A presentation is a sales document that stands up alone after the meeting ends. The presenter's voice carries it in the room; the slides have to carry it in the inbox afterwards. Most small-business decks fail the second test, which is a shame because that's where deals are decided.
The architecture of a useful deck
- The point, in one sentence, on the cover slide. Not the company tagline. The specific point of this specific meeting.
- The problem you solve, in their language. Not your services. Their pain.
- The evidence you can solve it. Two or three short proof points — case study with numbers, named client, specific result.
- The how — only as much as needed. Avoid the temptation to dump every methodology slide you've ever made.
- The price — visible, not hidden. If you're embarrassed to show the price, you'll be embarrassed when they ask, which they will.
- The next step. One specific ask. "Reply by Friday and we can start in two weeks."
Slide rules that earn their keep
- One idea per slide. If your slide has two H1s, it's two slides.
- The slide title is the takeaway. "Our process" is a useless title; "Three weeks from kickoff to launch" is a useful one.
- If a slide is unreadable from the back of the room, the slide is wrong. The fix is fewer words, larger type — never smaller type to fit more.
- Photographs over icons. Real charts over decorative ones. Icons are the costume jewellery of slides.
- 10–15 slides for a 30-minute pitch. 25 for a 60-minute one. Beyond that, you're not presenting; you're hiding.
Software, briefly
- Keynote — best-looking decks come out of Keynote, in our editorial view. Mac-only. Excellent type and animation defaults.
- PowerPoint — universal. The lowest-common-denominator format for sending. If your audience opens decks on Windows, send PowerPoint.
- Google Slides — best for collaborative editing, weakest visual quality.
- Pitch, Beautiful.ai, Tome — newer tools. Useful for templated cadence-decks. Less control than Keynote/PowerPoint.
Pricing
What it costs in 2026 to have a deck professionally designed:
- Light template + fill-in: €300–€600. Suitable for a working sales deck you'll iterate on yourself.
- Bespoke 15-slide pitch deck: €1,200–€2,500. One-off investor or new-business pitch.
- Brand-system presentation template: €1,800–€3,500. Master deck plus 10–15 slide variants in your brand.