Essential Strategies for Founders: Creating a Sales Deck and Navigating Early Customer Conversations

In a recent webinar, Forum's Partner, Bocar Dia and Doug Landis, CEO at DL Advisory, and former Growth Partner at Emergence Capital provided guidance and tips to early-stage B2B SaaS founders on their sales deck effectiveness, and shared tips to the audiences for getting your first design partners and paying customers.

The goal: to help founders land more customers and build a strong pipeline

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For early-stage founders, effectively communicating your product’s value and understanding your customer's needs are key to building momentum. Whether you're creating a sales deck or having customer conversations, these moments are make-or-break. Getting it right can set the foundation for long-term success, while missteps can slow your progress. Below are strategies and actionable tips for creating a winning sales deck and excelling in conversations with early customers.

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1. Speak the Customer’s Language

Founders should prioritize deep customer research before stepping into sales or demo conversations. One common mistake is building a deck or pitch based on internal assumptions or the vision presented to investors. Instead, focus on understanding how your potential customers describe their pain points, challenges, and needs.

Great sales decks and customer conversations are customer-centric, not product-centric. This means avoiding industry jargon or overly technical language that may not resonate. Listen to how customers speak about their problems and echo their language back to them in your deck. This not only ensures they understand your solution but also helps establish a stronger emotional connection.

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2. Start with the Problem, Not the Product

A compelling sales deck doesn’t start by describing your product’s features—it starts by focusing on the problem your customers face. Begin by framing the situation in a way that makes your customer feel understood. This positions your product as the natural solution to their pain point.

Many successful founders adopt a problem-solution narrative, which walks the customer through their current challenges and leads them to your product as the ideal solution. This storytelling approach grabs attention and builds curiosity about how your offering can make a tangible difference.

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3. Keep the Deck Simple and Focused

Clarity is your best friend when pitching to early customers. Avoid cluttered slides filled with text, and instead aim for a clean, focused presentation that guides the customer through your story. The goal of the sales deck is to create interest and demonstrate understanding—not to give a comprehensive breakdown of every feature.

Make each slide purposeful and concise, focusing on the customer’s outcomes. Use simple visuals, short bullet points, and only the most relevant data to support your claims. This approach ensures that your audience isn’t distracted by unnecessary details, allowing them to focus on how your product can solve their most pressing problems.

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4. Prepare for Objections and Questions

Early-stage customer conversations often come with skepticism and hard questions. Founders should anticipate potential objections and be prepared to address them head-on. Objections aren’t a negative sign—they’re opportunities to engage the customer in a deeper dialogue and showcase your product’s strengths.

When an objection arises, it's important to respond with curiosity. Seek to understand the underlying concerns and engage in a solution-oriented conversation. This might involve walking through how your product can be customized to meet their specific needs, or even showing the future roadmap for how you plan to address certain challenges.

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5. Frame the Conversation Around Customer Success

One of the most effective ways to build trust in early customer conversations is to frame the entire discussion around their success. Rather than focusing solely on your product’s features, guide the conversation to how your solution will directly impact the customer’s growth, efficiency, or overall success.

This approach shifts the dialogue from transactional to relational. Customers want to feel that you're invested in their long-term success, not just closing a sale. Show how your product is designed to evolve with their needs and how it contributes to measurable outcomes—whether that’s saving time, reducing costs, or enhancing their customer experience.

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6. Be Authentic and Transparent

Authenticity goes a long way in building trust, especially in early-stage sales conversations. Customers are more likely to engage with a founder who is upfront about their product’s strengths, as well as its limitations. Avoid overpromising or presenting an overly polished narrative that feels rehearsed.

Instead, focus on being honest about where your product currently stands and where it's headed. Early customers often appreciate the transparency, as they know your company is still in its growth phase. Offering a clear view of your product’s capabilities, along with your roadmap for future improvements, helps build credibility and trust.

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7. Always Be Listening

Customer conversations are a two-way street. While it’s important to communicate your value proposition clearly, it’s equally important to listen attentively to the customer’s feedback, concerns, and questions. These early discussions are not just sales opportunities; they are valuable sources of insight that can inform your product development and strategy.

Take note of recurring themes or challenges that customers mention. These insights can help refine your sales pitch, adjust your messaging, or even guide product iterations. In fact, early customer feedback often leads to discovering new use cases for your product that you hadn’t initially considered.

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8. Follow Up with Actionable Next Steps

Ending a customer conversation on a strong note is just as important as starting one. Summarize key takeaways from the discussion and provide clear, actionable next steps. Whether it’s sending additional information, setting up a product demo, or following up on specific concerns, ensure the customer knows exactly what to expect.

This demonstrates professionalism and keeps the conversation moving forward. A well-structured follow-up not only shows your commitment to the relationship but also keeps the momentum going, increasing the likelihood of closing the sale.

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Conclusion

Founders who excel at customer conversations understand that it’s not just about selling a product—it’s about building a relationship and fostering trust. A strong sales deck is just one piece of the puzzle; the real magic happens when you deeply engage with your customer, listen to their needs, and focus on their success. By adopting a customer-first approach, simplifying your message, and embracing transparency, you'll be well on your way to creating lasting connections with early customers.

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Initial Conversation Framework

When having early conversations with sales prospects, it is important that you keep a consistent framework that communicates the value of your solution while leaving room for conversation.

• Opening Slide: Provoke - Share something that will get them thinking or something that could draw a connection between them and you!  Avoid starting with your company logo or accolades.
• Slide 2: Credibility - You need to demonstrate that your prospect is not alone and that some of the issues they struggle with others just like them have struggled with as well.
• Slide 3: UFP (Unidentified Flying Problems) - Identify problems they are not aware of. Give their problems context & depth. Help them understand there are problems that can hurt them!
• Slide 4: Stats - Provide statistics (or a compelling stat) that highlight the intensity of the problems that you introduced on slide 3.
• Slide 5: Story - Share a story that draws an emotional connection to the problem. Use a real customer example that paints a picture of the problem.
• Slide 6: A New Way - Explain that there is another way to think about or approach solving their problems... get them thinking differently.
• Slide 7: YOU - This is where we introduce our solution (and we connect it to the problems we introduced on slide 3!)

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Talk to Your Customers First: Focus on customer insights rather than input from your board or employees. This ensures you address real customer needs and language.

Earn the Right to Talk About Your Product: Don't start with your product or company. Build credibility, demonstrate empathy, and make a connection with the customer first.

Frame the Problem: Clearly articulate the problem your potential customers face. Use customer quotes or statistics to highlight the severity of the problem.

Avoid the "Kanye Effect": Don't make your presentation all about your company. Ensure your deck is customer-centric, focusing on their needs and challenges.

Simplify Your Slides: Each slide should make a single point. Avoid overcrowding slides with too much information.

Build a Narrative: Structure your deck as a series of conversations. Each slide should flow logically to the next, building a coherent story.

Share What You've Learned from Other Conversations: Use logo slides not to brag but to share insights from your experience with similar customers. Highlight what you've learned from these interactions.

Quantify the Problem: Use data to illustrate the impact of the problem. This creates urgency and emphasizes the need for a solution. Statistics should be used to validate the identified pain points and to elevate the problem, rather than as a replacement for storytelling.

Introduce Real-Life Examples: Use stories to make the problem relatable. Show how it affects real people in similar roles to your prospects.

What If There Was a Way: Transition to how your product can solve the problem. Make this about envisioning a better scenario for the customer.

Don't Overemphasize Technology: When mentioning advanced technology like AI, focus on the outcomes it delivers rather than the technology itself.

Address AI Concerns Proactively: If your product involves AI, address common concerns upfront after establishing the problem and introducing your solution.

Guide the Conversation: Think of your deck as a guide for the conversation, prompting discussion and interaction rather than being a monologue. In early customer conversations, you don't even need a deck. Think of it as a conversation rather than a presentation. 

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By following these tips, you can create a compelling sales deck that resonates with early customers and effectively communicates the value of your solution.

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