Slide deck pre demo. How short can you keep it?

I am putting a deck together for a demo this week and I might have a record. Only 4 slides!


I am a HUGE fan of NOT using a ton of slides on any calls.


Especially the ones that are about the company, how it was founded blah blah blah.


I feel like it provides 0 value and no one really cares.


Unless there is something SUPER relevant to the prospect, I try to keep it short.


This time I'm going to be dropping it completely.


-Title slide,

-Agenda

-Overview of what you will see

-One slide on integrations (asked for my prospect)

Demo.


I am also lucky that i have full control over what I show slide wise.


How do you all do it?

Do you have a deck you are able to customize (besides just putting the fucking logo on it?)

Can you create your own deck?

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15
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I mean, I can make changes, however it has to be within a certain degree of what they want and have approved. I am much like yourself, I keep it to like 4/5 slides and the pop out for demo. But when it comes to large groups, I tend to stay in the deck as it is easier to and saves time so that we can get to the good parts, like what they need. haha
jefe
Arsonist
3
๐Ÿ
Full control, baby!

Although when running a demo of a platform, I usually don't use slides.

What I do now definitely needs them though.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
what is different about what you do now that needs slides?
jefe
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ
Can't get into it fully without risking exposing myself, but there's a lot more behind the scenes in what we sell than just a SaaS platform that can be traditionally demo'd.

At my last company we didn't use any slides at all.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
make sense.
And really??? There is a company out there that doesnt use slides at all??? I think that company deserves an award.
jefe
Arsonist
2
๐Ÿ
Integrated e-commerce with a lot of custom development attached.

Had a platform to demo, but what the front end looked like would always be different for each, as would a lot of the back-end features.

But yea, no slides. (Aside from RFP, but I don't think that counts)
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
RFP is its only whole thing haha
nomdeguerre
Executive
2
Account executive
I selected yes. Truth is Iโ€™d rather avoid a deck completely as I believe it puts the prospect into a passive mode.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
yeah I agree. I dont think anyone has ever said "oh good a slide deck lets pay attention now!"
nomdeguerre
Executive
1
Account executive
More like. Oh goody a deck. Time for my to multi task and not pay attention ๐Ÿ˜‚
Avon
Politicker
2
Senior Account Executive
I personally am a 3 slides max guy. Ideally no slides.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
oh shit! 3 slides lets gooo!!
CuriousFox
WR Officer
2
๐ŸฆŠ
Relevant and short. They should be speaking more than me.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Short slides like you. I use them for introductions, validating the agenda, making sure we're going to cover what they want to see, and then a slide or two that's relevant to why they are talking to us and why we're a solution for them to consider. That's it.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
sounds good to me. then just show me the demo!
tightlines
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Canโ€™t stand long slide decks
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
seriously the worst. idk whats worse, a SUPER long slide deck with like 3 words on each slide, or a short slide deck with each slide having a 10,000 word essay on each one.
tightlines
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Iโ€™m also not a fan of transitions, my company has hella transitions built into our slide decks and it really screws with your flexibility when the prospect (inevitably) wants to talk about something else
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
hahah omg really?? what is this the 9th grade history project? I find that hilarious.
Pachacuti
Politicker
1
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
My Marketing created a 90 slide deck with the purpose of trimming it down to the needs of the presentation. Its one of the better things Marketing has done.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
yeah this is nice! having a bunch of options to pick from makes things really easy (if they are good)
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
1
Sales
I try to only use slide decks for internal meetings.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
oh really? what internal meetings do you use slides for?
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
2
Sales
If we have a new feature or pricing model and I need to express it to my team. I try and stay out of ppt since Covid started. Itโ€™s like youโ€™re own zoom etc you donโ€™t wanna go slide to camera to slide etc Iโ€™m my opinion
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
wait so you dont use slides for internal meetings then?
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
1
Sales
Sorry that wasnโ€™t clear- I try and stay out of ppt for external meetings because we are all on a video conference and you go to share the deck and I believe you generally lose people because they start to multitask.

Internal meetings you have a relationship and sometimes just have to our info on a deck.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
ahh i see! yes I totally relate to this
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
2
Sales
Yea sorry the initial reply wasnโ€™t super clear. Multitasking and typing.
MyAnonymousName
Opinionated
1
Sales Leader
I spent a few years as a junior high teacher and learned quickly nothing makes people's eyes glaze over and lose complete attention faster then powerpoint.

I use 1 slide max if I need to a high-level overview of the product, but spend 90% of my discovery calls making them stare at my face.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
i love that you have a background as a teacher. im sure that is more helpful than people think.
SaaSslinger4ever
Fire Starter
1
Sr Enterprise Account Executive
I limit to 3-5 slides and no more than 10 minutes.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
yeah thats the timeframe I shoot for as well. as long as my boss doesnt jump in and start talking about shit that doesnt matter ๐Ÿ˜‚
DevSomeBiz
Valued Contributor
1
Senior B2B Sales Guy.
I don't use a deck, I just have a conversation. What do you need? What's not working? I can fix that.
TennisandSales
Politicker
0
Head Of Sales
even on a demo? have you done a discovery call first? is it normally inbound or outbound meetings set?
DevSomeBiz
Valued Contributor
1
Senior B2B Sales Guy.
80% inbound. I donโ€™t actually have a presentation that I could give if I wanted to.
TennisandSales
Politicker
0
Head Of Sales
wow crazy you dont have a deck at all! with inbound I guess its a little easier since you are assuming they know who you are since they requested to speak with you haha.
Channel_Sales
Contributor
0
Senior Director Channels & Partnerships
I use a 4 block PPT slides that has the industry POv and the use cases I sell for the prospect and business impact. DM me with the company you are targeting and Iโ€™ll send you a custom ppt
NotCreativeEnough
Big Shot
0
Professional Day Ruiner
full control and I love it.

long slide decks ruin a presentation. no one wants to be power pointed to death. go through a 30+ slide presentation and the prospects eyes glaze over and they start playing on their phone instead.

Keep it short, keep it sweet, and have as few slides as possible to get your message across. If you can't convey your message without the crutch of a slide deck you need to learn your company/product/industry better.
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
i get SO much anxiety when im on calls and leadership is running the deck. it will be 25 min into the presentation and we havnt even looked at the product yet. ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ
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