The Greatest Sales Deck Ever?

Andy Raskin helps companies develop strategic narratives. He’s worked with dozens of teams backed by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, GV, and other top venture firms.

He’s also a big fan of the Zuora sales deck — on a recent Medium post he calls it the best he’s ever seen.

You can download the deck in question here. I also encourage you to read Andy’s entire Medium piece, where he points out six key elements of a compelling corporate narrative:

  1. Name a big, relevant change in the world. Don’t begin a presentation by talking about yourself — instead, describe an undeniable shift that raises the stakes and creates a sense of urgency.
  1. Show that there will be winners and losers. This helps in combating “loss aversion,” or the tendency to stick to the status quo in an effort to avoid loss, when in fact the cost of inaction is far greater.
  1. Tease the Promised Land. Avoid diving into product details, but describe an ideal future state as enabled by your solution. This helps in creating context for the next part, which is to:
  1.  Introduce features as “magic gifts” for overcoming obstacles to the Promised Land. Product features are only interesting in context, and they only matter if they’re a means to an end.
  1. Present evidence that makes the story come true. Prospects are naturally skeptical. Here’s your chance to show concrete, quantitative results from a relevant case study.  
  1. Lastly, as Andy notes, corporate narratives only work when the entire team supports the effort (have we mentioned something called the Subscription Economy?)

Again, to see how Andy’s rules apply to our own corporate messaging, please download our sales deck here.

We are grateful for his insights. Thanks, Andy!

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