What are your thoughts on best practices for an enterprise software first call deck?

Let's start with best practices, then get into an outline I like to use!

Best Practices:

• Keep the presentation concise and focused. Don't try to fit everything in at once.

  • Reps typically have 30 minutes or less for a first call.

  • I try to keep it to 5-7 slides--10 slides MAX.

• Focus on the problem, not your product: Understand your audience's challenges and tailor your message to address their pain points.

• Start with a bang: Grab attention with a powerful opening like a thought-provoking question, a surprising statistic, or a relatable story.

  • Make big, bold statements up front that clearly speak to the challenges a customer is facing (and is directly related to the key challenges you solve).

    • Make sure these points are timely and relevant - if something happens in the news and is relevant, INCLUDE IT and enable your reps to speak clearly to why that matters.

    • Often times this also helps drive urgency. This happened = you need to care about buying this NOW.

• More visuals, less words (general rule of thumb).

• I like displaying a slide that shows ALL use cases we can support, and asking the prospect to prioritize. I call it my "buffet menu" slide

  • Shows the breadth of what we can do, but also puts the conversation back onto the prospect to talk about their top priorities and WHY

  • This forces sales to turn the conversation over to the prospect (vs. just focusing on selling)

• Prep the sales reps to handle objections and competitive questions upfront.

• Make sure sales clearly knows the best information to send as a follow up.
  

  General outline I like to use:

• (OPTIONAL) Company Overview: For newer/lesser known companies, briefly talk about who you are, why you were founded (if a newer company), and tease why you're different.

• Problem: Clearly define the challenges and pain points your prospect faces. Use data, industry stats, or relevant metrics to quantify the problem.

• Your Solution: Introduce your company and its offerings. Briefly explain how your solution addresses the problems you outlined in the previous slide.

• Benefits: Dive deeper into the benefits your solution delivers. Focus on how it improves efficiency, increases revenue, or reduces costs for your prospect.

• Social Proof: Showcase your expertise and credibility with testimonials, case studies, or logos of reputable clients.

• Differentiation: Explain what sets you apart from competitors. Highlight unique features or competitive advantages.

• End with a CLEAR Call to Action: Clearly state what you want the prospect to do next, such as scheduling a demo, starting a free trial, or visiting your website for more information.

  • If you can offer an additional "value add" upfront to get them to the next call, that can help as well.

  • For example, we offer a "website audit"

• When building it, of course lean heavily on sales feedback, including how the best sellers pitch. Ask to see any custom decks they use.

• Do not forget the goal of FM deck is mostly do discovery/qualification + generate enough interest to get to second meeting (not close a deal!). So easy on the slide count and heavy on conversation and demo. Load up the appendix with slides, but not the main body.

• For a 30 min first meeting, 5 slides max is good.Make sure prospect talks at least a third of the time. Do not forget time for intros and next steps/mutual action plan.

• Each slide notes has talk track and disc/qual Qs to ask

• Hot take, but avoid too much 101 industry info. Prospect usually knows this already and wants to get to the “what problems do you solve & how do you do it better than others or the status quo”.

In terms of specific slides, decent flow is:

• First slide should capture discovery findings (current situation, challenges, desired end state, timing, competitors, etc).

• Next slide is on customer/analyst validation/logos.

• Next is challenges your customers faced. Use to drive discovery. Your solution should be the opposite of these challenges and talk to this!

• Next is a slide on your products / use cases / users aired at (if done well a rep can use this to talk to differentiators).

• Depending on how technical the product is, next slide could be architecture. Or a "how we work" slide that shows chronological flow. Can layer in metrics around ROI.

• Last is a diagram on next steps to help land a mutual action plan.

Preparation:

DON’T: Join the first call without any preparation.

DO: Conduct thorough research on the company's recent results, key initiatives, strategies, and potential pain points. Be well-versed in their business landscape to drive meaningful conversation.

Humility and Openness:

DON’T: Assume that you are right and know everything.

DO: Ask open-ended questions and seek validation. Encourage the prospect to share additional insights and perspectives. This approach builds a collaborative environment and helps uncover aspects you might not have considered.

Conversational Approach:

KEY: The first conversation should be as conversational as possible, emphasizing listening, showing interest in their business, and building empathy and trust.

Deck Presentation:

DON’T: Insert too many slides; first conversations rarely extend beyond 30 minutes.

DO: Keep the deck concise and impactful, ensuring that each slide serves a specific purpose.

Suggested Flow:

Slide 1 - Research Results:

Objective: Show that the team came prepared, confirm findings, explore further, and agree on key success measures (e.g., revenue growth, operational improvement, etc).

Slide 2 - Pain Points:

Objective: Identify and understand their current pain points, exploring previous attempts to address them.

Slide 3 - Mission and Opportunity:

Objective: Share your mission, aligning it with solving their pain points. Explain why your solution is unique.

Slide 4 - Proof Point:

Objective: Establish trust by sharing a relevant success story, demonstrating your capability to address their challenges effectively.

Slide 5 - Call to Action:

Objective: Discuss immediate next steps, proactively provide recommendations such as bringing the right resources, offering to share more about the product, educating about a complex topic critical for an evaluation process. 

Additional Key Points:

• Be prepared with tailored decks for different campaigns, plays, or personas.

• Regularly listen to sales calls, collect feedback, and adapt your approach based on continuous learning.

A successful first call deck not only showcases your understanding of the prospect's needs but also fosters engagement and sets the stage for a productive collaboration.

The best deck is no deck. I would have just backup slides to use if the questions come: company, customers, product 1 pager, case studies.

The first call should be mainly about them, the problem, and the opportunity. So you're just asking questions.

Don't waste time talking about you or your product.

But you should talk about the problem - they trust you if you respect them and your knowledge.

The way to avoid feeling like an interrogation is to comment and talk about similar experiences you know about.

As a product marketer, you should help Sales have the domain knowledge to be able to discuss their problem with prospects.