I’ve been focused on learning to sell for the last 7-8 months, since as CEO I’m also salesperson #1. In that time, I’ve read a Medium article, The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen, at least 10 times. I didn’t get it. What did the collection of randomly chosen images and text about “Subscription Economy” mean? What does Zuora’s product actually do?

DorothyAI CEO, Curt Wadsworth, received a rousing response after pitching test audiences with his new Sales Deck.

My deck contains screen shots of Dorothy's user interface and bullets showing what Dorothy’s capabilities. It is content heavy with graphs, numbers in bold print, and a bunch of other stuff that I needed to explain. Pretty good for a nerd lawyer with a biochemistry degree selling software as a service, I thought….

Enter Scot MacTaggart, host of the Pitchwerks Podcast and friendly neighborhood sales guru. I enrolled in his sales bootcamp to hone my sales skills or develop them as the case may be. In one class, he deconstructed the Greatest Sales Deck, explaining why the deck’s author chose the images and how the text tells a coherent story even when the customer views the deck without you. It’s about how you feel after seeing the deck and less about the product.

I was skeptical and irritated since I still don’t know what Dollar Shave Club and Bob Dylan + IBM Watson have in common. Nonetheless, I set out to create a sales deck following the Greatest Sales Deck model. (I actually followed The (Second) Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen model, because every good story needs a villain.)

Using images to set the mood, my story (uhmm, slide deck) takes the reader on an epic journey from the foothills of success to the mountaintop of greatness. Dorothy stands by your side with each step, building bridges over steep ravines, uniting you with fellow travelers, and keeping forces of outsourced legal services at bay. The traveler reaches the summit wealthier, healthier, and with a better relationship with their clients.

I sold myself on this model... But, does it work? I used the deck to pitch the head of IP at a Japanese technology company. I did not ask him how it made him feel. Talking about feelings is not my thing. He was very interested in giving Dorothy a try though. I promised a trial period when the beta ends.

So far, so good.

See room for improvement? Leave your feedback in the comments.