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How to Personalize Your Sales Deck To Boost Sales

Learn the art and science of sales deck personalization at scale. Customize your message, make prospects feel special, engage them, and close more deals.

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Short answer

Why is sales deck personalization important?

Personalizing your sales content contributes 5-10% revenue uplift and improves sales efficiency by 20-25%, according to a McKinsey study. According to our own research, personalized decks increase the number of decks read in full by 68%, increase the average reading time by 41%, and are share within the client organization 2.3X more often.

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

How to write and structure a sales deck
How to make your sales deck stand out and engage
How to make a memorable sales deck
How to personalize your sales deck to your buyer (you are here)
How to create a sales deck with AI

How to personalize your sales deck to your buyer

Most buyers now expect your sales decks to be personalized to them and their specific needs. And you should do what they expect if you want to win.

Let’s take a look at a few practical things you can do to start personalizing your sales decks and collect on your increased commission.

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NOTE: Take a closer look at the bottom part colored in purple. You can use Storydoc both as your sales CMS and as an effective way to deliver your pitch. The best part is that this process can be automated by integrating Storydoc with your CRM.

1) Research your audience

Start by diving deep into your audience's world:

Use analytics to understand their behavior
Conduct interviews to gain insights into their needs and pain points
Review customer service conversations to identify common issues
Listen to sales call recordings to understand the questions and objections that arise during the sales process (or use tools like Gong)

This research will give you a well-rounded understanding of your audience.

2) Define your value proposition

Once you have a deep understanding of your audience, define your value proposition.

This is a clear statement that explains how your product solves customers' problems, delivers specific benefits, and why it's better than the alternatives.

Your value proposition should be compelling and directly address the needs of your audience.

Here's a video explaining how to write value propositions for sales presentations:

How to make a winning value proposition for your sales deck

3) Outline your narrative (make it about your prospect, not you)

Your sales deck should follow a story - a narrative that portrays your client as a hero embarking on a journey to overcome a major challenge and reach the safety of a better future.

The narrative should position your solution as the trusted guide leading your client through uncharted waters and empowering them to fulfill their full potential.

The “challenge” should be an acute pain felt by your prospect that you can solve, and the “better future” should be the outcome they seek.

This approach makes your sales deck more memorable and adds a layer of emotion prospects can relate to.

It structures the sales deck around your prospect and helps you avoid the common pitfall of talking too much about you and your solution.

Here’s our recommended storyline:

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4) Gather relevant social proof

Social proof in a sales deck has 2 goals: (1) to create peer envy and (2) to prove you can do the job.

To create peer envy, your social proof should be as close as possible to the prospect's own circumstances.

It should answer the question “Is this solution good for people like me?”

Take into consideration that ”People like me” is a perceived label, not a factual label. So put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and ask yourself “Who am I (aspiring to be)”.

For example, I could be an executive manager aiming to become a CEO. In this case, a testimonial by a CEO would serve better than a VP.

To show you can do the job, make sure to add quotes and case studies that show you’ve already brought the outcomes they want to a company like theirs or (preferably) bigger.

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5) Segment your sales deck for different decision-makers, industries, or use cases

It’s a commonplace challenge to build a sales deck that addresses all the critical decision-makers for landing the deal. But you aim for one and you miss the others, that’s just life, right? No… it’s not.

You can segment your sales decks for multiple decision-makers without giving up anything. This is how -

Use tabs - For example, you could have a tab for each industry you serve, each decision-maker role, or each use case of your product. This way, decision-makers will be exposed only to the information they want.

Use dynamic variables - For example, you could use a dynamic variable to address known decision-makers by name within your content, where their specific attention is needed.

Link to resources for specific decision-makers - For example, information the CFO, Legal, or CIO might need to access before they make their decision.

They get their info while you get to avoid the anticlimax of including financial spreadsheets, legal documents, or cyber security specifications in your sales deck.

Here's how you can do this using Storydoc:

Create your sales deck

6) Prepare original visuals

Use visuals that exemplify the prospect’s world. Show people like them doing what people like them do.

But also avoid generic stock images and videos. Show your own people in action if possible, or better yet, find images or videos that show real people from real clients.

It may take more work but it will make your content instantly more credible and relatable.

7) Automate sales deck personalization at scale

How do you send out personalized sales decks at scale? Here’s how to do it in a few simple steps using Storydoc -

3 steps for automating sales deck personalization:

Insert prospect's information: Once you’ve added the prospect's name and company details, all you need to do is click "Send". Your prospect will receive a deck that feels specifically made for them, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.
Use CRM integration: Storydoc integrates with your CRM, allowing you to pull prospect's data directly from there into your decks. This means you can create personalized decks directly from the contacts page in your CRM, saving you time and effort.
Add dynamic variables: Storydoc allows you to add dynamic variables to your deck. This means you can sprinkle personal touches throughout your presentation, making it feel more tailored to the prospect.

Here's an example of how to personalize your deck:

Sales deck templates you can personalize at scale

To get you started fast and easy I brought you a few of our customizable sales deck templates.

All the templates you get here will help you make highly effective sales decks that you can personalize for any number of prospects with a few clicks using dynamic variables.

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.

Table of contents

Why is sales deck personalization important? How to personalize your sales deck to your buyer How to automate sales deck personalization Sales deck templates you can personalize

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