Building a Winning Sales Deck

What a week! It does not feel like we just had one of the largest CPG outcomes of all time happen just three days ago, but here we are. I am excited to see how this exit fuels the next wave of food and beverage founders as well as create a ton of liquidity that can be deployed.

It feels like investors have been sitting and waiting for most of Q1 and hopefully this will create some urgency to deploy more capital.

Today we are going back to basics and diving into the fundamentals of your sales deck.

We are going to look into the core function of the deck, some common mistakes, and how to get to the point faster while weaving data into every slide.

But first, a quick word from Glimpse which is helping brands with the ever important issue of deduction management.

Did you know that on average 1-3% of consumer brand topline revenue is tied up in invalid deductions?

So how do you drop that 1-3% from your topline right to your bottom line? Well, historically it's been an absolute operational nightmare... an analyst or your CFO has to manually match up the right freight and promo docs to every single coded line-item deduction in every single distributor remittance PDF, reconcile in QBO, and then hunt and dispute the invalid chargebacks. Some TPMs have light deductions modules to help, but ultimately still puts a ton of work on your team, requiring more analyst headcount as you bring on new accounts.

It’s 2025 and AI is changing everything. Now, the fastest-growing CPG brands (like immi, Yolele, and Lil Bucks) are scaling faster by offloading deductions and disputes to Glimpse. A mix of proprietary AI and highly trained deductions experts handle everything, including fighting and winning your money back.

Connections to KeHE, UNFI, Target, and CVS are available now, with Walmart, Costco and more coming soon.

We’re also sponsoring one lucky brand $26k toward their 2026 Expo West booth… anyone who books time with us this month is automatically entered into the drawing. Enter here.

Let’s start with the core function of your sales deck.

Your sales deck is not meant to convert on its own.

You’re not sending 30+ slides to a buyer hoping that it will stand alone, wow them, and have them place and order that day. That is not the function of a well thought out sales deck. The sales deck should instead be looked at as another vehicle to get you to the next stage of the conversation with that buyer. A good deck is one that represents your brand well, articulates your position, and communicates clearly a level of excitement and understanding of what it would take to support that store.

Presentation decks and sales decks are going to be slightly different. Today we are talking exclusively about your universal sales deck which is meant to stand alone and not have you talking over it. It can be (and should be) customized for each account, especially the larger ones, but the same template can be used for each.

After the cover page, we want to jump into your story. This isn’t an investor deck, so you don’t need to frame a problem to begin, you want to humanize the brand and the relationship with that buyer quickly. The major issue is that most brands will take several slides to articulate this message.

Although your personal story and brand story might be highly impactful to you and your immediate circle, the buyer most likely hears hundreds of founder stories every year that although to you seems unique, most likely won’t to the buyer. So, be concise and make it personal, but also ensure it's helping build your story on why your brand is a gamechanger for the category.

You then want to go into the product page. Each SKU does not warrant a separate slide. The one slide should clearly represent your entire line, show your impact call outs, and the buyer should be able to move on with no confusion on the why behind the brand and what the product line is.

Now that we have built a foundation, you hit them with traction. I will usually see this buried in most decks as a “wait there's more” slide towards the end. We are weaving a story here, one where traction and support are the stars. I will often see traction slides that are just a smattering of logos. Again, you don’t need to include every retailer that you're in. Instead I would pick your top three where you have executed well and use images that show your product on shelf or how you have supported them.

Instead of 30 logos that will be hollow. I might have a picture from your last Whole Foods demo, a piece of clickable UGC you did for Fresh Thyme, and that promotional set you merchandised at your key independent account.

Putting a call out that you are in X+ amount of stores and then showing real examples of how you're executing in those stores is going to turn this slide into a reinforcing part of your deck that you're going to support them and you know how to execute with new partners.

They know what retailer logos look like, they don’t know what your brand looks like in those retailers. Don’t make this a throw away slide.

Now that you have teased your execution, we want to support the story with data by showing your velocity metrics per store, per week, per SKU and how it compares to the competition. This will lead nicely into your support slide which is coming next.

Support is the theme of this deck, not your personal brand story.

You want to have a clear support strategy on this slide that de-risks your brand to that buyer. It’s important to remember that you're not trying to get them to jump out of their seat and scream from the rooftop that they need this brand. You’re simply trying to get to the next step, keep the conversation going, and give the subtle cues that this brand will support their category.

A buyer is not only weighing giving you space, but taking away space from someone else. You need to show how you're going to support them and make the decision easier.

I would also represent the average units sold for each trade spend tactic you run to support each account.

Towards the end of most decks, you will see 1-2 slides that are just used as an overload of press clippings. I don’t think this moves the needle.

I also don’t think your social media presence moves the needle as much as you think. I would ditch the press releases, vanity articles, and social media heat map to try and find 2-3 retailer specific comments, emails, or requests where you can show that you have consumers that want to see the product on the shelf at that specific retailer.

You're going to wrap it up with a clear page that outlines your contact information and a link to your sell sheet where they can get more tactical product information.

You can also highlight a few key distributor logos on this last page to help them with where they can pull from. Most brands put distributors on the traction page. Distributors are not wins for your brand, the retailer is the win, the distributor is simply the method in which you support the retailer. Please remember this and it will serve you well.

Once you have executed these steps you should be ready to go and have a deck that can stand by itself as a true representation of your brand and how your brand intends to succeed with that retailer.