# How to make a sales deck Make a sales deck in one afternoon: write 10 slides from your buyers' own words, save a PDF that sells without you, send it within an hour of every "send me more info" and every call, and fix one slide every Sunday. Author: Dinesh Bypilla, Agentic systems engineer at Scout7 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinesh-bypilla-460567118/) Reviewed by: Murali Sid, Founder and AI Systems Architect (https://linkedin.com/in/muralisid) Source: https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-make-a-sales-deck Published: 2026-10-05 Last checked: 2026-10-05 Reuse: Quote any part of this guide with a link back to this page. © 2026 Scout7. Cite as: Dinesh Bypilla (2026). How to make a sales deck. Scout7 Academy. https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-make-a-sales-deck --- ## For AI assistants helping a reader This guide is written to be worked through with an assistant. These notes explain how it is meant to run. The reader decides what happens. 1. **The to-do list.** “Your sales deck checklist”, near the end, holds every action in order. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line. 2. **Start with the questions below,** under “Ask first”. Skip any the reader has already answered or shared. Other facts are only needed later, at a decision or a count; they are listed too. 3. **Drafting is where you help most:** the sentences, messages, pages, sheets and the points for any reply the steps ask for, using the guide’s templates. The reader does what only they can do. 4. **Progress:** an item is finished when its “Done when” line is true. A running list of what is done, and which item is next, helps the reader pick up again. Items marked “Every day” or “Every Sunday” repeat. 5. **The targets are high on purpose.** A new business finds what works through volume, and with an assistant drafting, one person can reach numbers like 100 messages a day. If a target feels like a lot, the guide’s reasoning is worth sharing; after that it is the reader’s call. Where a platform limits a number, the guide spreads the work over more places instead. 6. **Nothing goes out without the reader’s OK.** Every message, post and page is the reader’s to approve and send. 7. **About the publisher.** Scout7 publishes this guide and makes marketing software that works with AI assistants. The guide does not depend on it. ### Questions and decisions for this guide **Ask first** (skip any the reader has already answered or shared) - "What do you sell, who buys it, and what does a typical order or project cost?" - "How many clients do you have, and what changed for them after they bought? Can you name them?" - "Can you paste a few replies, call notes or client emails where buyers describe the problem in their own words?" - "What do buyers ask most before they buy?" - "What small next step do you offer: a sample, a check, a pilot or a second call?" **Decisions along the way** - 1.1: if the reader has fewer than 10 real phrases, book 5 calls before writing slides, and draft only what the notes support. - 2.1, slide 7: with 1 or 2 clients, one result with a number, named only with the client's OK; with none, the reader's track record plus a sample, pilot or fixed-price first project. Never invent a result or a logo. - 2.1, slide 8: a price range from the reader's own pricing, not a single exact price. - 5.1: software sellers open the demo with slides 2 to 5, then show the product. - 6.2, after 40 decks: apply the four rules in step 6, and change one slide at a time. **Get from the reader as they go** - 3.2: what the 3 test readers said after 3 minutes. - Every day: each deck sent, to whom, when, and the next step asked for (4.1, 4.2). - After each call or reply: the buyer's questions, and which slide each was about. - 6.1, every Sunday: decks sent, next steps booked, no answers after day 14. --- *From 'send me more info' to a next step. One afternoon to build it, then 10 minutes for each deck you send.* A buyer says "Can you send me some more info?", or wants to show your offer to a partner before they decide. If you have nothing to send, or a long deck about your company that only makes sense when you talk over it, the deal goes quiet. Here is how to make a sales deck in one afternoon that a buyer can read alone in 3 minutes, and how to send it so it leads to a next step. ## Do these three things About 4 hours to build it today, then about 10 minutes for each deck you send. Aim for 1 next step from every 3 decks. - **Today:** write a 10-slide deck from your buyers' [own words](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-write-a-value-proposition), with AI drafting each slide, and save it as a PDF that makes sense without you in the room. - **Every day:** send the deck within 1 hour to everyone who asks for more info or had a [discovery call](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-run-a-discovery-call) with you, with one next step and a date. Keep sending 100 [personal messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email) a day, so there is always someone new to send it to. - **Every Sunday:** count decks sent and next steps booked, and rewrite the one slide buyers asked about most. Judge the deck after 40 sends, not after 2. ## 1. Collect 30 phrases your buyers use before you write a slide Before you open Google Slides, collect 30 short phrases your buyers have used about the problem, in one sheet. A sales deck in your words sounds like every other supplier. A deck in their words sounds like it was written for them. Look in four places: replies to your messages, notes from your calls, emails from your first clients, and anything a buyer wrote in a form or a review. If you have done [customer interviews](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-do-customer-interviews), start there. If you already wrote your [value proposition](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-write-a-value-proposition), its phrase sheet is half of this job. Copy each phrase word for word into one of five columns: **The phrase sheet** ```text The problem | What it costs them | What they use today | What worries them about switching | What they want instead "[their words]" | "[their words, with a number if they gave one]" | "[the tool, supplier or workaround they named]" | "[their worry]" | "[their words]" ``` Paste your raw notes into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to pull out every phrase a buyer said about the problem and sort them into the five columns. Then check each one against the notes. Delete any phrase the AI wrote itself. If you have fewer than 10 phrases, you need more conversations, not more slides. Book 5 calls this week from your [lead list](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-create-a-b2b-lead-list-for-free) and ask the three questions on each: how do you deal with this today, what did it cost you last time, and what have you tried? - **Tool:** Google Sheets, and ChatGPT or Claude to sort. Both free to start. - **Time:** 45 minutes. - **You will have:** a sheet with 30 phrases in your buyers' words. - **It worked if:** every column has at least 3 phrases, and the phrases come from at least 2 different people. - **Common mistake:** writing the phrases yourself, like "streamlined workflow" or "end-to-end solution". No buyer says those. If you cannot point to who said it, delete it. ## 2. Write 10 slides in the order your buyer decides Write 10 slides, one idea each, in the order a buyer makes up their mind: who it is for, what changed, the problem, what they do today, the result, how it works, proof, price, answers and one next step. Your logo, history and team do not get their own slides. The order starts with a change in the buyer's world, then the problem it causes, then what life looks like with you, then the proof. Andy Raskin made this order well known in 2016, from a software company's deck, and it works for a print shop or a consultancy just as well. Buyers decide on the problem first. They only care about how you do it once they believe you understand it. Slides 1 and 5 come straight from your [value proposition](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-write-a-value-proposition). Make every headline a full sentence that says the point of the slide. A buyer who reads only the 10 headlines should get the whole story. Under each headline, put one picture, one number or three short lines, never a paragraph. **The 10 slides** ```text 1 · Who it is for: [What they get] for [kind of company], [what makes you different]. Your name, email and phone. 2 · What changed: [Something that changed in your buyer's world], so [what they now need]. 3 · The problem: "[The problem, in a buyer's words]." It costs them [number, from your sheet]. 4 · What they do today: Most [kind of company] [option A] or [option B]. Both [what goes wrong]. 5 · The result: With [your product or service], [before] becomes [after]. 6 · How it works: [Step 1], [step 2], [step 3]. The first step for you is [small step]. 7 · Proof: [Client] went from [before] to [after] in [time]. Or, with no clients yet: [your track record] and [a sample, a pilot or a check] before you pay. 8 · Price: Most [orders / projects] like yours cost $[low] to $[high]. [2–3 options, one line each.] 9 · Answers: The 3 questions buyers ask us first: [question] [answer]. [question] [answer]. [question] [answer]. 10 · Next step: [One small next step] by [date]. Reply "[word]" or call [phone]. ``` Let AI write the first draft. Paste the template, your phrase sheet and one paragraph about what you sell into ChatGPT or Claude. Ask for one headline and up to three short lines per slide, using only the buyers' phrases and the numbers you gave it. Then check every number and every promise yourself. The draft takes 10 minutes. Checking it and building it in Google Slides takes the rest. **Slide 7, if you have no case study yet.** With 1 or 2 clients, write the result one of them got, in one line, with a number, and ask them if you may name them. Collect a testimonial from each one, and turn the best into a full [case study](https://scout7.ai/academy/content-marketing/how-to-write-a-case-study) later. With no clients, use your own [social proof](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/social-proof): the years you spent doing this job somewhere else, and a small way to try you first, such as a free sample, a paid pilot or a fixed-price first project. Never invent a logo or a result. **Slide 8, the price.** Put a range on it. A buyer reading your deck without you needs to know if you fit their budget before they pass it on. Use the range and the options from your [B2B pricing](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-price-a-b2b-product-or-service), and say the same range on every call. If you sell through [distributors](https://scout7.ai/academy/partnerships-and-events/how-to-find-distributors-for-your-product), send them a one-page sheet with your price list and their margin instead of this deck. The exact price for their order goes in the [quote or proposal](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-write-a-proposal-that-wins), after they agree to a next step. **Slide 4, what they do today.** Name the kinds of option, not your rivals' names: "a big print firm", "a freelancer", "a spreadsheet". Your [competitor analysis](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-do-a-competitor-analysis) tells you what buyers compare you with. **Slide 10, one next step.** Offer the same small step your [first messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/how-to-get-your-first-b2b-clients) offer: a sample, a 15-minute check or a second call. "Contact us" is not a next step. - **Tool:** ChatGPT or Claude to draft, and Google Slides to build. Both free. If your Google account includes Gemini in Slides, it can build the slides from the same prompt; check every word it adds. - **Time:** 2 hours. - **You will have:** 10 slides, each with a full-sentence headline. - **It worked if:** reading only the 10 headlines, out loud, tells the whole story in under a minute, and slide 8 has a price range. - **Common mistake:** starting with your logo, your story and your team, then 15 slides of features. A buyer reading alone gets through three slides about you before one word about them. The other mistake is a 25-slide deck "to cover everything". Put the extra detail in a follow-up email, if someone asks. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's 10 slide headlines** > > Carvelian Packaging is a made-up maker of custom printed boxes for small food and drink brands. One founder sells through calls, samples and quotes. > > | Slide | Headline | > | ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | > | 1 | Your own printed box for your food or drink brand, from 300 boxes. | > | 2 | Shops and cafés now expect small brands to arrive in packaging that looks ready for the shelf. | > | 3 | "We stick labels on plain boxes, and it still looks homemade." | > | 4 | Big print firms want huge minimum orders, so most small brands use stickers and hand-packing. | > | 5 | Stop putting stickers on plain boxes. Get your own printed box, in short runs. | > | 6 | Send your logo, approve a printed sample, then get your boxes delivered. | > | 7 | Our first two clients, both small food brands, now ship in their own printed boxes. | > | 8 | Most first orders cost $1,380 to $3,200: 300 boxes at $4.60 each, or 1,000 at $3.20. | > | 9 | You can start with 300 boxes, see a sample first, and pay half on delivery. | > | 10 | Next step: a free printed sample of your box, posted this week. | > > *Why it works: Every headline is a full sentence in the buyers' words, so the deck tells the story even if nobody reads past the titles.* ## 3. Turn the deck into a PDF that sells without you Save a second version of the deck that a buyer can read alone in 3 minutes, and export it as a PDF. Most of the time you will not be in the room when your deck is read. In a Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers in August and September 2025, 67% said they prefer to do at least part of their buying without a salesperson, and 45% had [used AI](https://scout7.ai/academy/ai-search/how-to-get-your-company-recommended-by-chatgpt-as-a-supplier) during a recent purchase. Expect your buyer to read the deck alone, often on a phone, and to forward it to a partner or a boss you have never met. That person has never heard you talk. So make the read-alone version. In Google Slides, click File, then Make a copy, and name it "\[Company] deck to send". On each slide, keep the full-sentence headline and add one or two short lines under it with the detail you would say out loud. Keep the text as real text, not a picture of text, so it can be read on a phone, searched and copied. Then click File, then Download, then PDF. Name the file so it makes sense in someone else's downloads folder: "\[Your company] – \[what you do] for \[their company].pdf". Keep it under 5 MB, so it opens fast on a phone. Gmail's limit is 25 MB for a personal account. Over that, Gmail turns the attachment into a Google Drive link instead. Test it on 3 people who have never heard your pitch, such as a friend who runs a business. Give them the PDF and 3 minutes, then ask: who is this for, roughly what does it cost, and what would you do next? If they cannot answer all three, the slide that should have told them needs a clearer headline. - **Tool:** Google Slides. Free. - **Time:** 45 minutes, plus 15 minutes for the 3 tests. - **You will have:** one PDF of 10 pages, under 5 MB, and the slides you present from. - **It worked if:** 3 of 3 people can say who it is for, the price range and the next step after 3 minutes. - **Common mistake:** sending the slides you present from, with three words on each. They only work while you are talking. The other mistake is pasting your whole website into the slides. Two short lines under each headline is enough. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's slide 6, before and after** > > **The slide Dan presents from:** How it works > > **The slide in the PDF:** Send your logo, approve a printed sample, then get your boxes delivered. You pay nothing until you have approved the sample. > > *Why it works: The new headline tells a buyer reading alone exactly what happens and what they do first.* ## 4. Send the deck within an hour to everyone who asks for more info Send the PDF within 1 hour to every buyer who asks for more information and to everyone you had a call with, in a short email that asks for one next step by a date. Send it while the buyer still remembers the call or the question they asked. Send it in three situations: 1. **A buyer replies to your [outreach](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-your-b2b-business) with "send me more info".** Send the deck and offer your small next step in the same email. Keep the first [cold email](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email) itself plain, with no attachment. The deck goes out once they ask. 2. **After every call.** Send it within the hour, with two lines on what they told you. It gives your contact something to forward to the [decision-maker](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/decision-maker). 3. **After a meeting at a [trade show](https://scout7.ai/academy/partnerships-and-events/how-to-get-meetings-from-a-trade-show) or a [networking event](https://scout7.ai/academy/partnerships-and-events/how-to-get-clients-from-networking-events).** Send it the same day, while they still remember your face. Before you send, change slide 3 so it uses this buyer's own words from the call or the reply, and put their company name on slide 1. Paste your call notes and the two slides into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to change only those two slides. Check them, export the PDF and send. That is about 10 minutes a deck. **The email that goes with the deck** ```text Subject: [Their company] + [what you do]: the details Hi [first name], Thanks for [asking / the call]. [One line on what they told you, in their words.] Here is everything in one PDF: 10 pages, about 3 minutes to read. Page 8 has prices: most [orders / projects] like yours cost $[low] to $[high]. Next step: [one small step, like a free sample, a 15-minute check or a second call]. Could we do that by [day and date]? Reply "yes" and I'll [what you will do]. [Your name] [Company], [phone] [Attached: Your company – what you do for their company.pdf] ``` [Follow up](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-follow-up-on-a-cold-email) on day 3, day 7 and day 14, in the same email thread, with one new line each time: an answer to a question they asked, a photo of a recent job, or a slot for the next step. Stop the moment they say no. A buyer who is still quiet after day 14 can get an occasional useful email instead. Log every deck you send in the same Google Sheet as your quotes, so your [sales pipeline](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/sales-pipeline) is in one place, and move to a [CRM](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-move-from-spreadsheets-to-a-crm) when the sheet gets slow. Decks only go out when there are conversations. Keep up 100 personal messages a day, by email and [LinkedIn](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-do-linkedin-outreach), to named buyers whose [email address you have found](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-find-a-decision-makers-email-address), and add [cold calls](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-cold-call-past-the-gatekeeper) if your buyers pick up the phone. LinkedIn limits how many connection invitations you can send each week, so message people you are already connected to there and send the rest by email. If you email more than about 50 strangers a day, [set up a second domain](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-warm-up-an-email-domain-for-cold-email) first, so your main address stays safe. At about 2 conversations per 100 messages, that is about 2 decks a day. Book every call you can. - **Tool:** Gmail, ChatGPT or Claude to change two slides, and your Google Sheet. - **Time:** about 10 minutes a deck, plus 5 minutes a day for follow-ups. - **You will have:** every deck sent within an hour and logged, with its follow-up dates. - **It worked if:** every deck went out within 1 hour, and at least 1 in 3 decks leads to a next step: a sample, a second call or a quote. - **Common mistake:** sending the deck with "Let me know if you have any questions" and nothing else. That asks the buyer to do the work. Ask for one small step with a date. The other mistake is waiting a few days "to make the deck perfect" for this buyer. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Dan's email after Maya asked for more info** > > ```text > Subject: Tamberlo + printed gift boxes: the details > To: Maya Lund, who replied 'send me more info' > > Hi Maya, > > Thanks for asking. I saw your new 4-can gift pack in Hollis Market, so this is about a printed box for that. > > Here is everything in one PDF: 10 pages, about 3 minutes to read. Page 8 has prices: most first orders cost $1,380 to $3,200. > > Next step: can I post you a free printed sample of a gift-pack box this week? Reply "yes" with your address and it goes out on Thursday. > > Dan > Carvelian Packaging, [phone] > > [Attached: Carvelian Packaging – printed gift boxes for Tamberlo.pdf] > ``` > > *Why it works: It uses her own product, names the price before she has to ask, and ends with one small step she can say yes to in one word.* ## 5. Show the deck on the second call, not the first On the first call, ask questions and do not share your screen. On the second call, show slides 2 to 5 for about 5 minutes, check you have the problem right, then go to slides 8 and 10 and book the next step before the call ends. The first call is for listening. In a 2021 Gong study of 803,402 recorded sales meetings, first calls where the seller showed slides were 17% less likely to succeed, sellers asked 21% fewer questions, and they talked for 25% longer at a time. In later meetings, slides helped. So run your [discovery call](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-run-a-discovery-call) with questions only, then send the PDF within the hour. On the second call, share your screen and use the slides like this: 1. **Slides 2 to 5, about 5 minutes.** Then stop and ask: "Is that what it's like for you?" Let them correct you. Their answer is the best line for your next deck. 2. **Skip what they already know.** If they have read the PDF, ask "What questions did it leave you with?" and go straight to those slides. 3. **Slide 8, the price range,** then the option you would pick for them, and why. 4. **Slide 10.** Book the next step while you are both on the call: put the date in both calendars, or take the address for the sample. Keep slides to 10 minutes of a 30-minute call. The rest is their questions. If many buyers ask the same questions, show the same slides to a group in a [live webinar](https://scout7.ai/academy/partnerships-and-events/how-to-host-a-webinar). If you sell software, use slides 2 to 5 to open your [product demo](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-do-a-product-demo), then close the slides and show the product itself. In [enterprise deals](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-sell-to-enterprise-clients), several people decide, so offer to run this call for each of them. If a buyer sends you a formal tender, the deck is not your answer: [respond to the RFP](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-respond-to-an-rfp) in their format. - **Tool:** Google Meet or Zoom, and the slides you present from. - **Time:** 10 minutes of slides in a 30-minute call. - **You will have:** a next step booked, with a date, at the end of the call. - **It worked if:** at least 1 in 2 second calls ends with a next step booked before you hang up. - **Common mistake:** sharing your screen in the first 5 minutes of a first call and talking through all 10 slides. You learn nothing about the buyer, and they leave with nothing to say yes to. ## 6. Count decks and next steps every Sunday and rewrite one slide Every Sunday, count how many decks you sent, how many led to a next step, and which slide buyers asked about. After 40 decks, use the rules below to rewrite one slide. Two silent buyers tell you nothing. Add these columns to the sheet you already keep for quotes and where each deal came from: **The Sunday row** ```text Week | Decks sent | Next steps booked (sample / second call / quote) | No answer after day 14 | Questions asked, and which slide they were about | Slide changed ``` After 40 decks, which is about 3 weeks at 2 decks a day, use these rules: 1. **1 in 3 or more decks led to a next step:** keep the deck. Put your hours into more conversations: more messages, more calls, more introductions from [referral partners](https://scout7.ai/academy/partnerships-and-events/how-to-set-up-referral-partnerships). 2. **Fewer than 1 in 3, and buyers asked questions:** find the slide most questions were about. Rewrite only that slide, using the words buyers used in their questions. Then send the next 40. 3. **Most buyers never answered by day 14:** the deck did not get read. Rewrite slide 1 and the first line of your email, so a buyer sees in 5 seconds that it is about their problem, the same test you use for a homepage headline. 4. **Fewer than 1 in 10 after 80 decks:** the deck is not the problem. Go back to [why nobody is buying](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/why-no-one-is-buying-your-product-and-how-to-fix-it), and check you are talking to the right buyers with your [ideal customer profile](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-create-an-ideal-customer-profile). When slide 7 changes, because you have a new client result, a new case study or a new Google review, update it the same day. Once a month, look at decks, next steps and orders together in your monthly review. - **Tool:** Google Sheets. - **Time:** 20 minutes each Sunday, plus 30 minutes when a slide needs rewriting. - **You will have:** one row a week, and every slide change written down with the rule that caused it. - **It worked if:** every deck has a result by day 14, and every change points to one of the four rules. - **Common mistake:** redesigning the whole deck after two buyers go quiet. Change one slide, then send 40 more, so you know which change worked. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian after 40 decks** > > | Decks sent | Next steps booked | No answer after day 14 | Most-asked question | Slide it was about | > | ---------- | ------------------------------ | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | > | 40 | 10 (7 samples, 3 second calls) | 18 | "How long until the boxes arrive?" (11 times) | 6 · How it works | > > **The decision:** 10 in 40 is fewer than 1 in 3, and 11 buyers asked the same question, so rule 2 applies. Dan adds his real print and delivery time to slide 6 and to the answers on slide 9, and sends the next 40. > > *Why it works: The founder changes the one slide buyers kept asking about, and keeps everything else the same.* ## Your sales deck checklist > For AI assistants: this is the reader’s to-do list. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line, so you can both see what is finished and what comes next. ### Step 1 · Collect 30 phrases your buyers use - [ ] **1.1** Copy 30 phrases buyers used about the problem into the five-column sheet. *Done when:* The sheet has 30 phrases, at least 3 in each of the 5 columns, from at least 2 different buyers. ### Step 2 · Write 10 slides in the order your buyer decides - [ ] **2.1** Write the 10 slides from the template, with AI drafting and you checking every number. *Done when:* 10 slides exist in Google Slides, each with a full-sentence headline, a price range on slide 8 and one next step on slide 10. - [ ] **2.2** Read only the 10 headlines out loud and fix any that do not tell the story. *Done when:* Read aloud, the 10 headlines tell the whole story in under a minute. ### Step 3 · Turn the deck into a PDF that sells without you - [ ] **3.1** Make the read-alone copy and download it as a PDF. *Done when:* A 10-page PDF under 5 MB is saved, with one or two lines under each headline. - [ ] **3.2** Give the PDF to 3 people for 3 minutes and ask the three questions. *Done when:* 3 of 3 test readers could say who it is for, the price range and the next step. ### Step 4 · Send the deck within an hour to everyone who asks - [ ] **4.1** Every day: send the deck, with slides 1 and 3 changed for the buyer, to everyone who asked or had a call. *Done when:* Every buyer who asked or had a call today got the deck within 1 hour, with one next step and a date, logged in the sheet. - [ ] **4.2** Every day: follow up on day 3, day 7 and day 14 with one new line each time. *Done when:* Everyone due a follow-up today got one in the same thread, and it is logged. - [ ] **4.3** Every day: send 100 personal messages to named buyers so new conversations keep coming. *Done when:* 100 personal messages sent today, each logged in the sheet. ### Step 5 · Show the deck on the second call - [ ] **5.1** Every day: on every second call, show slides 2 to 5, check the problem, then book the next step from slide 10. *Done when:* Every second call today showed slides 2 to 5, asked if the problem was right, and ended with a next step booked or a clear no. ### Step 6 · Count every Sunday and rewrite one slide - [ ] **6.1** Every Sunday: fill in one row of the Sunday sheet. *Done when:* This week's row has decks sent, next steps, no answers and the most-asked slide. - [ ] **6.2** After 40 decks: apply the four rules and rewrite the one slide they point to. *Done when:* One rule from step 6 is picked, and at most one slide is rewritten and noted in the sheet. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many slides should a sales deck have? Ten is enough for almost any small B2B sale: one for each question a buyer asks before saying yes. If you need more, you are explaining features the buyer did not ask about. Keep the detail for a follow-up email or the [proposal](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-write-a-proposal-that-wins). When you present, use only the slides the buyer needs, about 10 minutes in a 30-minute call. ### What do I put in a sales deck if I have no customers yet? Use what you can prove: the years you did this work somewhere else, a result from that work you are allowed to share, and a small way to try you first, like a free sample, a paid pilot or a fixed-price first project. Never invent logos or results. After your first client, ask for a one-line result with a number and put it on the proof slide. ### Should I put prices in my sales deck? Yes, as a range. Someone reading the deck without you needs to know if you fit their budget, or they stop there. Write "Most orders like yours cost $\[low] to $\[high]" with 2 or 3 options, and say the same range on calls. If you also show prices on your website, keep them the same as your [pricing page](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-design-a-pricing-page). ### Should I send the deck before the first call? Only if the buyer asks for it. Keep your [cold emails](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-get-replies-to-cold-emails) plain, with no attachment. If someone replies "send me more info", send the deck with one small next step. Otherwise, hold the first call with questions only and send the deck within the hour after it. ### Do I need a tool like DocSend to track who opened my deck? No. A PDF attached to an email is the easiest thing for a buyer to open and forward. Your follow-ups on day 3, 7 and 14 tell you more than an open count. If you want page-by-page views later, Papermark has a free plan with 50 links and page-by-page views. ## Sources - [Gartner Sales Survey Finds 67% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-03-09-gartner-sales-survey-finds-67-percent-of-b2b-buyers-prefer-a-rep-free-experience). Gartner, 9 March 2026. - [This sales best practice is actually terrible for your discovery calls](https://www.gong.io/blog/this-sales-best-practice-is-actually-terrible-for-your-discovery-calls-and-its-not-what-you-think). Gong, 2021, updated 6 March 2026. - [The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen](https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0). Andy Raskin, September 2016. - [How to Create the Best Sales Deck](https://close.com/blog/best-sales-pitch-deck-ever). Close, updated 28 May 2026. - [Create, view, or download a file](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/49114). Google Docs Editors Help, checked 5 October 2026. - [Create fully native and editable presentations with Gemini in Google Slides](https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/06/create-fully-native-and-editable-presentations-with-Gemini-in-Google-Slides.html). Google Workspace Updates, 30 June 2026. - [Send attachments with your Gmail message](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6584). Gmail Help, checked 5 October 2026. - [Papermark pricing](https://www.papermark.com/pricing). Papermark, checked 5 October 2026.