Fashion brands - especially the big, luxury ones out there like Versace, Gucci and Chanel - have a fairly loyal following among the world’s rich and famous. 

They have advertising. They have influencers on Instagram and TikTok (and wherever else). 

They have press releases. And spokespersons. 

But they still spend tons of money on catalogs and on fashion shows, paying models to walk the runway because they want potential buyers and celebrity fashion stylists to see and remember their products. 

It's because they want to say more about their designs by putting them on lovely people and putting entire ensembles together. They want to leave you with something you can remember. Photos you can go back to.

That’s what your slide deck is like. 

Salespeople are the brand’s spokespersons. Your publicity and marketing teams send out press releases and ads.

But when you want to say more about your product, leave prospects with something to remember and something they can go back to: enter sales decks also known as pitch decks. Sometimes people also refer to it as a sales presentation. 

What is a sales deck?

Sales decks exist to support and supplement a sales pitch and should ideally also work as standalone collateral that a client can go back to even when they may not remember the details of your pitch. It's also a good way to show off a little with testimonials and case studies from other happy clients. It is an integral part of sales collateral like brochures and product catalogs.

Importantly, your sales presentation deck is a means for prospects get opinions from peers and stakeholders when they are considering making a purchase. For example, if you’re selling accounting software to your prospect, head of accounting, Jim, he might just ask his wife (who is also an accountant) what she thinks of it. 

Jim might ask Larry, the Director of Sales who travels frequently on work if the accounting software would make filing his travel expenses quicker and easier.

He might ask other departmental heads who he often lunches with at the office whether they think it would make tedious expense approvals easier.

Jim is most definitely not inviting all these busy people to your sales pitch or your demo. He can, however, pass on your sales presentation deck for them to browse and learn about your value proposition in about 5 or 10 minutes of their time. 

Sending out a sales pitch deck also gives you an opening line for your follow-up call because you can ask if your prospects have any questions about what they saw/ read.

Sales decks are most often made using Powerpoint or Google Slides - at least, that’s what the norm is. There’s no hard and fast rule, and you can use whatever you like, provided it will be easy for the receiver to open and view your sales presentation.

Sales presentation guidelines 

Sales decks are a huge part of your sales game. But they demand creativity and a sense of aesthetics and wit and some design acumen… all of which aren’t necessarily inherent skills in selling, which is essentially about persuasion. Maybe empathy to some extent, but aesthetics?

What does a sales interview go like? How would you rate your sense of wit on a scale of 1 to 10? 

Or- 

What do your customers say about your sense of aesthetics? 

And yet, these are the things that make salespeople nervous when they are putting together sales pitch decks. 

But in big enough companies, the sales team can outsource all the creativity and designing and aesthetics to a design department or a third party that handles creatives. 

And even in situations where you need to prettify your own sales pitch deck, you can think about beautification later. 

Just file all that stress you feel around creativity, wit, and design for later. Do it. 

Put it at the bottom of the pile. 

Now, approach the slide deck as you would approach a sales pitch.

You already know the name of your company and have your logos right? 

Yayy, first slide!

You already know what your prospects struggle with or what their goals are. 

And you already know how you pitch your product to them as the solution to their struggles or the route to their goals. 

You know all about your product features and what they can do for your prospects.

That’s what your sales deck should be about. 

Pro tip: Once you have a sales deck that works, use it as a presentation template going ahead.

With that perspective, let’s look at some best sales decks out there. You can pick up key elements from these winning sales decks.

Sales deck template examples

Here are some of the most inspirational sales decks out there, celebrated by Hubspot and other experts: 

1. Freshworks’ sales deck 

This sales deck has very straightforward content and structure. All the problems that their leads might face and their answers are depicted with pictures, which is definitely simpler for readers to process.

One of the primary differentiators is that they feature a separate slide for their mobile app. These slides guide the prospect through how clients are onboarded and what they may expect on a regular basis.

Less text on the slides gives the sales rep room to tailor their sales pitch to the prospect’s personality, pain points and goals. Of course, this only works if you will be presenting the sales deck in person.

1. Salesforce’s sales deck 

Creating Community at WeWork through Graph Embeddings with node2vec - Karry Lu

Salesforce's sales deck concentrates on the top advantages of a complicated solution, with significant Fortune 500 firms as its clients.

This type of sales deck is ideal if you need to streamline your sales process and assist your prospects as they move through the sales process.

You'll see that difficult-to-understand procedures are simplified into flowcharts and visual diagrams, coupled with slides with visuals and text overlays.

2. Soraa sales’ deck 

Three topics are listed in the aesthetically beautiful table of contents at the beginning of the sales deck from the lighting manufacturer Soraa: "Quality of light," "Simply flawless light," and "Why Soraa?"

The company then delves into the topics that matter most to its customers: how the light will seem in their locations and how they might use Soraa's services for a particular use case. It includes a few mentions of the advantages of purchasing lights from Soraa. Every slide features its minimalist logo. 

3. UpstartWorks’ Sales Deck 

The slide presentation for UpstartWorks opens with an illustration of the way to success, accompanied by a statement of the company's worth and a list of advantages for clients. They offer a general outline of what they offer to clients, who current clients are, as well as the outcomes their audience has experienced.

4. Accern’s sales deck 

Accern emphasizes client case studies in its deck, social proof that indicates the success previous customers have experienced with this product, in addition to using icon-based design to make the sales deck attractive.

Accern seems to invest resources in creating personalized presentations that not only grabs the prospect's attention but also increases the chances that they'll make a purchase from you.

Keep these tips handy for your next Sales Deck Presentation

• Lead with solutions as you begin your presentation. Don't preach your company's virtues or the advantages of your product's characteristics to the potential customer. They might lose interest amidst all the overselling. Simply start by describing how you're going to alleviate the biggest irritation your prospect is now experiencing.

• Make your sales presentation more interesting by including case studies and real-world examples of similar prospects and the success they've achieved with your assistance.

• Preferably, go for bullet points over paragraphs.
• Throughout your presentation, ask small questions such as "Does that make sense?" Similarly, "Can you envision how this can work for you?" Requesting comments on a regular basis ensures that your prospect is also on the same page.

• It's normal for sales reps to feel passionate about what they have to say, but some of them ramble on for much too long as a result. Ask a coworker or friend for honest comments on the duration of your next sales presentation.

• Any disruption is an excellent chance to find out what your client might be thinking. So when you spot a verbal statement or a subtle adjustment in their face expression or posture, recognize the interruption and appreciate the opportunity to discuss what’s on your prospect’s minds. Never disregard indications only to keep going and finish your argument. Encourage prospects to ask questions or express concerns.

Wingman simplifies creating sales decks. And pitching. 

Wingman, our conversation intelligence platform, delivers information at a click, allowing you to design your sales deck with significantly improved efficiency and simplicity.

With Wingman, a lot of the information you need is already in your system, perfectly organized and categorized. Go through prior sales calls from the team to get a sense of what your target audience’s top pain points are - start from there. There might be a phrase or team or problem that all your leads tend to quote. Be sure to include that in your presentation. It creates a sense of kinship; makes you seem like an insider. Wingman makes it possible for you to do this thanks to itemized call recordings and the fact that it pulls data from all sources, not just phone calls. Slack too! 

Wingman’s in-call cues also help sales reps to present better on-call. When taking a prospect through a presentation over a phone call or virtual meeting, Wingman can offer helpful prompts on opportunities to pitch a certain feature (or when to stop talking and listen a little).

Selling is simply a lot easier when you have a Wingman. Don’t believe us? Get a demo and find out hands-on.