck was produced over a year ago, chances are it’s out of date.
As a B2B marketer, if this happens, it is not uncommon for ‘Frankenstein’ versions to appear – often created by ambitious lone wolves driving revenue targets. The challenge here is that it is often at the cost of maintaining brand identity, value propositions – or even the accuracy of claims.
As they say, it’s better the Devil you know!
