Champion deck template
A champion deck is the short presentation your champion gives their own leadership to get the deal approved, usually without you in the room. It's written in their words and their numbers, so it reads as an internal recommendation rather than a vendor pitch.
- Who owns it
- You build it. The champion rewrites the words until it sounds like them.
- When to use it
- When your champion says "I'll take it to the leadership team"
- Before a budget or investment committee
- When the economic buyer won't take a meeting with a vendor
The template
- 1
Slide 1: The problem, in our words
What's broken, said the way their leadership already talks about it.
Example: Returns are handled 14 different ways across our depots
- 2
Slide 2: What it's costing us
Two or three numbers from the business case: hours, money, risk.
- 3
Slide 3: What we looked at
The options, including doing nothing and building it in-house, with a line on each.
- 4
Slide 4: What we recommend, and why
Your solution, described by what it changes for them, with proof from a similar customer.
- 5
Slide 5: What changes, and when
The close plan's key dates through to go-live, and who on their side is involved.
- 6
Slide 6: Investment and return
The cost, the return and the payback period, in one view.
- 7
Slide 7: The decision we need today
One clear ask with a date. Approve the budget, sign by the 30th, release the team.
Examples use Northwind Freight, a made-up company.
What good looks like
- Seven slides or fewer, presentable in ten minutes
- Their logo leads. Yours is small, or missing
- Every number matches the business case exactly
- It ends with a decision and a date, not "next steps"
In a Deal Room
In a Deal Room the champion deck sits next to the business case it draws from, so the numbers can't drift apart. You see when it's opened, by how many people, and which slides they stayed on. We can post printed copies ahead of the leadership meeting.