Best Practices for Designing a Sales Deck

For a long time, presentations were only one of several tools in a salesperson’s arsenal. However, as firms embrace digital and remote sales, excellent sales decks may be the decisive factor in whether or not a contract is closed.
Jacob Poulsen

Jacob Poulsen

Co-Founder

The Elements of a Successful Sales Deck

Sales decks will differ from one company to the next, from one product to the next, and from one prospect to the next. However, their primary objective remains the same: to support your sales message.

A strong sales presentation is more than a point-by-point analysis of your product or solutions, according to successful sales people. Your sales deck is just a medium for taking prospects through that tale.

So, what should you add to assist you in doing so?

Information about the company

Your prospects are looking for a product or service, but they are also purchasing from a firm. Providing a few slides that define who you are as a business will help maintain your brand at the forefront of their minds throughout the decision-making process, particularly in a competitive sale.

Your business information slides should emphasise your entire value proposition, the way you address problems for clients, or key differentiators. However, since the majority of your sales deck should concentrate on how your solution solves the prospect’s demands, these slides should only be a minor component.

Prospect’s objectives and difficulties

Intention and barrier are two typical narrative mechanisms. The main character’s aim is what he or she aspires to achieve. What are your prospect’s objectives? To increase the number of visits to their website? Should you enter a new market? Improve the efficiency of their team?

Now comes the difficult part. What is preventing your prospect from accomplishing their objectives? A negative user experience? Are you missing critical software? Once again, you’re delivering a tale that’s tailored to your prospect.

In your sales deck, summarising your findings from a discovery call or your own research will set the scene for your tale and what you’ll eventually circle back to with how your company can assist them achieve those objectives.

Using slides in your sales deck to depict or explain the issues your prospect is experiencing not only keeps them interested and demonstrates your investment in their company, but it also makes it simpler for them to connect the dots later on when they see your solution.

Product or service information

Every sales deck should contain information about the product or solution being sold. These slides should not get mired down in details, but rather depict and communicate the value your solution delivers in overcoming the prospect’s difficulty and achieving the objectives you’ve previously outlined.

Examples of proof

Value is sometimes difficult to describe. Case studies, testimonials, and trustmarks are ideal places to incorporate case studies, testimonials, and trustmarks to back up your talk track and establish its value. Including brands or use cases that are comparable to your prospect’s might help them see themselves using your product.

Steps to follow

Sales decks are excellent takeaways from a prospect call, particularly if you’re working on a sale with many decision-makers who may not be present in every meeting. In your sales deck, include appropriate next steps or calls-to-action such as a timetable, next meeting, or links to further information such as price or case studies to keep the discussion going in the correct path.

Best Practices for Sales Deck Design

Maintain consistency (until you shouldn’t)

Your sales deck’s slides should follow a similar pattern and be consistent with your brand. This entails using consistent typefaces, colours, and visual design throughout. This is when themes or templates in tools like Google Slides, Powerpoint, or Canva come in handy.

Consistency not only helps to create a coherent experience with your brand and narrative, but it also makes the instances when you are inconsistent by choice more memorable. For example, your large, bold fact or takeaway on a slide that aesthetically differentiates from others in your deck (such as with bolded language or a bright new colour) might attract attention and stand out in a prospect’s memory.

Consider colour psychology.

Color is an important aspect of branding and design. In short, various colours elicit different emotions or urge different behaviours. While you should attempt to include branded colours in your sales deck, how those colours are used might influence how a prospect thinks about your product or service.

While red is eye-catching, it may also elicit unpleasant feelings. Blues are thought to help people relax and create trust. Purples are often linked with luxury or high-end goods.

Investigating how colours affect purchasers may help you establish how to use your brand’s colour palette in sales decks and other marketing content.

Accept contrast and legibility.

Sales decks are intended to supplement your sales presentation. Your sales presentation or talk track should tell the tale better than your sales deck.

Filling your presentations with content might also be distracting to your prospects. Instead, use white space and high-contrast typefaces and colours to rapidly and clearly communicate important information.

One message or takeaway should be conveyed on each slide. It is preferable to have 20 slides rather than one presentation with 20 messages. This improves readability and memorability while also guaranteeing that your sales staff isn’t just reading off the slides.

Make complicated topics visible.

Your product, solution, or problem may seem to be very complicated or thick at times. You should endeavour to illustrate ideas as much as possible in order to embrace contrast and readability. Your sales deck is a chance to include pictures, graphics, or charts that assist define the value described in your sales presentation.

This is basically the “show, don’t tell” principle in action. Your sales representative is already giving you a tale and explaining your answer. Your sales deck is a chance to present that information in a unique, visually attractive fashion in order to drive the point home and keep your company at the forefront of your prospects’ minds.

Be deliberate with your animation.

Stop if you find yourself gravitating toward slide transitions. “Should I animate this?” ask yourself. The answer is almost always no.

This is not to argue that you should not include motion into your presentations. Animated product films or GIFs may provide a more in-depth look at your solution and, when utilised sparingly, can add additional value to your presentation. Overuse might detract from the presentation’s or sales pitch’s main point.

Meanwhile, slide animations to add additional information or material may be irritating and are often an indication of having too much stuff on a single slide. Focus on making your presentations aesthetically beautiful and simple to understand, rather than using dazzling star transitions.

Whenever feasible, templatize.

Your sales decks, like your sales presentation, should be consistent with your overall brand message and positioning. Creating sales deck templates for your team to use will help you simplify your message and overall narrative while also creating more consistent purchasing experiences for your prospects.

Sales deck templates can help your sales staff by reducing the time it takes to create unique sales decks from start. Instead, they may customise templates to meet the demands of a specific transaction. The bigger picture stays the same in either case.

Takeaway

Sales decks are becoming a more important component in digital sales. As prospects are exposed to an increasing number of sales decks, producing unique presentations to support your sales pitch may help your brand remain top-of-mind and, as a result, complete more transactions.

While each company’s sales deck will tell a distinct tale, these important components and design best practises can assist explain those stories in a memorable and successful manner.