Sales Deck

What is a sales deck?

A sales deck is a slide presentation (made in PowerPoint, Keynote, Pitch, Google Slides, etc.) that supports your sales pitch or product demo. Your sales narrative helps you explain why customers should consider buying your product or service.

Sales deck vs. pitch deck: What’s the difference?

A sales deck is a sales presentation for prospects. The sales deck includes product features, value propositions, and success stories to help convert prospects into customers. 

Meanwhile, a pitch deck is a presentation for investors. It includes your company’s vision, business plan, financials, market size, and other information to help convince investors to back your company.

What are the benefits of a sales deck?

Creating a sales deck offers the following benefits:

1. Visual information adds better structure to sales presentations: Humans process visual information better. According to studies, the human brain can digest visual information 60,000 times quicker than text. Using aesthetically pleasing designs, graphics, and charts can help you better present your value proposition and establish a stronger connection with your audience.
2. Visual value proposition sticks better: Using sales decks to present stats, social proof, testimonials, and reviews give you a better shot at convincing your prospect about your product.
3. Sales decks present a stronger image: Almost 57 percent of B2B customers believe sales staff are unprepared for their first encounter. With a well-designed sales deck, you have the right visual aids and context to set the agenda for your sales calls and make them familiar with your product.

What is included in a sales deck?

While a sales deck may vary depending on your organization and sales process, any sales deck generally includes the following: 

• Company overview: Information about your company’s brand story
• Elevator pitch: A summary introducing your brand story, value proposition, and how you can help a prospect
• The problem and its costs: The challenges plaguing your prospects and the toll it exerts on their KPIs
• Existing solutions and their challenges: Prospects often compare your product with your competitors. So, highlighting the downsides of existing solutions and how your product avoids them is an excellent addition to the sales deck.
• Product overview: Details about the product and its value proposition, pricing structure, use cases, and case studies
• Social proof: Testimonials, reviews, and ratings from other customers, as well as analyses from reputed third-party websites (like Gartner or Forrester)

Additionally, you can customize the sales deck for each prospect to make the content more relevant and appealing.

Sales deck guidelines: How to create a sales deck

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a solid sales playbook for your organization:

1. Review your buyer persona, product notes, sales calls, and more to understand your customers, their frustrations, goals, and motivations.
2. Develop a product story to paint a picture resonating with the challenges of your prospects. This is your sales narrative.
3. Pick the top capabilities as your product’s value proposition and reiterate them to drive the point home.
4. Include social proof relevant to each prospect to grab attention and effectively communicate your point. For instance, if you're making a presentation to a company founder, highlight a use case and testimonial from another client who is also a startup founder. 
5. Pick the best sales deck template for your industry. For instance, a business-to-business (B2B) company may take a different approach than a software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm. 
6. Use a catchy first slide to pique your prospects' curiosity. 
7. Use high-quality graphics, appropriate data points, and industry terminology to keep the prospect engaged in your sales presentation.
8. Review the success of your sales deck and find ways to optimize it.

Sales deck examples

Here are some sales deck examples that you can use as sales deck templates while creating your presentation.

1. Sales deck for FreshWorks, created by BrightCarbon

BrightCarbon developed a sales presentation for FreshWorks that visually depicts the issues prospects face, making the content easier to digest. Less text on the slides also helps sales reps adapt the presentation for each prospect and fine-tune their sales pitch.

Its mobile app is one of the product's main selling points and most notable advantages. There's a separate slide explaining these benefits. 

Overall, the slides depict how new clients are onboarded and what they may expect from FreshWorks.

So, sales reps at FreshWorks are well-prepared to address any queries the prospect may present. 

2. Salesforce’s sales deck 

Salesforce's sales deck focuses on the top advantages of its complex solution. Salesforce uses flowcharts, other visual diagrams, and graphics to break down its complicated procedures.

Salesforce also uses social proof (stories from popular Fortune 500 firms) to sway the prospect. 

3. Soraa’s sales deck 

The lighting manufacturer Soraa starts with an aesthetically beautiful table of contents at the beginning of the sales deck – "Quality of light," "Simply flawless light," and "Why Soraa?"

The company then moves on to address a top concern its customers have – how the light will seem in their locations and how they might use Soraa's services for a particular use case.

Each slide is minimalistic in design, thereby increasing its aesthetic appeal.

Sales deck tips

Here are six tips to help you create a compelling sales deck that drives conversions:

1. Lead with solutions, rather than company virtues or product benefits. The best way to start your sales narrative is by describing how you will tackle the biggest challenges your prospects face.
2. Add social proof and case studies to help prospects understand how others have succeeded with your help.
3. Use bullet points rather than paragraphs.
4. Keep checking in with your prospects by asking questions such as "Does that make sense?" and "Can you envision how this can work for you?" 
5. Avoid monologues and keep the prospects engaged by having conversations.
6. Use disruptions as opportunities to discuss what’s on your prospect’s mind. Encourage them to ask questions and express concerns continually.

What’s next? 

A sales deck is a brilliant tool to help you convince your prospects. However, building impressive sales decks requires a thorough understanding of your prospects and their needs. That’s where data plays a pivotal role.

Clari’s revenue platform can help you bring all sales data regarding the past, present and future in one place. Clari makes it easier for you to meet your sales goals and continuously 

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