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How to Make a Sales Presentation Slide-by-Slide (+Examples)

Learn how to do a sales presentation that wins deals. Find out how to write a sales presentation start to finish, to grab attention, build trust, & persuade.

Author Amotz Harari

5 minute read

How to create a sales presentation

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Short answer

What is a sales presentation?

A sales presentation is a slide deck used by sales representatives in sales meetings to pitch their product or service to prospective clients. A sales presentation is also referred to as a sales deck or a demo deck.

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This post is part of our 5-part sales deck guide series:

  1. How to create a sales presentation? (you are here)
  2. How to make your sales deck stand out and engage
  3. How to make a memorable sales deck
  4. How to personalize your sales deck to your buyer
  5. How to create a sales deck with AI

What does an effective sales presentation look like?

The traditional sales presentation is a branded PowerPoint slide deck that demos the main features and benefits of the seller’s product or solution.

However competitive sales teams are moving away from static PowerPoints into more effective interactive presentations that mix in videos and animations, and let prospects interact with live charts or expose deeper information on demand.


Here’s an example of an effective modern sales presentation:

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What to include in a sales presentation?

The core structure of an effective sales presentation includes just 8 slides that together build a narrative around your solution as a high-value opportunity that cannot be passed up.

  1. Title slide
  2. Introduction
  3. Problem
  4. Solution
  5. Outcomes
  6. Proof of concept, capability, and competence
  7. Pricing
  8. Next steps


Now let me show you what goes into each slide.

How to create an effective sales presentation (slide by slide)

It’s not easy to create an effective sales presentation.

A great sales presentation needs to do 2 things well. It needs to support your sales pitch during your meetings with prospects, but it also needs to pitch your value on its own when your champion shares it with key decision-makers.

In meetings, you guide the conversation. But when your sales presentation is forwarded within the prospective client’s organization it’s on its own, which means your presentation needs to guide the conversation without you.

That’s the hard part. And that’s what I intend to teach you.

Let’s break it down slide by slide. And we’ll do it based on our very own sales presentation (with the proprietary information removed of course).

1) Title slide

The title slide is your first opportunity to grab attention and stand out. It answers the first natural question in the mind of prospects - “Is this interesting?”

First, make it interesting by adding some motion to pull and anchor your prospect’s attention. Just add some animation or a video. This also communicates that your deck promises something different that they haven’t seen before.

The second thing you should do is personalize. Place your prospect’s logo where they can see it, address them by name, and weave their company name into your title and UVP.

NOTE: We used dynamic variables (which the Storydoc editor makes available) to pull the prospect’s information directly from our CRM (including their logo, name, company name, our rep name, and an industry-relevant cover image).

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sales presentation title slide

2) Introduction slide

The intro slide eases the prospect into the pitch. It answers their subconscious question - “What’s this about again?”

You can’t just “pitch slap” a prospect without some transition that prepares them for the pitch and puts them in the right mindset.

A good approach is to give a short overview of your company and solution. Using a video would work better than text, and take less space.

In our sales presentation, we used a personal note with the main points brought up in previous communication, as well as the meeting agenda.

The note is automatically pulled from our CRM together with the prospect’s and sales rep’s photos.

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sales presentation introduction slide

3) Challenge slide

The challenge slide, also called problem slide, describes the main challenge and pain points that your solution solves. The main unconscious question it aims to answer is - “Why change? Why now?”

To a large extent, your sales pitch success rests on this one slide. But...

For this slide to hit home it has to describe something that the prospect recognizes to be true. More importantly, they have to perceive the problem as too risky to leave unaddressed and too acute to postpone treatment.

In our example, we chose to touch on the 3 biggest concerns of past buyers.

We also included a video that covers the same issues but also positions Storydoc as the solution. This serves as a nice segway into the solution slide.

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Sales presentation challenge slide

4) Solution slide

The solution slide is where you finally get to pitch your solution. Start with a broad overview then go into the details of how it works.

Focus on the aspects of your solution that matter most to solving the prospect’s problems. There’s only so much that can go in one ear without going out the other.

When 2 days pass from your meeting your prospect will recall just about 10% of what you said. All that will matter then is whether they answer “yes” to these 2 questions - “Does the solution make sense? Is it the best fit for what I need?

In our example, we used a scrollytelling approach with text paired with video to break down our solution into interactive bite-size chunks.

This makes the solution easier to understand and more memorable while not compromising on presenting interesting yet complex information.

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Sales presentation solution slide

5) Outcomes slide

The outcomes slide answers the prospect’s question - “What measurable impact can I expect?”

This slide caters to the rational mind - the gatekeeper of the buying decision. It needs to justify the choice with concrete measurable KPIs.

This is where you share numbers from past clients in their situation, who experienced success. Match the numbers with a client logo if possible to add credibility.

In our example, we used the average lifts gained by moving from static PDFs and PowerPoints to Storydoc based on our analytics from over 100,000 sales presentation sessions.

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Sales deck solution slide example by workday

6) Proof of concept, capability, and competence

This is the time to deal with the prospect’s lingering doubts about your ability to deliver.

Use customer logos, quotes by happy customers, awards, and badges to lend trustworthiness to your claims. This is also a good place for a case study.

I like to call this slide Po3C since all the proofs are interrelated and they all have the same acronym (PoC).

In some cases, like a specialized project or a new technology, your team is the most important aspect of your capability and competence.

In that case, I suggest you supplement the Po3C slide with a team slide that features your leading team's achievements and recognition.

In our example, we practically use all of my suggestions above. We’re lucky enough to have these trust signals, so why not show them?

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Sales presentation customer quote and logos slide
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Sales presentation trust badges

7) Pricing slide

The pricing plan is important to answer one of the core questions for every buyer - “how much does this cost”. You can’t side-step this question, so you better be willing to answer.

Simply show your relevant pricing plans as you would on your website.

That said, this approach is not so useful when pitching enterprise companies.

It’s good for pitching SMB and mid-market companies that have clear needs that you’ve seen many times before, but enterprises require (and expect) a tailored plan. And this usually takes time to take shape.

The example I brought you is generic since I had to remove proprietary information.

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Sales presentation pricing slide

8) Next steps

This is where you offer your prospect a way to continue the conversation.

This is the key moment of your story, don’t end it with a dead-end “Thank you”. Tell your prospects what they should do now to go forward.

Ask for a small concession, not a big demand. Something like booking the next meeting with a key decision-maker, subscribing to a free trial of your product, reading a case study, or reading a whitepaper.

In our example, we left the exact CTA message up to the rep to decide, but it’s set up for easily booking follow-up meetings through the rep's calendar app.

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Sales presentation next steps slide

Sales presentation templates that move the needle

To help you get your sales presentation in top shape and in no time I brought you some of our best sales presentation templates.

All these templates apply the content structure and insights I covered in this post.

You don’t have to know why they work, just be glad that they do.

They are also tried and tested for every device from desktop to mobile and come with built-in analytics that let you see how prospects are engaging with your deck in real-time.


Grab one!

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Amotz Harari

As the Head of Marketing, I lead Storydoc’s team of highly trained content-ops warriors fighting to eradicate Death-by-PowerPoint wherever it resides. My mission is to enable buyer decision-making by removing the affliction of bad content from the inboxes of businesses and individuals worldwide.

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What is a sales presentation? What does a sales presentation look like? What to include in a sales presentation? How to create an effective sales presentation Sales presentation templates
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