Run a small B2B services firm. We do 6-9 sales decks per month. Last quarter I started tagging each deck with the tool we built it in (we use a mix), then comparing close rates per tool.
Sample size is small (22 decks total in Q3) so don't overweight this. Posting because the data was counterintuitive enough to be worth thinking about.
The breakdown.
Decks built in Gamma: 11 decks, 5 closes. Close rate 45%.
Decks built in Pitch: 4 decks, 1 close. Close rate 25%.
Decks built in Keynote (with designer): 5 decks, 3 closes. Close rate 60%.
Decks built in Canva: 2 decks, 0 closes. Close rate 0%.
What I expected to find. Higher production value (Keynote with designer) closes better. AI-built decks are "good enough" but slightly worse. Canva is rough-and-ready but doesn't matter at the prospect quality stage.
What I actually found in the deeper look.
The Gamma decks closed at a rate higher than my baseline despite being faster to produce. That seems good but the deeper data showed it was correlated with prospect type. Gamma decks went to mid-market prospects who were buying based on content fit, not visual polish.
The Keynote-with-designer decks went to enterprise or design-conscious prospects. The 60% close rate looks impressive but the absolute volume of these prospects was small. The total revenue from designer-built decks was actually lower than the Gamma decks because of volume.
The Pitch decks were a mixed bag because we used Pitch for the prospects who fell between mid-market and enterprise. The 25% close rate suggests we were using the wrong tool for those prospects, not that Pitch is worse than Gamma.
u/FairVictory9967
The 1:1 is to bring up a thing.
Every time the slot comes up I find a reason to push it. "Oh I have a customer call running over, can we do tomorrow." "I have to prep for the QBR, can we do next week." "Let's just skip this one and catch up Friday."
I am rescheduling because I do not want to bring up the thing.
The thing is small enough that I keep telling myself it is not worth the conversation. It is also big enough that if I do not bring it up I will keep being annoyed about it for the rest of the year.
It is about a comment my manager made in a meeting four weeks ago. About my work. In front of the team. I was annoyed in the moment, decided to bring it up in 1:1, and now I have moved that 1:1 four times.
I wonder how often this is happening to other women. The gendered task of also being the person who brings up the gendered tasks. The double labor of the original thing and the conversation about the original thing.
I am going to bring it up tomorrow. I have just rescheduled it for Tuesday actually. I am going to bring it up Tuesday.
Probably.