The perfect Sales Deck (Template) for B2B SaaS companies
Hey - it’s Alex!
Welcome to Startup Business Tips, a bi-weekly newsletter, where I share with you 3 actionable growth tactics that will help you quickly grow your SaaS business from €0 to €1 million ARR 🚀.
Today we cover:
1️⃣ What’s a Sales Deck and why it matters
2️⃣ The perfect Sales Deck (Template)
3️⃣ Tools to build and share your Sales Deck
👉 Bonus tip by Valentin Haarscher (Co-Founder of Easop) on equity compensation
👉 Bonus material (software, content, news) - this time Pitch (presentation software)
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1. What’s a Sales Deck and why it matters
A sales deck is basically a presentation that you and your sales team use to pitch your product to potential customers (unlike a pitch deck that’s being used to pitch to investors).
Most of the time the sales deck is being used during product sales demos - but (a slightly modified version) can also be used for prospecting and demo follow-ups (material that’s being provided to buyers after the demo via email or uploaded to digital sales rooms like Simpliciter).
It’s a core sales material, being used throughout the buyer journey:
Prospecting (e.g. Outreaching with the TAPSA framework)
(Virtual and in-person) Product Demos (—> Ultimate Sales Demo Guide)
Follow-Up material
or even for pre-recorded demos, webinars, or onboarding sessions (—> especially for PLG companies)
Your sales deck lays the foundation for good storytelling and helps to get your messaging and positioning right.
Why it matters
A great sales deck:
guide your salespersons
is great for setting the context and selling with a story
helps the prospects to follow you (during the demo)
is a great way to sneak in social proof
is a great material for prospects to use internally after the demo
But now you ask yourself what’s included in a powerful sales deck? That’s why I created a template for the perfect sales deck structure (see below).
2. The perfect Sales Deck (Template)
The structure of your sales deck matters. It’s not about all your features, it’s about telling a story.
I will share what content needs to be on each slide and what’s the goal of the slide (how the prospect should feel and think at that moment).
📖 You can open the slides in full mode, you see an option to download the slides.
Slide 1: Cover Slide
Add your company name, company logo, and your 1-sentence description.
🤔 'Sounds cool, the design looks also good...Let's get started...'
Slide 2: Market Insight / Macro trend
Set the context. Share your insight about the market. What's changing and why it matters?
🤔 'Wow. That's shocking/interesting/awesome. Curious how/why this is relevant...'
Slide 3: The problem
What is the problem for them? Why it is a real pain?
🤔 'Oh shit. I have this pain and it sucks...'
Slide 4: Status Quo (Old way)
Describe the (shitty) status quo of your ideal customers.
🤔 'That's me. I know this situation...'
Slide 5: Solution (New way)
High-Level Information about your Product
🤔 'I get the context of WHAT you do. I'm interested in more details.'
Slide 6: Solution
Highlighting the top 3 Capabilities & Features
🤔 ‘I now understand what I can do with the product (but not how - it's not a training)'
Slide 7: Product Demo (—> Now you switch to screen sharing your product)
Now you switch to presenting your product (the actual 'product demo')
🤔 'Focus on the main USECASES and how it solves the problem of the prospect'
Slide 8: Benefits
Explain what's in for them! Focus on max. 3-4 benefits.
🤔 'That's cool (and believable and relevant).I want the same results.'
Slide 9: Trust/Social Proof
Add Social Proof elements. Case Studies, Testimonials, Reviews, Badges, Logos.
🤔 'Wow, they work with very similar companies than us. They need to be good'
Slide 10: Pricing
How do you charge clients? What pricing plan is for whom?
🤔 'Okay, I understand that plan X is right for us & it costs X€ + I see a realistic ROI'
Slide 11: FAQs/Objections
Proactively share the most common objections and your answers to them (concern handling).
🤔 'Yes those were actually my concerns. But this sounds solid. They earn trust points.'
Slide 12: Next Steps / CTA
What do you want them to do next? Provide guidance. (Free trial, Book demo, etc.)
🤔 'I exactly know what I need to do next. Will do this right now...'
So now you know the secret structure of a powerful sales deck. 12 slides, clear structure, powerful story.
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3. Tools & other relevant sales deck resources
A great way to build and manage your sales deck is tools like pitch. They even provide visual-appealing templates and a guide on how to write a great storyline (the hero’s journey).
Also, Miro offers great ways to draft your sales deck (my template is built with Miro).
👉 Tool to build sales deck (pitch, miro, or good old Google presentation/PowerPoint)
👉 Sales-specific meeting software like Demodesk as an alternative to Zoom or Google Meet
👉 The greatest sales deck I’ve ever seen
💡 Best tip, failure, and learning by Valentin Haarscher (Co-Founder of Easop)
Stop procrastinating with equity grants promised to your team.
It’s a common mistake I see way too often: founders making equity promises to new hires and postponing the actual grant process several months, sometimes years, later.
There are 3 main reasons why you should avoid procrastinating with equity compensation:
The value of your equity and your cap table will change when you don’t expect it and you’ll have to retro-engineer everything
If you communicate equity granted in $-value or in % of ownership (instead of a fixed number of shares/options) you might struggle to reconcile promises made to team members at different points in time
We’ve seen clients at Easop who raised several rounds of financing (via SAFE notes with different caps or via priced rounds) and communicated a $-value to be granted to team members as they joined the company (which is a great way to make it tangible)
If you communicate a % of ownership, be sure to know what was the fully diluted count at the moment of the offer otherwise you’ll have to retrace the full history of the company’s cap table
The exercise price cannot be defined based on the date of the promise, it will be based on the date of the actual grant so the more you wait, the less favorable it will be for your team members
The strike price or exercise price of options is generally based on the fair market value of the company at the moment of the grant, not at the moment of the promise
You can generally make a vesting start at the moment of the promise but the exercise price will remain the same for the full batch of grants you make even if team members have joined earlier than others and would have benefited from a lower exercise price if their grants had been made when they joined.
If an employee leaves the company it is impossible to make a grant a posteriori
In general, one of the rules that the stock option plans state is that equity can only be granted to team members who are active employees or service providers
If you postpone equity grants for too long and have people who, in theory, actually deserve an equity grant that has been promised but leave the company before it’s implemented, the company will struggle to honor its promise
Easop helps US companies stay compliant in 70+ countries, incentivizing employees, contractors, and advisors while eliminating risks, costs, and data scarcity.
🧠 Do you want to be next and share your best tip with 1400+ SaaS professionals? Reach out to me via Linkedin.
💪 Bonus material (software, content, news) - this time Pitch
Pitch is a powerful presentation builder and super easy to use. Unlike Powerpoint or Google Slides, you can create beautiful presentations in minutes - without being a designer.
It’s great for sales decks:
Easy to edit (for salespeople)
Can be shared with prospects via trackable links
Get insights on slides that are most viewed
I personally use it for my presentations and our sales team at Locaboo as well.
Happy growth 🚀.
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