What is an Inside Sales Presentation [How to Create One]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- 17 hours ago
- 7 min read
When our client Brandon asked us,
“What exactly makes an inside sales presentation work better than a regular sales pitch?”
Our Creative Director responded instantly,
“It’s the ability to sell without stepping outside the room yet making it feel like you’re right there with the buyer.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many inside sales presentations throughout the year. And in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: most teams struggle to balance clarity with persuasion when they can’t rely on face-to-face cues.
So, in this blog, we’ll talk about what is an inside sales presentation & how to create one that doesn’t just share information but moves the buyer toward a confident yes.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
What is an Inside Sales Presentation
Let’s get the definition out of the way.
"An inside sales presentation is a structured way of selling remotely. Unlike traditional field sales where you’re physically meeting someone, inside sales happens through calls, video meetings, or digital touchpoints. The presentation becomes your stage, your handshake, and your demo all rolled into one."
Why You Need a Different Strategy for an Inside Sales Presentations
Selling remotely is not the same as walking into a room, shaking hands, and building rapport over coffee. The medium changes everything.
Buyers sitting behind screens behave differently, and your presentation has to adapt to that reality. If you approach an inside sales presentation the same way you would an in-person pitch, you’ll lose the room before you’ve even made your key point.
Here’s why the strategy has to shift:
Attention spans collapse online
In a face-to-face meeting, you can read the buyer’s body language and pull them back when you sense they’re drifting. Online, distractions are a click away. Your slides need to work harder to keep people engaged every second.
You lose physical presence
In the room, your voice, posture, and energy fill the space. On a video call, you’re just another thumbnail. That means your visuals and storytelling have to carry more weight, because they’re doing the job your presence usually does.
Trust is harder to build
Without direct human interaction, trust doesn’t come as easily. Your presentation has to prove credibility through clarity, structure, and design that makes buyers feel they’re in capable hands.
The takeaway here is simple. An inside sales presentation isn’t just a digital copy of your field deck. It’s a tool built for a specific selling environment, and it needs a strategy that recognizes those differences.
How to Create an Inside Sales Presentation
Creating an inside sales presentation is not about opening PowerPoint, pasting in your product features, and hitting “share screen.”
That’s what most teams do, and that’s why most buyers mentally check out halfway through. A great inside sales presentation is built with intent. Every slide is there to push the conversation forward, not just fill space.
We’ve worked on enough decks to see the difference between ones that close deals and ones that fizzle out. The winning ones follow a process. Let’s walk through it step by step.
Step 1: Know who you’re talking to
It sounds obvious, but this is where most teams mess up. They treat every presentation like it’s going to the same audience. In reality, the VP of Sales and the Head of Procurement care about completely different things.
Inside sales is already at a disadvantage because you’re not in the room reading reactions. Which means you have to know your audience in advance. Do the homework:
What’s their role?
What do they get measured on?
What challenges keep them from hitting their goals?
This isn’t just background information. It dictates what goes into your deck. A technical buyer needs to see the mechanics. A financial buyer needs to see cost savings. A strategic buyer needs to see big picture impact.
If you skip this, your deck will sound generic, and generic doesn’t sell.
Step 2: Define the core message
Every great inside sales presentation can be summed up in one sentence. That sentence is your north star. If someone logs off the call and remembers only one thing, what do you want that to be?
Too many decks drown in details. You need to strip it down to a single core message. Something like:
“We help you cut onboarding time in half.”
“We reduce your marketing costs by 30% without cutting performance.”
“We streamline compliance so you can focus on growth.”
Once you lock this in, everything in your deck either supports that message or gets cut. If it doesn’t push the point forward, it doesn’t belong.
Step 3: Structure the narrative
Think of your presentation like a movie. There’s a beginning, middle, and end. If you jump straight into features, you lose people. You need to take them on a journey. Here’s a simple structure we use:
The Problem – Start with what’s broken in their world. Make it real. Make it urgent. This is where you create context and empathy.
The Impact – Show what happens if the problem stays unsolved. This raises the stakes and makes the conversation matter.
The Solution – Introduce your product or service as the way to fix the problem.
The Proof – Back it up with case studies, data, or testimonials. This builds trust.
The Next Step – End with a clear call to action. Not vague, not optional. Tell them what to do next.
This structure works because it mirrors the buyer’s thought process. First, they have to feel the pain. Then they need to believe there’s risk in not solving it. Only then are they open to hearing your solution.
Step 4: Design for clarity, not decoration
Let’s be blunt. Most sales decks look like they’ve been built by someone who just discovered gradients and stock photos. Flashy design doesn’t sell. Clear design does.
Inside sales is already competing with a dozen tabs on the buyer’s screen. If your slides are messy, you’re making it harder for yourself. A few rules we live by:
One idea per slide. If you’re cramming five points on a screen, nobody will remember any of them.
Visuals over text. Use charts, diagrams, and icons to simplify complex points. Nobody wants to read paragraphs while you’re talking.
Hierarchy matters. Make the most important number or phrase the largest thing on the slide. Guide the eye where you want it to go.
Consistency counts. Fonts, colors, and layouts should be uniform. If your deck looks scattered, you’ll look scattered.
Good design doesn’t just look nice. It makes your story digestible. And in remote sales, digestible wins.
Step 5: Anticipate objections
You won’t be there to catch the raised eyebrow or the skeptical look. That means your deck has to handle resistance without you even noticing it’s happening.
The way you do that is by baking answers into your slides. For example:
If cost is a common objection, show ROI data upfront.
If integration is a sticking point, map out how your solution fits into existing systems.
If timing is an issue, highlight your onboarding speed.
When you proactively address objections, you reduce friction. Buyers feel understood, and that’s half the battle.
Step 6: Use proof strategically
Anybody can say, “We’re the best in the market.” Buyers don’t believe it until they see evidence. That’s where proof comes in.
Case studies, testimonials, numbers, awards – they all work. But don’t dump them all in one appendix slide. Thread them into the story. For example:
After presenting the problem, show how you solved it for a similar client.
After introducing your product, share a testimonial that validates it.
When asking for next steps, flash results that show it’s worth it.
Proof isn’t filler. It’s what makes your claims credible. Without it, your presentation is just talk.
Step 7: Build in interaction
Inside sales presentations can feel one-sided if you just monologue for 30 minutes. That’s the fastest way to lose people. You need to pull buyers into the conversation.
Some simple ways:
Start with a quick question about their current process.
Drop in polls if you’re using a platform that allows it.
Pause after key slides and ask, “Does this resonate with what you’re seeing?”
Use comparison charts and let them comment on where they see themselves.
Interaction breaks the passive viewing mode and keeps them engaged. It also gives you valuable clues about what matters most to them.
Step 8: End with clarity
The biggest mistake we see is sales teams ending presentations with “Any questions?” That’s not an ending. That’s an invitation for silence.
Your closing slide should make the next step painfully clear. Whether it’s booking a follow-up demo, starting a trial, or signing an agreement, spell it out. Say it out loud. Put it in writing on the slide.
Buyers are busy. If you don’t direct them, they’ll default to doing nothing.
Step 9: Rehearse like it matters
An inside sales presentation lives and dies on delivery. You can have the best slides in the world, but if you stumble through them, it won’t land. Rehearsal is not optional.
Practice the timing. Make sure you’re not rushing or dragging. Learn the flow so well that you don’t have to read off the slides. Test the technology so screen sharing doesn’t glitch.
The best presenters make it look effortless. The truth is, they’ve rehearsed enough that it becomes second nature.
Step 10: Keep improving
No deck is ever final. Every time you deliver an inside sales presentation, you’re gathering intel. Which slides spark interest? Which ones lose attention? Which questions keep coming up?
Use that feedback. Trim slides that don’t add value. Add clarity where people get stuck. Evolve the deck until it becomes a finely tuned sales machine.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.