Presentation on "sales decks for founders" covering the best way to present your new technology product to a business-to-business buyer.
Presentation is an adaption of a chapter from Founding Sales (book on technology sales for founders and other first-time sellers): https://twitter.com/FoundingSales
Chapter excerpt here: http://firstround.com/review/building-your-best-sales-deck-starts-here/
Learn how to build ridiculously compelling sales decks based on super tactical examples from industry leaders, so you can put it into practice immediately and start winning deals!
Jerry Chen, partner at Greylock and former VP of Cloud and Application Services at VMware, shares his Unit of Value framework for startups building a go-to-market strategy. He developed this strategy while managing product and marketing teams at VMware that shipped many “1.0” releases, including VMware VDI, Cloud Foundry, and vFabric, and continues to use the framework to evaluate companies as an investor.
25 stats—13 positive, 12 negative—that reflect the marketing world, including content marketing, social media, email newsletters, analytics, blogging, digital video, and more.
Keep these stats in mind when crafting your marketing strategy.
Here’s The Deck Andy Raskin Called “The Greatest Sales Pitch I’ve Seen All Year”Drift
Andy Raskin has led strategic story training at Uber, Intel, Yelp, General Assembly and Stanford and called this the greatest sales pitch he's seen all year. Have a look.
Building an enduring, multi-billion dollar consumer technology company is hard. As an investor, knowing which startups have the potential to be massive and long-lasting is also hard. From both perspectives, identifying companies with this potential is a combination of “art” and “science” — the art is understanding how products work, and the science is knowing how to measure it. At the earliest stages of a company, it comes down to understanding how a product is built to maximize and leverage user engagement.
In this presentation, Sarah Tavel shares her "Hierarchy of Engagement" framework she uses to evaluate non-transactional consumer companies she is looking to invest in.
We held the largest ever Virtual SlideShare Summit a week back, if you missed it here's your chance to hear from the experts once more on some of the takeaways on presentation design and SlideShare Marketing
Learn how to build ridiculously compelling sales decks based on super tactical examples from industry leaders, so you can put it into practice immediately and start winning deals!
Jerry Chen, partner at Greylock and former VP of Cloud and Application Services at VMware, shares his Unit of Value framework for startups building a go-to-market strategy. He developed this strategy while managing product and marketing teams at VMware that shipped many “1.0” releases, including VMware VDI, Cloud Foundry, and vFabric, and continues to use the framework to evaluate companies as an investor.
25 stats—13 positive, 12 negative—that reflect the marketing world, including content marketing, social media, email newsletters, analytics, blogging, digital video, and more.
Keep these stats in mind when crafting your marketing strategy.
Here’s The Deck Andy Raskin Called “The Greatest Sales Pitch I’ve Seen All Year”Drift
Andy Raskin has led strategic story training at Uber, Intel, Yelp, General Assembly and Stanford and called this the greatest sales pitch he's seen all year. Have a look.
Building an enduring, multi-billion dollar consumer technology company is hard. As an investor, knowing which startups have the potential to be massive and long-lasting is also hard. From both perspectives, identifying companies with this potential is a combination of “art” and “science” — the art is understanding how products work, and the science is knowing how to measure it. At the earliest stages of a company, it comes down to understanding how a product is built to maximize and leverage user engagement.
In this presentation, Sarah Tavel shares her "Hierarchy of Engagement" framework she uses to evaluate non-transactional consumer companies she is looking to invest in.
We held the largest ever Virtual SlideShare Summit a week back, if you missed it here's your chance to hear from the experts once more on some of the takeaways on presentation design and SlideShare Marketing
Building the Billion dollar SaaS Unicorn for 2018Kelly Schwedland
In a Venture Capital world that is obsessed with growth, recurring revenue and software as a service, after you validate that you have a solution that people are willing to pay for, there is an entire new world ahead of you in scaling that venture. For many, this involves an entirely new language and set of metrics to manage the business. For the startup that wants to make the leap to scale up and fast growth this should serve as a starting point for key insights and metrics for that journey.
Customizable pitch deck templates which include two different versions, both built by leading seed investors at NextView Ventures. Entrepreneurs can use them to save time while building a pitch deck to raise seed capital.
Pitching Ideas: How to sell your ideas to othersJeroen van Geel
Learn how to convince others of your UX ideas by understanding them.
We are good in designing usable and engaging products and services. We understand the user's needs and have a toolkit with dozens of deliverables. But for some reason it remains difficult to sell an idea or concept to team members, managers or clients. After this session that problem will be solved!
Selling your ideas and convincing others is one of the most undervalued assets in our field. This ranges from convincing a colleague to use a certain design pattern to selling research to your boss and convincing a client to go for your concept. You can come up with the best ideas in the world, but if it is presented in the wrong way these ideas will die a lonely dead. This is sad, because everybody can learn how to bring a message across. The main thing is that you know what to pay attention to.
In this session I will take you on a journey through the world of presenting ideas. We will move through the heads of clients and your colleagues, learn what their thoughts and needs are. We will move to the core of your idea and into the world of psychology.
Design for Startups - Build Better Products, Not More FeaturesVitaly Golomb
Pre-order Vitaly's book "Accelerated Startup – The New Business School" http://golomb.net/book
Apple owes the title of the world’s most valuable company to its genius in design. Good design is never accidental and at the core of a successful product is an elegant solution to a painful problem. Design has earned a very important seat at the table with today’s companies especially in the world of software and apps. In this highly engaging presentation, Vitaly covers principles and business value of good design, design disciplines, how to hire and work with designers, and the design success formula.
Lean Analytics for Startups and EnterprisesLean Analytics
Latest Lean Analytics workshop from the Lean Startup Week in San Francisco. Focusing on what metrics matter to both startups and big corporations. Incorporates elements of corporate innovation into the Lean Analytics framework to help bigger companies think through the data that really matters.
An outline of the differing role of KPIs at startups vs mature businesses, drawing out the implications for the approach and methodology to their development.
Inilah pitch deck dari raksasa media digital, Buzzfeed. Bagi kamu yang memiliki model bisnis yang serupa dengan BuzzFeed, mungkin kamu dapat terinspirasi dari pitch deck ini.
If you are like many people, even the thought of delivering a speech in front of an audience will get your palms sweating. The fear of public speaking ranks high among the most common phobias, and for good reason: most of us approach the situation with the wrong mindset, which in turn makes us live out our worst fears in a public forum.
As Michael Parker notes in IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAY: How to Sell Your Message When It Matters Most (A TarcherPerigee paperback; on sale January 2016), our fixation on the content of our words – and not the presentation of ourselves – is what brings us down. Once the Vice-Chairman of London’s Saatchi & Saatchi, and one of the world’s most experienced advertising pitch men, having made more than 1,000 pitches in his successful career, Parker has learned first-hand that an effective presentation, a job interview, or even a speech at a wedding hinges on our ability to portray ourselves as passionate, relatable, and collected. But, if we are focused on what we say, and not how we act, we will fail to persuade our audience.
Applied in the boardroom, at the pulpit, or even in conversation, these tenets will help you present better in any situation.
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
Love ProdPad but need help selling it to your people? Grab our sales deck here and use it to help you convince your team why ProdPad can help you run a lean product ship.
The Ultimate Investor Pitch Deck TemplateCrowdfunder
Great startups don’t fund themselves. Raising money from investors requires a great pitch, even for experienced founders with significant traction in their startup.
There’s a formula for pitching your startup that has helped startup founders raise millions.
In short, this formula involves crafting a larger story / narrative, while speaking directly to what investors are looking for and need to know about you, your company, your market, and your plan.
Continuing our tradition and in the spirit of transparency we are sharing the deck we used to raise our oversubscribed Fund VI. We hope it continues to help emerging fund managers and shows founders who have to constantly fundraise that we go through it too!
Read more about our plans to invest in and support the next generation of exceptional European talent on our blog: https://sdca.mp/SeedcampVI
All data taken at Q2'22, investment disclaimers and regulatory notices have been removed from the public version of this deck.
What do you love about sales? We want you to do more of that. At Immediately, we've built a mobile app that enables you to power through administrative (read: snooze-worthy) work so that you can focus on the fun stuff.
Building the Billion dollar SaaS Unicorn for 2018Kelly Schwedland
In a Venture Capital world that is obsessed with growth, recurring revenue and software as a service, after you validate that you have a solution that people are willing to pay for, there is an entire new world ahead of you in scaling that venture. For many, this involves an entirely new language and set of metrics to manage the business. For the startup that wants to make the leap to scale up and fast growth this should serve as a starting point for key insights and metrics for that journey.
Customizable pitch deck templates which include two different versions, both built by leading seed investors at NextView Ventures. Entrepreneurs can use them to save time while building a pitch deck to raise seed capital.
Pitching Ideas: How to sell your ideas to othersJeroen van Geel
Learn how to convince others of your UX ideas by understanding them.
We are good in designing usable and engaging products and services. We understand the user's needs and have a toolkit with dozens of deliverables. But for some reason it remains difficult to sell an idea or concept to team members, managers or clients. After this session that problem will be solved!
Selling your ideas and convincing others is one of the most undervalued assets in our field. This ranges from convincing a colleague to use a certain design pattern to selling research to your boss and convincing a client to go for your concept. You can come up with the best ideas in the world, but if it is presented in the wrong way these ideas will die a lonely dead. This is sad, because everybody can learn how to bring a message across. The main thing is that you know what to pay attention to.
In this session I will take you on a journey through the world of presenting ideas. We will move through the heads of clients and your colleagues, learn what their thoughts and needs are. We will move to the core of your idea and into the world of psychology.
Design for Startups - Build Better Products, Not More FeaturesVitaly Golomb
Pre-order Vitaly's book "Accelerated Startup – The New Business School" http://golomb.net/book
Apple owes the title of the world’s most valuable company to its genius in design. Good design is never accidental and at the core of a successful product is an elegant solution to a painful problem. Design has earned a very important seat at the table with today’s companies especially in the world of software and apps. In this highly engaging presentation, Vitaly covers principles and business value of good design, design disciplines, how to hire and work with designers, and the design success formula.
Lean Analytics for Startups and EnterprisesLean Analytics
Latest Lean Analytics workshop from the Lean Startup Week in San Francisco. Focusing on what metrics matter to both startups and big corporations. Incorporates elements of corporate innovation into the Lean Analytics framework to help bigger companies think through the data that really matters.
An outline of the differing role of KPIs at startups vs mature businesses, drawing out the implications for the approach and methodology to their development.
Inilah pitch deck dari raksasa media digital, Buzzfeed. Bagi kamu yang memiliki model bisnis yang serupa dengan BuzzFeed, mungkin kamu dapat terinspirasi dari pitch deck ini.
If you are like many people, even the thought of delivering a speech in front of an audience will get your palms sweating. The fear of public speaking ranks high among the most common phobias, and for good reason: most of us approach the situation with the wrong mindset, which in turn makes us live out our worst fears in a public forum.
As Michael Parker notes in IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAY: How to Sell Your Message When It Matters Most (A TarcherPerigee paperback; on sale January 2016), our fixation on the content of our words – and not the presentation of ourselves – is what brings us down. Once the Vice-Chairman of London’s Saatchi & Saatchi, and one of the world’s most experienced advertising pitch men, having made more than 1,000 pitches in his successful career, Parker has learned first-hand that an effective presentation, a job interview, or even a speech at a wedding hinges on our ability to portray ourselves as passionate, relatable, and collected. But, if we are focused on what we say, and not how we act, we will fail to persuade our audience.
Applied in the boardroom, at the pulpit, or even in conversation, these tenets will help you present better in any situation.
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
Love ProdPad but need help selling it to your people? Grab our sales deck here and use it to help you convince your team why ProdPad can help you run a lean product ship.
The Ultimate Investor Pitch Deck TemplateCrowdfunder
Great startups don’t fund themselves. Raising money from investors requires a great pitch, even for experienced founders with significant traction in their startup.
There’s a formula for pitching your startup that has helped startup founders raise millions.
In short, this formula involves crafting a larger story / narrative, while speaking directly to what investors are looking for and need to know about you, your company, your market, and your plan.
Continuing our tradition and in the spirit of transparency we are sharing the deck we used to raise our oversubscribed Fund VI. We hope it continues to help emerging fund managers and shows founders who have to constantly fundraise that we go through it too!
Read more about our plans to invest in and support the next generation of exceptional European talent on our blog: https://sdca.mp/SeedcampVI
All data taken at Q2'22, investment disclaimers and regulatory notices have been removed from the public version of this deck.
What do you love about sales? We want you to do more of that. At Immediately, we've built a mobile app that enables you to power through administrative (read: snooze-worthy) work so that you can focus on the fun stuff.
LeadCrunch is an intelligent demand generation platform that uses artificial intelligence to identify prospective B2B customers then curates them into either marketing- or sales-qualified leads using a marketplace of professional marketers. It empowers salespeople to focus on closing as it finds insights and new markets that accelerate sales cycles and reduce the costs of customer acquisition.
Most sales pitches suck. Why? Because they are all about you instead of focusing on the client and their needs. Here is what you can do to change and make them better. Be a Blue Lobster and stand out.
The Best Way to Outline a Sales Deck - Example for The Slideshare BlogEthos3
"The Best Way to Outline a Sales Deck," was created as an exampled for an article featured on The Official SlideShare Blog. Once you review the example sales presentation, check out the SlideShare blog for more behind-the-scenes details on this presentation.
If you want more presentation tips and tricks, visit the Ethos3 blog at: http://www.ethos3.com/blog/
If you need help creating professional presentations, email us at: info@ethos3.com
Ethos3 is a presentation design agency with premier PowerPoint and presentation designers. We can create the perfect presentation for you: www.ethos3.com
Zero to 100 - Part 3: Founder-led Selling - Pete KazanjyDavid Skok
Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy.
To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/
Harlan T. Beverly explains how Sales and Marketing should be done for Startups. The lean start-up method is assumed; including the Minimum Viable Product, and a new idea: The Minimum Viable Marketing.
A ready to use Template for pitching your Business for funding! See updated v...Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Please check the updated and current version of this presentation here - https://therodinhoods.com/post/a-funding-pitch-and-business-deconstruction-template/
Lots of capable entrepreneurs struggle to create effective Business pitches and presentations that they could use to raise funding.
This simple template with an example addresses that pain point and attempts to helps entrepreneurs quickly create a business pitch that they could use when presenting to VCs and angel investors etc.
Master the essentials of conversion optimizationArnas Rackauskas
Conversion optimization is a process. Amateurs follow best practices and don’t know where to begin. Experts follow frameworks and processes.
This expert guide will teach you the process of optimization.
Business Analysts sometimes wonder where they fit in a cross-functional agile team. How do you get from a vague and amorphous business problem to a collection of user stories that the team can incrementally implement?
Chris and Antony show how Business Analysts can use their existing skill sets to find the questions for the "unknown unknowns", the answers for the "known unknowns" and how to spread the shared understanding of the "known knowns".
They will demonstrate how examples can be exchanged to evolve the shared understanding of the domain, how modelling helps uncover gaps in that understanding and how to incrementally communicate this understanding to the people implementing the product.
Stealing advice from the developers: how to make your small marketing team more prolific, less stressed, and able to knock out deadlines like Holly Holm did to Ronda Rousey.
2. This slide is here because SlideShare doesn’t allow hyperlinks in the first three slides.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Enjoy this cat picture while I increment the slide count….
3. As is this one….sorry...don’t know why they do that...
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Sorry. The links are important, which is why I’m doing this....
4. Pete Kazanjy - Product Marketer / Product Manager turned Sales Leader
Twitter: @kazanjy
(Find me on LinkedIn too.)
Founder of
Acquired (‘14) by
Writing
@foundingsales
- First “rep” (founder turned rep)
- First “sales manager”
- First “VP of Sales”
- 20 sales reps ; 20 CS reps
- New Product Sales Leader
- 800 sales reps
5. Want to watch Pete present this deck live? Video below...
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Link to video recording of live presentation.
6. There are a bunch of ways founders screw up their sales decks.
Sales Decks are Broken!
(Not really)
This presentation is an adaption of a chapter on Sales Decks
from Founding Sales. (As excerpted on First Round Review)
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
7. Your fundraising pitch is not your sales pitch.
Fundraising materials are for selling a piece of your company.
Sales materials are for selling your solution to a prospect who cares.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
8. Demos are great, but not sufficient.
Demos are great...for demonstrating features. But they’re just one part of the sales presentation.
“We just do demos.”
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
9. What is the sales deck for?
Goal of a sales deck: Visually
and textually present your sales
narrative to your ideal customer
in a way that convinces them to
buy your solution.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
10. Responses to Common Founder Objections
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● It doesn’t have to be beautiful.
● It doesn’t have to be comprehensive.
● It doesn’t have to take a ton of time.
12. Founding Sales Decks - Your Sales Narrative, Weaponized
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● The Problem and who has it
● Cost of the Problem
● Existing Solutions & their Challenges
● What has changed
● How your solution works
● Quantitative Proof
● Qualitative Proof
● Company-centric Proof
● Why this will be so easy
(Customer Success)
● Pricing
● Appendix
http://firstround.com/review/To-Build-An-Amazing-Sales-Team-Start-Here-First/
(Google “First Round sales narrative - put it in Pocket ; )
(Also, example TalentBin master deck here)
The major components of your deck
13. Founding Sales Decks - Some examples we’ll use
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Recruiting automation software
for technical recruiters.
Simple financing for eCommerce
providers and their customers.
Job-posting optimization software.
Sales-centric mobile email and
CRM client.
Recruiting branding automation
and SEO software.
Recruiting agency revenue
acceleration.
14. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Start at the beginning. Helps with qualification.
● Can be “fractal” structured - subcomponents.
● Teeing up the issues your solution addresses (via features)
● Can address multiple types of pains (user vs. managers)
● Can be inductive or deductive in approach. I like to go both ways.
The Problem and Who Has It
15. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
That’ll get your attention!
● Very clear. Sales people not
selling.
● Includes sub-pains: CRM
updates, prep, follow up.
● Hints at opportunity cost: close
rates, etc.
● Could have a sales manager
slide to follow this (Pain points
of another constituency).
16. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Frame all the issues that could be
addressed in a holistic manner.
● Teeing up the specific
subcomponents we’re going to
address. (Top, middle, bottom)
● Fractal approach to slide creation:
zoom in, zoom out.
Overarching example of business pain.
17. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
Subcomponents of business
pain, “zoomed in.”
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Detail of the second layer of
the problem statement -
crappy jobs page.
● Problem statement call out.
● This should probably be the
second detail slide, not first.
18. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
Subcomponents of business
pain, “zoomed in.”
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Takes the broader framing,
and dives in.
● This is a detail problem
case from the first layer in
the first slide.
● Calls out the pain point -
prevent click through, drag
on recruiting spend.
● Probably should be the
first “detail” slide, right?
19. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
“Zoomed in” unit pain
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Another detail pain, on the other
side of the Google results.
● OK callout.
● Probably could speak to user
frustration here, “Why be held
hostage?”
● Could probably speak to the
implications of “letting worst
employees tell story” =>
reduced applies, misplaced job
expectations.
20. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
“Zoomed Out” Rollup pain
● Roll up the implications of
these unit pains. “Let’s bring it
all home.”
● Summary of implications of unit
pains. “Call and response”
approach. Very gospel-style ; )
● Beginning indications of ROI
metrics at bottom of rollup pain.
21. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
Core driver of the problem case - varied per case.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
22. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
“Zoomed in” implications of problem
case.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Detail proof of the abstract problem
root cause described in prior slide.
● Explanation in sub-headline.
● Good specific comparison of good
and bad cases.
● Add a little comedy. Why not!
23. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
“Zoomed in” implications of problem.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Knock-on implication of previous
pain.
● Good callouts of bad, worse, worst
implications
● Both rollup stats and unit examples.
24. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Extension of first type of business pain.
● Proof of the implications of one of
the core pains.
● “Do you find you have this issue?”
● Could have better callouts. Relies
a lot on presenter comment.
25. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
Extension of first type of business pain.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Rollup “zoom out” of that previous
implication.
● Third party data source as
validator / benchmark.
● Sneaky color usage.
26. Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
Anecdata can be helpful too.https://twitter.com/foundingsales
27. Founding Sales Decks - The Cost of the Problem
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Get to the nuts and bolts, dollars and cents.
● Document the costs or opportunity costs of the pain point.
● Should correlate to the pain points you discussed - cost per each.
● Generalities can be good, but per-unit costs can be good too.
● In the absence of costs, can use proxies.
● Make it as easy as possible to make personal to prospect.
The Cost of the Problem
28. Founding Sales Decks - The Cost of the Problem
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● This is where we frame the pain
points we will say our solution
fixes.
● Make sure to tease out the
individual pain points.
● Later we’ll correlate our solution
and its features to resolving
these costs (or opportunity
costs).
29. Founding Sales Decks - The Cost of the Problem
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Indicating the magnitude of pain and likelihood of resolution.
30. Founding Sales Decks - Existing solutions and their challenges
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Touchy topic. Don’t want to bring in competitors per se.
● But helpful to frame off of industry standards.
● “X is broken” does not count. That’s lazy.
● Can be actual products that are in-market, but can be services /
internal behaviors, too.
Existing Solutions and their Challenges
31. Founding Sales Decks - Existing solutions and their challenges
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Quantitative indicators.
● Enumerate quantitative measures of
the shortfall. (e.g., search results,
response rates, etc.)
● Correlate those quantitative /
qualitative shortfalls to the buckets of
pain points.
● Can do so for each of the “standards”
or a rollup of them.
32. Founding Sales Decks - Existing solutions and their challenges
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Qualitative indicators.
33. Founding Sales Decks - What has changed
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● What changed to create and scale this problem?
● What changed to enable this new sorcery?
● Visualization / data / etc.
● Helps with “Why now?”
What has changed?
34. Founding Sales Decks - What has changed
Overarching Change Examples
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
35. Founding Sales Decks - How the solution works
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Fractal model of messaging buckets & supporting features.
● Tie to messaging buckets of pain.
● Not a demo (do the demo), but can stand in.
● Conceptual visualizations. Feature Visualizations.
● Screenshots / Animated Gifs of actual product.
● Features and correlated proof points.
How our Solution Works
36. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Concept Visualization
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Conceptual representation of how
the solution works.
● Nail the concept so everything else
that follows has a solid bedrock.
● Visual and textual explanation.
● Visual unit proof example.
37. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Current World v. New World
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Visual comparison to something that
the user likely already knows.
● “See, we’re like this well known and
solid thing, but in this different way!”
38. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Overarching “story” and chapters Sub-chapter (“Zoomed in”)
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
“Fractal” approach
39. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
“Chapter” detail with value props.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Aggregation of screenshots that tell a
story.
● Good value prop callouts.
● ROI arguments.
● Conceptual visual, too. “Oh, I get it.
Multiple mails. Nice.”
40. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Chapter detail (mediocre value prop use!)
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Can be as simple as a screenshot and
header.
● Though probably better handled in
Demo.
● But in a pinch, and can be used in
Appendix.
41. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Concept Visualization
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Flow charting can cut two ways.
Avoid too much complexity, but with
simplicity can be great.
● Great call out at the top “Looks like a
credit card” (comparison to something
that is well known and known-good.)
42. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Feature Visualization
● Conceptual visualization of a
feature.
● Hybrid of screenshot approach
and conceptual approach (nice if
you have design resources!)
● But could be done in a more
MVP way too, and be ok.
43. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Quasi-demo
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● If your product is fairly simple, you
can have a quasi demo.
● Better of course to do a true demo,
but good for a takeaway (show the
boss), or if your product craps out
during demo.
44. Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Demo that is heavily customized to the
client.
● “Offline demo” slides if you are without
network / don’t have time.
● But don’t do both! Hooboy, that would be
repetitive and boring! : )
● More on demo scripts here: http:
//firstround.com/review/here-are-the-
scripts-for-sales-success-emails-calls-
and-demos-that-close-deals/
Google “First Round Demo Script”
Demo
45. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● ROI proof (in dollars and cents), tying back to cost of
business pain (prior section)
● ROI precursors if $$$ ROI proof isn’t there.
● Correlate to your features (which were correlated to pain
points, right?)
Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
46. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Points back to the numbers that your
narrative framed caring about.
● Ideally closest to the money.
● Can be blinded, but nice if it has a
name on it.
● In this case, could be nice to tie to
value outputs. Reduced media
spend, reduced staffing agency fees.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
47. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Example of pure monetary outcomes,
with specifics.
● Great ROI callouts.
● Humanizes it. Can be blinded or can be
identified. You can speak to more info.
● Make it easy for them to model that ROI
proof onto their situation. (“OK, so I have
X many widgets…”)
● This could be better with “HIRABL will
drive around $10k in recovered fees per
recruiter, per year.”
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Blinded ROI proof points
48. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Can be ROI precursor data, too.
● What are the precursors to ROI for
you solution?
● Compare the status quos / industry
standards.
49. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Richer ROI precursor “Model”
● This is a little busy, but it’s detailed.
● An “ROI model” addressing key
business actions taken by users.
● Great for sending along later for “the
boss” to read.
● Good “Greek” and “Russian” material.
50. Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Aggregated customer results can
be good too.
● Show them what will happen for
them, based on the aggregation of
what has happened to those who
have come before.
● Again, boil it down to the units of
output. Ideally with a rough takeaway
metric.
● E.g., “For every million dollars in
annual revenue, Affirm will drive
around $100k of additional spend.”
51. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Stories
● Reputation issuers
● Appeal to authority
Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
52. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Testimonials correlated to value
props. Ideally with #s.
● Focus on your key segments and
verticals.
● Write it for them. Make them sound
awesome. Send them a gift card.
● Doesn’t have to be a “success story”,
but can be.
● Pull out the $$$. This one would be
better with that information.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Customer “stories”
53. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Anecdata!
54. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Press Mentions: These folks pay
attention to you.
● Analyst Coverage: They pay
attention to you.
● Investors: You’re not going away.
● Awards: You can apply for these.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Company Reputation
55. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Organizational Gravitas: Not the
common case, but maybe.
● Funding / Investors: You’re not
going away anytime soon.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Founding Narrative
56. Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Have all manner of segments and
verticals
● Careful: They may know some of
these folks.
● Don’t worry about permission to
start. But bake it into MSA.
● But you can’t send it.
● Be careful of disappearing logos.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
The “Logo” slide
57. Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Make it easy for them.
● Make it clear there is a roadmap.
● WIFM (What’s in it for me?)
Why this will be so easy.
58. Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
● Skepticism: They’ve seen
these promises before.
● Work: Are you creating work
for me?
● Systematized: Is this already
solved?
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Follow the yellow brick road
59. Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
● Skepticism: They’ve seen
these promises before.
● Work: Are you creating work
for me?
● Systematized: Is this already
solved?
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Follow the yellow brick road
60. Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
● Human face: Take advantage
of your staff.
● WIFM: What’s in it for staff and
decisionmakers?
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Follow the yellow brick road
61. Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
MVP!“Features” of “Why so easy!”
62. Founding Sales Decks - Pricing
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● They’re going to ask. So have it.
● Keep It Simple, Stupid
● Peak “rack rate” - you’re going to discount
Pricing Slides
64. Founding Sales Decks - Appendices
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● Objection slides.
● “Choose your own adventure” slides.
● Edge case slides.
Appendices & General Points
65. Founding Sales Decks - Appendices
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Objection Handling
● Have an answer to every question.
(Like with fundraising)
● Second time you hear it, make a
slide.
● Great for time of presentation, pulling
together into “custom deck”, and later
for one-off emails.
66. Founding Sales Decks - Appendices
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
Edge case features
● You will have questions / features
that apply to 10% of user base.
● Don’t have to be in the main
deck, but have available.
67. Founding Sales Decks - Structured for Extensibility
Bare bones vs. Fractal vs. Rich.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
68. Founding Sales Decks - Structured for Extensibility
Bare bones vs. Fractal vs. Rich
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
69. Founding Sales Decks - Structured for Extensibility
Bare bones vs. Fractal vs. Rich
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
70. Founding Sales Decks - Production Value of Slides
Production Value of Your Slides: Don’t worry about it, never gate content on production value.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
71. Founding Sales Decks - Production Value of Slides
Production Value of Your Slides: A little bit of shine can be nice.
https://twitter.com/foundingsales Template Slides
72. Founding Sales Decks - Content Management and Deployment
Content Management and Deployment: Janky PPT Github; Clearslide / Docsend; Deck for Presenting, Deck for sending
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
73. Founding Sales Decks - Your Sales Narrative, Weaponized
https://twitter.com/foundingsales
● The Problem and who has it
● Cost of the Problem
● Existing Solutions & their Challenges
● What has changed
● How your solution works
● Quantitative Proof
● Qualitative Proof
● Company-centric Proof
● Why this will be so easy
(Customer Success)
● Pricing
● Appendix
http://firstround.com/review/To-Build-An-Amazing-Sales-Team-Start-Here-First/
(Google “First Round sales narrative - put it in Pocket ; )
(Also, example TalentBin master deck here)
The major components of your deck
74. Pete Kazanjy - Product Marketer / Product Manager turned Sales Leader
@kazanjy on Twitter
(Find me on LinkedIn too /
petekazanjy@stanfordalumni.org )
Writing
@foundingsales