You’re building out a pitch deck for a potential client. You want them to understand that you’ve done this before and you’ll actually be able to help them. Queue the logo soup slide.
What is a Logo Soup slide?
Before we dive too deep into this top, let’s first define what a “logo soup slide” actually is. Mark Twain famously once said, “Show, don’t tell.” So here it is:
I’m sure you’ve seen a slide just like this in countless sales pitches. In fact, there’s a good chance in your own pitch deck there’s a slide just like this. As a presentation design agency, we see slides like these come through most of the pitch decks that we work on, and it makes sense- people are proud of the companies that they’ve been able to help! But we must ask ourselves, “why is this actually here? What purpose is it serving?”
Why do Logo Soup slides exist?
Logo soup slides are there for one main reason: they act as a form of social proof. It says, “look at all these big customers we’ve helped in the past, certainly, we can help you too!
And from a seller’s perspective, it makes a lot of sense. You and your team have worked hard to win over these big clients. Your team has built a product that helps solve real problems, and you’ve got key clients across different industries that help showcase that you solve problems that they run into.
The problem with Logo Soup slides
If we really dig into Logo Soup slides we see one thing, it all points back to the seller. It says “Look at us! Look at what we’ve done!” Really, it’s all a bit self-serving. When you’re in the middle of a pitch to a potential client, you want to be talking about them, not you.
Discovery calls and pitch calls are all about speaking to your audience. Speak to their pain. Speak to their experience. When your whole pitch is focused on them, adding in a Logo Soup slide is a shock in the narrative flow, but that’s not even the worst part.
The real problem with slides like this is that what the seller is saying and what the buyer is hearing are two totally different things.
The seller thinks they’re communicating the fact that they can help the potential client.
The buy sees that list of massive global organizations and thinks, “how can they help me? I’m nothing like this big companies! Will I even matter?”
Because of all this – these logo soup slides don’t work. Gong actually analyzed all the data on “social proof selling” and when it’s used in sales calls, there’s a 22% lower close rate. You can read their report here.
What do I use instead?
If Logo Soup slides/social proof selling doesn’t work, what does?!
Transformation.
When you’re talking to a potential customer, the most important picture that you can paint for them is the transformation from where they are right now to where they can be. The best way to do that? It’s story. Stories help give your audience a great context for what you’re telling them. A story helps them connect their pain to some of your other client’s pain. And when you start to talk about ROI, story is the thing that helps ground your client and lets them believe you, vs. automatically assuming your inflating your numbers.
So if you’re ready to start closing more deals – ditch the Logo Soup slides and start selling the transformation instead. If you’re not even sure where to begin with building out your company’s story, we’re here to help, give us a call.
