Strategies for the "Leave Behind" Presentation Deck [Practical Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Oct 14
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 15
Our client Brandon asked us an interesting question while we were designing his sales presentation:
"Why does my sales team hate using the decks we send them after the pitch?"
Our Creative Director answered simply:
"Because you're treating it like a slide deck instead of a sales tool."
As a presentation design agency, we work on hundreds of presentation decks throughout the year, and in the process, we've observed one common challenge that trips up most companies: they design their leave behind deck exactly like their pitch deck, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of what a leave behind deck actually does.
So, in this blog we'll talk about how to design a leave behind deck that actually gets read, remembered, and turns prospects into clients.
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.
When and Why You Need a Leave Behind Presentation Deck
Here's something most sales leaders won't tell you: the moment you walk out of that meeting room, your presentation is already half-forgotten. Your prospect is back to their email. Their phone is buzzing. They've got four other pitches to think about. You need something to keep your value proposition alive in their mind, and that's exactly why you need a leave behind deck.
But before we get into how to build one, let's talk about when you actually need it and why it matters so much.
The Time Gap Problem
The most critical reason you need a leave behind deck is simple: time. There's a massive gap between when you present and when your prospect actually makes a decision. During a pitch meeting, you've got their full attention (hopefully). You control the narrative. You can tell a story, answer objections in real time, and read the room. But then the meeting ends, and you're gone.
What happens next? Your prospect goes back to their desk. They have lunch. They answer emails. They talk to other people. Days pass. A week passes. Maybe two weeks pass. When they finally sit down to evaluate whether they want to work with you, they're doing it from memory. And human memory is notoriously terrible. You need your leave behind deck to bridge that gap. It's the artifact that keeps your message alive when you're not in the room to reinforce it.
The Decision-Making Process Reality
Here's another thing nobody talks about: you never know who's going to make the final decision. You pitched to the director, but the CFO needs to approve the budget. You pitched to the VP of marketing, but the CEO wants to see the business case. You pitched to three people in the room, but two more people who weren't there are now weighing in on the decision.
Your leave behind deck is the vehicle that carries your message to all these people who weren't in that room. It needs to work without you there to explain it. It needs to be self-contained enough that someone reading it for the first time, without your voice guiding them, can understand your value and get excited about it.
The Competitive Advantage Factor
Let's be real: in most competitive situations, you're not the only vendor being considered. You might be one of three, four, or five different companies pitching. Everyone in that room had solid presentations. Everyone had good slides. The thing that's going to separate you from the pack isn't your pitch anymore. It's what people remember about you afterward.
That's where your leave behind deck comes in. If your competitors are sending generic, boilerplate decks that look like every other deck, and you're sending something thoughtful, specific, and designed for the actual decision-making process, you win. Your prospect is more likely to move forward with you because you've made it easier for them to say yes.
We've seen this happen dozens of times. A client comes back and says, "They told me your leave behind deck is what moved the needle. They kept referencing it in their internal discussions." That's not a coincidence. That's the result of designing something specifically for that job.
The Trust and Professionalism Signal
Here's something psychological that matters more than people realize: a well-designed leave behind deck signals that you're serious. It signals that you respect your prospect's time enough to create something specific for them, not just email them a generic deck you've sent to everyone else. It signals that you understand what comes after the meeting. It signals professionalism and attention to detail.
When your prospect sees a leave behind deck that's thoughtful, branded correctly, and actually designed with their use case in mind, they think, "This company gets what they're doing." That's worth more than you think in the decision-making process. In service industries and high-ticket sales, trust is everything. Your leave behind deck is one more opportunity to build it.
10 Practical Strategies for Your "Leave Behind" Presentation Deck
Now that you understand why a leave behind deck matters, let's talk about how to actually build one.
Over the years, we've tested hundreds of different approaches, and we've found that certain strategies consistently outperform others. These aren't theoretical. They come from real pitches, real feedback from prospects, and real wins that we can directly attribute to how the leave behind deck was structured.
Strategy 1: Start with a Custom Title Slide That References the Meeting
Your first slide should not be generic. It should reference the actual meeting you just had. Include the prospect's company name. Include the date. Include the names of the people you met with. This is a small detail that makes an outsized impact.
Why? Because when your prospect's CFO pulls up the deck three days later, they see "Prepared for Acme Corp, October 14, 2025" and they immediately remember the context. They remember the conversation. They're not confused about which pitch deck this is. There's no mental friction. This single detail increases the likelihood that they'll actually open the full deck instead of filing it away in a folder they'll forget about.
We had a client who added this one change and saw their leave behind decks get shared internally more frequently. Not because the content changed, but because there was less friction in the decision-making process. People could reference it by name. They could say, "Let me pull up that Acme deck from last week."
Strategy 2: Create a One-Page Executive Summary Slide Early
Right after your title slide, add a single slide that summarizes your entire proposal in four or five bullets. This is not your standard overview slide. This is the slide that someone who has 90 seconds can read and get the entire picture.
Here's the reality: not everyone who reads your leave behind deck will read the whole thing. The decision-maker might skim. The CFO might jump straight to pricing. Your job is to make sure that even if they only read one slide, they get your core message. This executive summary slide is your insurance policy.
What should be on it? Your core problem statement, your primary solution, the main benefit or outcome they'll get, and ideally one or two supporting metrics. That's it. Four to five bullets. Clean. Simple. This is the slide that gets you referrals because it's the slide people actually remember and talk about.
Strategy 3: Use Specific Data and Remove Vague Claims
This is where most leave behind decks fail. They're filled with generic statements like "increase efficiency" or "improve productivity" or "drive growth." Nobody cares. Your prospect has heard these words from every other vendor they've pitched to. You need specificity.
Instead of "improve customer retention," say "increase customer retention by 23% based on clients using our platform." Instead of "save time," say "reduce onboarding time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks." Specific numbers stick. They're memorable. They're believable. And they survive the transfer of information from person to person.
When the director is talking to the CFO, they're not going to say, "They said they improve efficiency." They're going to say, "They've helped companies reduce their onboarding time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks. Here's the slide." Specificity travels. Vagueness doesn't.
Go through your leave behind deck and challenge every claim. If you can't back it up with a number or a specific example, either remove it or reframe it so it's concrete. This is the difference between a deck that gets filed away and a deck that gets discussed in internal meetings.
Strategy 4: Address Objections Head-On with Dedicated Slides
You know what objections are coming. You've heard them before. Your prospect is going to have the same three or four concerns that every prospect has. So, build a slide that addresses them directly.
Don't bury objection handling in random slides throughout the deck. Create a dedicated section called "Common Considerations" or "How We Address X, Y, and Z." List the objections as headers and provide brief, confident answers. This shows that you've thought about their concerns and that you're not afraid to address them.
Why does this work? Because when your prospect has that objection, they're not going to dig through slides looking for the answer. But if you've anticipated it and put it right there in front of them, suddenly your deck feels less like a sales document and more like a helpful resource. You're thinking about their problems, not just your solutions.
Strategy 5: Include a Case Study or Success Story That's Actually Relevant
Don't just throw in a random case study. Include one that's directly relevant to the prospect's situation. If they're a SaaS company and you've worked with SaaS companies, show that. If they're in healthcare and you've solved a specific healthcare problem, show that first.
The case study should follow a simple structure: their situation, what they tried before, your solution, and the specific results. Numbers matter. Timeline matters. But relevance matters most. When your prospect sees themselves in your case study, they start imagining what success could look like for them.
We've found that prospects spend more time on case study slides than almost any other type of slide in a leave behind deck. They're projecting themselves into the situation. They're thinking, "Could this work for us?" You want to make that projection as easy as possible by choosing a case study that mirrors their situation closely.
Strategy 6: Design for Printing and Digital Distribution
Here's a practical detail that gets overlooked: your leave behind deck needs to work in multiple formats. It might be printed. It might be emailed. It might be shared on Slack. It might be viewed on a phone. Your design needs to survive all of these scenarios.
This means your fonts need to be large enough to read on a phone. Your contrast needs to be high enough to read when printed in black and white. Your layout needs to work horizontally and vertically. Your colors should enhance the message but not be critical to understanding it.
We had a client who designed a beautiful leave behind deck with tiny text and low contrast. When it got printed, nobody could read it. Half the value of the deck evaporated. Don't make that mistake. Test your deck in multiple formats before you send it. Print a copy. View it on different devices. Make sure the message comes through no matter how it's consumed.
Strategy 7: Create a Clear Call to Action on Every Section Divider
Between different sections of your leave behind deck, you should have divider slides. These aren't wasted space. Each divider should include a simple call to action or next step that's relevant to that section.
For example, if you're moving from your problem statement into your solution section, the divider slide might say something like "Here's How We Solve This" with a subtle visual. If you're moving into your pricing section, it might say "The Investment Required to Get Results Like These." These dividers keep the narrative moving. They guide the reader. They prevent your deck from feeling like a collection of random slides.
Strategy 8: Include a Pricing or Investment Section That Doesn't Feel Like a Hard Sell
Here's what most companies do: they bury the pricing slide at the very end of their leave behind deck, almost like they're ashamed of it. Or they exclude pricing entirely and hope the prospect will call to ask about it. Both approaches are wrong.
Your pricing needs to be in your leave behind deck, and it needs to be framed as an investment section, not a hard sell. Show your pricing tier options. Show what's included at each level. Show the value exchange. Be transparent. The prospect already had this conversation with you in the pitch, so it shouldn't feel like new information.
When pricing is presented confidently and clearly in your leave behind deck, it reinforces that this is a legitimate business conversation. It shows you're not hiding anything. It gives your prospect something concrete to discuss internally. It makes the next conversation easier because everyone's already seen the numbers.
Strategy 9: Build in a Comparison Section If You're Competing Against Alternatives
This is an advanced move, but it works. If you know your prospect is considering other vendors or in-house solutions, include a subtle comparison slide. Don't make it about bashing your competitors. Make it about clarifying the differences in approach or capability.
For example, if your prospect is considering doing this project in-house with an internal team, you might show a side-by-side comparison of time investment, cost, and outcomes. If they're considering competitors, you might highlight what makes your approach or results different. The key is staying factual and respectful while making your value clear.
Strategy 10: End with a Contact Card or Next Steps Slide That's Personal
Your last slide should not be a generic "Thank You for Your Time" slide. It should be a personal next steps slide with your name, your title, your direct contact information, and ideally a specific suggestion for what happens next.
Something like: "I'd love to walk you through our implementation timeline. Let's schedule a brief call on Wednesday or Thursday this week." Not a generic "Let's talk soon." A specific, actionable next step. This removes friction from the decision-making process. You've made it easy for them to take the next step.
Include your email, your phone number, and ideally a link to your calendar. Make it stupid easy for your prospect to contact you. This last slide is often the one that gets pinned or bookmarked because it has the practical information people need to move forward.
Design Principles for Leave Behind Decks
First, keep your color palette simple.
Two or three colors maximum. Your primary brand color, a neutral, and maybe an accent color for emphasis. When your leave behind deck sits next to your competitor's deck on your prospect's desk, simplicity wins. It's easier to read. It feels more professional. It doesn't distract from the content. We've worked with companies that had seven colors in their brand guidelines, and we had to make them choose which ones actually mattered for the leave behind deck. The constraint made the design better.
Second, use whitespace aggressively.
Your instinct will be to fill every inch of every slide with content because you want to provide value. Resist that instinct. Whitespace makes content readable. It makes slides feel intentional rather than cluttered. When your prospect reads a slide with plenty of whitespace, they feel like you've done the work of distilling information down to what matters. That's a form of respect. That's good design.
Third, typography matters more than you think.
Choose one or two fonts and stick with them. Use hierarchy to guide the eye. Make your headlines large and bold. Make your body text readable. Test your font choices on the devices and formats where people will actually read your deck. Too many decks use decorative fonts that look cool on a screen but become illegible when printed or viewed on a phone.
Fourth, use visuals strategically.
You don't need an image on every slide. In fact, you probably need fewer images than you think. But when you do use an image, it should reinforce your message. It should be a real photo, not stock photography that screams "I'm a generic corporate deck." Your prospect can smell generic from a mile away. Use photos of your actual work, your actual team, your actual clients. If you're showing results, use screenshots or data visualizations. If you're telling a story, use images that actually connect to that story.
Fifth, maintain consistent spacing and alignment throughout.
This might sound technical, but it matters psychologically. When slides feel organized and aligned, your prospect's brain processes them as professional and trustworthy. When slides feel haphazardly put together, your prospect's brain processes them as unprofessional and untrustworthy. Spend time getting your spacing right. Use guides. Be consistent. This is boring work but it absolutely matters.
How to Measure If Your Leave Behind Deck Is Working
The most basic metric is engagement. Are prospects actually opening and reading your leave behind deck? Track this. If you're sending it digitally, use a platform that shows you when it's been opened and how long someone spent looking at it. If you're printing it, ask follow-up questions. "Did you get a chance to look at the deck we left?" Listen for how they respond. Are they referencing specific slides? Are they mentioning details from it in their follow-up conversations? That's a good sign. If they're not mentioning it at all, your deck isn't doing its job.
The real measurement, though, is conversion impact. When you win a deal, ask during your kickoff or in your onboarding process what influenced their decision. More specifically, ask about your leave behind deck. "Did that deck we sent play a role in your decision?" Keep track of this feedback. Over time, you'll start to see patterns. You'll notice that certain prospects mention the deck as a deciding factor while others don't. You'll see which clients compare your deck to competitors' decks. This qualitative feedback is worth more than any analytics can tell you because it's directly connected to revenue. If your leave behind deck is being referenced in decision conversations and influencing outcomes, it's working. If it's being ignored, you need to redesign it.
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.
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Just click on the "Start a Project" button on our website, calculate the price, make payment, and we'll take it from there.
We look forward to working with you!