Sales Decks for Founders - Founding Sales - December 2015

Founding Sales Decks
Sales decks that close business.

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….

As is this one….sorry...don’t know why they do that...
Sorry. The links are important, which is why I’m doing this....

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

Want to watch Pete present this deck live? Video below...
Link to video recording of live presentation.

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)

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.

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.”

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.

Responses to Common Founder Objections
● It doesn’t have to be beautiful.
● It doesn’t have to be comprehensive.
● It doesn’t have to take a ton of time.

Realities
● Like your product, start MVP.
● It will change / grow over time.
● Something is better than nothing.

Founding Sales Decks - Your Sales Narrative, Weaponized
● 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

Founding Sales Decks - Some examples we’ll use
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.

Founding Sales Decks - The Problem and Who Has It
● 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

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).

● 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.

Subcomponents of business
pain, “zoomed in.”
● 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.

Subcomponents of business
pain, “zoomed in.”
● 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?

“Zoomed in” unit pain
● 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.

“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.

Core driver of the problem case - varied per case.

“Zoomed in” implications of problem
case.
● 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!

“Zoomed in” implications of problem.
● Knock-on implication of previous
pain.
● Good callouts of bad, worse, worst
implications
● Both rollup stats and unit examples.

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.

Extension of first type of business pain.
● Rollup “zoom out” of that previous
implication.
● Third party data source as
validator / benchmark.
● Sneaky color usage.

Anecdata can be helpful too.https://twitter.com/foundingsales

Founding Sales Decks - The Cost of the Problem
● 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

● 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).

Indicating the magnitude of pain and likelihood of resolution.

Founding Sales Decks - Existing solutions and their challenges
● 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

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.

Qualitative indicators.

Founding Sales Decks - What has changed
● 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?

Founding Sales Decks - What has changed
Overarching Change Examples

Founding Sales Decks - How the solution works
● 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

Founding Sales Decks - How the Solution Works
Concept Visualization
● 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.

Current World v. New World
● 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!”

Overarching “story” and chapters Sub-chapter (“Zoomed in”)
“Fractal” approach

“Chapter” detail with value props.
● Aggregation of screenshots that tell a
story.
● Good value prop callouts.
● ROI arguments.
● Conceptual visual, too. “Oh, I get it.
Multiple mails. Nice.”

Chapter detail (mediocre value prop use!)
● 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.

Concept Visualization
● 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.)

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.

Quasi-demo
● 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.

● 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

Founding Sales Decks - Quantitative Proof of a Better Solution
● 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

● 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.

● 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.”
Blinded ROI proof points

Can be ROI precursor data, too.
● What are the precursors to ROI for
you solution?
● Compare the status quos / industry
standards.

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.

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.”

Founding Sales Decks - Qualitative Proof of a Better Solution
● Stories
● Reputation issuers
● Appeal to authority
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.
Customer “stories”

Anecdata!

● 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.
Company Reputation

● Organizational Gravitas: Not the
common case, but maybe.
● Funding / Investors: You’re not
going away anytime soon.
Founding Narrative

● 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.
The “Logo” slide

Founding Sales Decks - Why this will be so easy
● 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.

● Skepticism: They’ve seen
these promises before.
● Work: Are you creating work
for me?
● Systematized: Is this already
solved?
Follow the yellow brick road

● Human face: Take advantage
of your staff.
● WIFM: What’s in it for staff and
decisionmakers?
Follow the yellow brick road

MVP!“Features” of “Why so easy!”

Founding Sales Decks - Pricing
● They’re going to ask. So have it.
● Keep It Simple, Stupid
● Peak “rack rate” - you’re going to discount
Pricing Slides

Founding Sales Decks - Pricing

Founding Sales Decks - Appendices
● Objection slides.
● “Choose your own adventure” slides.
● Edge case slides.
Appendices & General Points

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.

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.

Founding Sales Decks - Structured for Extensibility
Bare bones vs. Fractal vs. Rich.

Founding Sales Decks - Structured for Extensibility
Bare bones vs. Fractal vs. Rich

Founding Sales Decks - Production Value of Slides
Production Value of Your Slides: Don’t worry about it, never gate content on production value.

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

Founding Sales Decks - Content Management and Deployment
Content Management and Deployment: Janky PPT Github; Clearslide / Docsend; Deck for Presenting, Deck for sending

Pete Kazanjy - Product Marketer / Product Manager turned Sales Leader
@kazanjy on Twitter
(Find me on LinkedIn too /
petekazanjy@stanfordalumni.org )
Writing
@foundingsales

Sales Decks for Founders - Founding Sales - December 2015

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