If Sales Needs a Deck to Explain Your Company, You’re in Trouble

If your sales team needs a 14-slide deck just to explain what your company does, that’s not a sales challenge.

That’s an identity crisis with a logo.

A deck is supposed to support clarity, not manufacture it. The moment explanation becomes the product, something has gone very wrong upstream.

Explanation Is Not Value (No Matter How Pretty the Slides Are)

Most sales decks start the same way:

“Let me walk you through who we are.”

Which is a great way to watch a prospect mentally check their email.

No one shows up to a sales call hoping for a corporate autobiography. They show up asking a single, brutally simple question:

“Is this relevant to me, or can I get my life back in 30 minutes?”

A strong value proposition answers that question immediately. Often in one sentence. And usually without charts.

That’s why one of the cleanest tests is also one of the simplest:

“You know how [specific customer] struggles with [specific problem]?I help them solve it by [clear outcome].”

If that sentence turns into a paragraph, requires caveats, or starts with “Well, it depends,” the issue isn’t confidence.

It’s clarity.

When Sales Struggles, It’s Rarely a Training Problem

When deals stall, leadership’s instincts are predictable:

“Sales needs better training.” “They’re not telling the story right.” “Let’s fix the deck.”

But when every rep explains the company differently, that’s not a training gap.

That’s marketing refusing to pick a lane.

So instead of one sharp message, sales gets:

• Multiple ICPs

• Several half-prioritized use cases

• A feature buffet

• And a deck that tries to please everyone

Now sales is forced to freestyle relevance on every call.

That’s not selling. That’s improv comedy without a script.

Clarity Lets Sales Skip the Warm-Up Act

The best sales conversations don’t begin with explanation.

They begin with recognition.

The prospect hears the first line and thinks, “Wait… that’s me.”

That’s what the “You know how…” framework does so well. It skips the setup and goes straight to the part people care about.

No origin story. No feature tour. No 14-slide emotional buildup.

Just problem, context, and outcome.

Slides Are a Symptom, Not the Cure

Most decks exist because the company itself hasn’t fully decided what it wants to be.

So the deck becomes a greatest hits album:

• Vision

• Education

• Differentiation

• Objection handling

• Defensive justification

All jammed into one scroll-inducing masterpiece.

That’s a lot to ask from PowerPoint.

A good deck should amplify a clear value proposition, not act as life support for one that never existed.

If sales needs slides just to explain what you do, the problem isn’t design.

It’s positioning.

The Uncomfortable Truth Marketing Avoids

Clear value propositions come from uncomfortable decisions.

You have to say: “This is not for everyone.” “This problem matters more than the rest.” “This customer gets it instantly. Others won’t.”

That discomfort is exactly why teams dodge the “You know how…” sentence. Specificity forces accountability.

But ambiguity is far riskier.

Because when marketing doesn’t choose, sales has to. And sales should not be explaining who you are while also asking for money.

The Test That Never Lies

Here’s the real test:

Ask a sales rep to explain what you do without slides, frameworks, or throat-clearing.

If they can’t confidently say:

“You know how [customer] deals with [problem]?We help them solve it by [outcome].”

You don’t need a new deck.

You need a decision.

Because when value is clear, explanation becomes optional. And sales can finally stop presenting…

…and start selling.