How to design a sales deck that buyers actually read

Quick answer

A sales deck that gets read is short, around ten to twelve slides, built around the buyer’s problem rather than your history, with one claim and one piece of proof per slide, clear prices or options, and a single next step. Make a version that works as a PDF on a phone, because most decks are read, not presented.

Here is what usually happens to a sales deck. You spend a weekend on it, email it to a prospect, and they open it on their phone between meetings. They read the first slide, flick past four slides about your company’s story, find no price, and close it. Nothing was wrong with the design. The deck was built to be presented in a room, and it was read on a five-inch screen by someone with ninety seconds. This guide is about designing for that reality.

Step 1: decide whether it will be presented or read

Most small businesses need two versions of the same deck.

Build the send-ahead version first. If it makes sense with nobody explaining it, the presented version is easy: cut words, and say them instead.

Step 2: build the story around the buyer

A structure that works for most trades and service firms:

1. Their situation: the problem in their words.
2. What it costs them: time, money, risk or stress if nothing changes.
3. Your approach: how you solve it, in three steps at most.
4. What they get: the result, not the process.
5. Proof: one or two case studies that match their kind of job.
6. Why you: the one or two things that genuinely set you apart.
7. Options and price: two or three clear choices.
8. What happens next: one step, with a date.

Your company history, team photos and accreditations belong in a short “about us” slide near the end or in an appendix. Buyers check them after they are interested, not before.

Step 3: write headlines that sell on their own

Write every slide headline as a sentence that makes the point. “Case study” tells the reader nothing. “A 1930s semi rewired in four days, with the family still living there” sells. Read only the headlines from first to last slide. If they tell the whole story, the deck works even for someone who skims, which is most people.

Step 4: one claim, one proof

Every claim should have evidence next to it: a photo of the finished job, a short quote from a named client, a before-and-after figure, an accreditation number. Avoid vague claims such as “the best in the area” or “guaranteed results”. They do not persuade, and claims in marketing material must be ones you can back up. The UK advertising rules in the CAP Code apply to marketing communications, and the ASA’s guidance on misleading advertising explains why “best”, “cheapest” and unverifiable testimonials cause trouble.

Step 5: show the price

A sales deck without a price creates a second conversation, and gives a competitor time to send theirs. Show two or three options, explain what changes between them, and mark the one you recommend. If the job genuinely needs a survey first, give a range and say what decides where in the range it lands. Our guide on how to price your services helps set the options.

Step 6: design for a phone screen

• Use large type. If a headline needs zooming on a phone, it is too small.
• Keep one idea per slide, with plenty of space.
• Use strong contrast between text and background; the free WebAIM contrast checker tells you if a colour pair is readable.
• Use real photos of your work, large, rather than small stock images.
• Keep the file size small enough to open quickly on mobile data by compressing images before exporting to PDF.
• Put your phone number and email on the last slide and in the footer, so the reader can act without hunting.

Step 7: keep it on brand

A sales deck is often the first substantial thing a buyer sees from you. Use the same logo, colours and fonts as your website, quotes and van, on a proper template, so every deck you send looks like the same organised business. If you also hand over printed material, our guide to brochure design costs covers the print version, and our comparison of print and digital marketing materials helps decide which you need.

Step 8: tailor it, send it, follow up

Keep a master deck and duplicate it for each prospect. Change the first two slides to their situation and swap in the most relevant case study. It takes ten minutes and makes the deck feel written for them. Send it as a PDF with a short email that summarises the recommendation in two lines, then follow up two working days later with one question about what they would change. For larger commercial buyers, our guide to winning commercial contracts covers the extra documents they expect alongside a deck.

Step 9: learn from the decks you lose

When a deck does not convert, ask why. A short, polite question (“Was there anything in our proposal that did not fit?”) often gets an honest answer about price, timing or a missing piece of proof. Track which version and which case studies lead to bookings; our guide on measuring marketing return shows simple ways to do it.

Mistakes that get decks closed

• Opening with three slides about your company before the buyer’s problem appears.
• Hiding the price, or burying it after the testimonials.
• Generic stock photos where real job photos would prove the point.
• A file so large it will not open on a phone.
• No contact details on the final slide.

When to get help

If your decks look different every time, the fix is upstream: a defined brand that a template can be built from. Our brand identity design is £299 and sets your logo, colours, typography, imagery and guidelines, so every sales deck, proposal and quote matches. All our prices are on the pricing page.