Sales deck

Build a 10-slide sales deck for a prospect meeting: insight-driven slide titles, speaker notes per slide, sourced claims, exportable to PPTX, Google Slides, or Google Docs. Markdown outline first, then format on user approval.

Doctrine inherited (Step 7 — 0626 rollout)

Output complies with:

• output-tenets.md — the seven tenets
• output-simplicity.md — length caps, three-layer source placement, robot-tells ban
• design-production.md — DESIGN.md contract for the rendered deck
• Step 6 calibration: see [[feedback_execution_doctrine_refinements_step6]]

Refinements applied to this skill:

Code	Refinement	How it lands in sales-deck
R1	Source placement (three layers)	The rendered deck is client-team-facing (prospect meeting). Cleaned [VERIFIED: source, MMM YYYY] tags live in speaker notes (rep references them on the call) and in an appendix slide if the deal requires sources. No inline source tags on the customer-facing slides themselves.
R2	Single-doc-with-toggles	Multi-deck variants for a single deal (cold pitch / discovery / pricing-conversation) ship as one Notion doc with one toggle per variant — not three separate PPTX exports until the variant is locked.
R3	Product-update tone	Slide titles + speaker notes frame as "we ship X" not "we are thrilled to announce." Even hero capability slides.
R5	Blog as voice anchor	When the deck is paired with an anchor blog or whitepaper, the opening slide's headline mirrors the blog's opening line. Voice consistency across deck + blog reads as one story.
R6	CTA hierarchy	Closing slide names the next step appropriate to the deal stage. Trial / pilot for cold pitch; signed proposal for warm; PoC scope for enterprise. Never "thanks for your time" close.
R9	Action-oriented section names	Insight-driven slide titles (verb-led claim) beat status-titles ("Overview / Background / About us").

When to run

• User says "sales deck", "pitch deck", "sales presentation", "slide deck", or "deck for [prospect]"
• After /messaging completes — natural chain into a sales asset
• Sales asks for a customizable prospect deck before a demo or pitch
• Skip when the ask is competitor research (/competitor-research), a battlecard (/battlecards), a demo script (/demo-script), or marketing slides (different asset type)

Inputs

Required (at least one of each):

• Product context — capabilities, what it does (from /messaging, URL, or attachment)
• Target audience — persona or segment (from /icp-behavioural or user)

Recommended: /messaging (value props, proof), /icp-behavioural (pain, triggers), /competitor-research (differentiation), /positioning (anchors), /win-loss (FAQ + proof).

Optional: brand source — /brand-identity DESIGN.md tokens, brand doc, or inline color/font specs. Existing template — PPTX file, Google Slides URL, or markdown outline (overrides the default 10-slide structure).

If both required inputs are missing: ask for product/company and target audience. Offer to run /messaging or /icp-behavioural first. Full input checklist + auto-routing in the premium reference.

Steps

1. Gather context. Pull /messaging, /icp-behavioural, /competitor-research, /positioning outputs. Note brand source (DESIGN.md preferred). Note any user-provided template.
2. Confirm structure. Default = 10-slide structure (cover, social proof, problem, capabilities, differentiation, use cases/personas, how it works, pricing, CTA, FAQ — full specs in the premium reference). If user template differs, adapt: merge if fewer slides, split if more, preserve layout patterns.
3. Apply DESIGN.md tokens. Read projects/consulting/{client}/brand/{MMYY}-brand-kit.md. Quote exact token values in the spec (colors.primary (#…), typography.display-lg). One primary color per slide. Two font weights max. Body slides never compete with title-slide primary strength. Full contract: the premium reference and .claude/rules/design-production.md. If no DESIGN.md exists, recommend /brand-identity first — never invent tokens.
4. Generate slide outline. Slide titles + 3-4 key points each, with content-source mapping. Insight-driven titles only ("Cut reporting time by 60%", not "Our Product Features"). Present for user approval before full content.
5. Generate slide content. One idea per slide, 6×6 rule (max 6 bullets, 6 words each). Headline = takeaway. Visuals over text. No invented metrics, logos, pricing, or quotes — mark unverifiable claims [UNVERIFIED] and ban "industry-leading", "best-in-class", "innovative".
6. Write speaker notes per slide. Format: WHAT TO SAY (2-3 talking-point sentences) → KEY DATA (specific numbers/dates/sources) → TRANSITION (bridge to next slide) → OBJECTION PREP (likely questions + responses).
7. Source-validate. Every factual claim cites a source per .claude/rules/ontology.md ([VERIFIED: source] / [INFERRED: from X + Y] / [UNVERIFIED]). Customer quotes verbatim only.
8. Run pre-delivery checks. Pre-delivery + self-eval rubric in the premium reference. Flag any check that fails: would this survive a CFO in the room? Does the problem slide create urgency? Is differentiation specific?
9. Review gate (Level 2). Present markdown deck for user approval. Actions: approve / adjust slides / change structure.
10. Ask output format. Markdown (default), PPTX, Google Slides, Google Docs.
11. Export.
    • PPTX → invoke /pptx (local, brand-aware) with slide content + speaker notes; /pptx resolves the brand kit and applies it. Falls back to document-skills:pptx only if the local skill is unavailable.
    • Google Slides → cd.claude/mcp/gdrive && node create-slides.mjs "[deck.md]" "[Company]" --client {slug}
    • Google Docs → cd.claude/mcp/gdrive && node create-doc-unified.mjs "[deck.md]" "[Company]" --client {slug}
12. Suggest chains. If approved → /demo-script (deck narrative informs demo flow), /battlecards (per competitor), /product-launch (deck as launch asset), /outreach (deck value props inform email copy).

What good looks like

Examples:

Evaluations (the deck is good when):

• All 10 slides have insight-driven titles (passes "so what" test) and pass the 6×6 rule
• Every slide has speaker notes with WHAT TO SAY / KEY DATA / TRANSITION / OBJECTION PREP
• Every factual claim has [VERIFIED] / [INFERRED] / [UNVERIFIED] per ontology — no invented metrics, logos, or quotes
• Brand tokens applied: title slide uses primary color, body slides don't; two font weights max; WCAG AA on all text
• Prospect can self-identify by slide 6; clear CTA on slide 9; FAQ addresses top 5 objections from /win-loss
• Sales would present it without rewriting 80% of it

Final ship gate

Run /premortem --output before ship. See /premortem skill for the 5 execution domains (will-it-resonate / will-it-convert / will-it-stay-on-brand / will-stakeholder-push-back / will-it-degrade-over-time) and output template.

Then run /scope-guardian-reviewer — the client-deliverable ship gate: scope-creep check on proposals/SOWs (pm-loop.md).

Trivial-case escape: ## Premortem\nNo failure modes — trivial change satisfies the contract for genuinely trivial outputs.