The Disconnect
You run a $50 million operation. You've built something genuinely complex — global logistics, technical infrastructure, specialized teams. The operation is sophisticated, reliable, and differentiated.
Then someone on your team opens PowerPoint.
Thirty minutes later, there's a pitch deck. Default fonts. Bullet points. A clip art icon that was supposed to represent "innovation." The company logo stretched slightly because someone resized it without holding Shift. A stock photo of people shaking hands.
This deck will be presented to a prospect who is about to make a decision involving millions of dollars. And the first thing that prospect will evaluate isn't your capability, your track record, or your team. It's whether this deck looks like it came from a company worth $50 million.
Most of the time, it doesn't.
Why This Happens
Pitch materials occupy an awkward position in most organizations. They're too important to ignore and too "small" to invest in properly. The result is a patchwork:
Everyone builds their own. Sales reps create decks for specific opportunities. Department heads build presentations for board meetings. The marketing team has a template that nobody uses. Each presentation exists in isolation, reflecting the aesthetic sensibilities of whoever built it.
PowerPoint is the ceiling. The tool defines the output. When your pitch materials are built in PowerPoint by non-designers, they will look like PowerPoint built by non-designers. The medium caps the message.
"It's the content that matters." This is the most common justification for poor presentation materials. And it's half right — content does matter. But content delivered in a premium container is received differently than content delivered in a generic one. The medium shapes the perception of the message.
Nobody owns it. In most organizations, pitch materials aren't anyone's primary responsibility. Marketing builds the template. Sales modifies it. Nobody maintains it. Over time, the materials drift further from the brand until they barely resemble the company at all.
What Prospects Actually Infer
Decision-makers in complex B2B transactions are evaluating risk. Every signal matters — including signals you didn't intend to send.
A generic deck signals generic capabilities. If your materials look like every other vendor's materials, the prospect has no visual evidence that you're different. Your differentiation exists only in your words, and words are cheap.
Poor production quality signals poor attention to detail. A misaligned logo, inconsistent fonts, a pixelated image — these feel minor but they create a cumulative impression. The prospect wonders: if they don't sweat the details on their own materials, how careful will they be with my project?
Dated design signals dated thinking. A deck that looks like it was built in 2018 makes the prospect wonder what else hasn't been updated. Your technology? Your processes? Your team?
The deck represents your best effort. When a company is trying to win business, they put their best foot forward. If this is the best foot, what does normal look like?
The Fix
Closing the pitch materials gap doesn't mean making prettier slides. It means building a presentation system.
Web-based presentations. Modern pitch decks don't need to be PowerPoint files. Web-based presentations load instantly, work on any device, incorporate motion and interaction, and can be updated centrally without version control nightmares. They also communicate something PowerPoint never can: technical sophistication.
Dual-format delivery. Some stakeholders want to click through an experience. Others want a PDF they can print and annotate. Build both from the same source — a web presentation that exports to a polished PDF. This isn't twice the work; it's a single system with two outputs.
Template systems, not templates. A single PowerPoint template that nobody uses is not a system. A presentation system includes: a component library of pre-designed slides for common content types, brand-enforced typography and color, and guidelines for when to use which format.
Professional production for high-stakes moments. For pitches above a certain deal size, invest in custom-produced materials. The cost of a professionally designed pitch deck is trivial relative to the contract value it supports. If you're pitching a $5 million engagement with materials you built in an afternoon, the math doesn't work.
The Question
Pull up the last pitch deck your team sent to a prospect. Look at it as if you've never seen your company before. Does it look like a $50 million operation? Does it look like a company that sweats the details? Does it look different from what your competitors would send?
If the answer to any of those is no, your pitch materials are working against you in every sales conversation.