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The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

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Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Vive is pretty good and Rift is even better (I own both). What are your gripes with it?

Is the Rift better now? I had them both before the Rift had its non-xbox controllers. The Rift let in light through the nose, had no room scale (needed to be in a chair), and just generally seemed like a worse experience. Did things change or are there other reasons you like it? Are the controllers just that much better?

Room scale support came to the Rift via addition of a third camera to your setup. It’s not quite as good as the Vive’s tracking but the difference is pretty small now, small enough that it largely doesn’t matter.

The tracked hand controllers the Rift now has are arguably a little better than the more basic “baton” style controllers on the Vive, although I believe HTC do have a “Knuckle” controller on the way that adds more advanced hand tracking.

The Rift is also significantly lighter and less sweaty on the head, its built in headphones are good enough you can avoid the additional weight of decent headphones, something the Vive pretty much requires.

I do strongly think both systems are _way_ too early for anyone other than insane early adopter types. Given this, I think the Rift makes most sense for no other reason than it’s the cheapest. Both of them will make many people sick even after relatively short play sessions. Neither of them are “good” in my opinion, merely the best it seems the market has managed so far.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#144
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, and I'd add high-end smartphones with <5" screens, and non-"smart" TVs with decent picture quality as things that people still want but are forced into alternatives.

For me the 5" screen of the regular Pixel (2) is perfect.

The Sony Xperia Z5 Compact got the screen size just about perfect for me at 4.6". If someone could build a phone with a Pixel 2 camera, a Z5C screen, the thickness of a V35 ThinQ, compatibility with Project Fi, and an audio jack, that would be my sweet spot.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the 5" screen of the regular Pixel (2) is perfect.

The Sony Xperia Z5 Compact got the screen size just about perfect for me at 4.6". If someone could build a phone with a Pixel 2 camera, a Z5C screen, the thickness of a V35 ThinQ, compatibility with Project Fi, and an audio jack, that would be my sweet spot.

Unfortunately the new Xperia XZ2 Compact is almost the same size as the original Xperia X, with the way phones keep getting larger.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#146
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe is arguably the poster child for a software company for which subscription vs. one-time licenses is a particularly polarizing question among its user base. For companies, it arguably didn't matter much and access to the current versions of the entire portfolio was probably a win for many. At the same time, some Adobe software was and is widely, but often casually, used by a fairly wide range of consumers who we…

Yeah, it's an interesting question if Adobe is going to hurt their channel of new users with this.

When my kid wanted to do animated vector graphics, I looked at the options. There was a $22/mo subscription option with Adobe, and there was a competitor whose product I could buy outright for $30. I went with the competitor. Two months and 10 projects later, my kid has moved on to other interests. I ended up saving $14 over those 2 months. In fact what would have happened is I would have paid for 4 or 5 months of subscription until I got around to noticing that they haven't been using it lately, then I'd have to jump through whatever hoops they have set up to cancel the subscription. With the software I purchased, when they want to go back and do a couple of more animations in a few months, I won't have to worry about restarting a subscription.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Vive is pretty good and Rift is even better (I own both). What are your gripes with it?

Is the Rift better now? I had them both before the Rift had its non-xbox controllers. The Rift let in light through the nose, had no room scale (needed to be in a chair), and just generally seemed like a worse experience. Did things change or are there other reasons you like it? Are the controllers just that much better?

Certainly. The touch controllers and room scale makes it completely different.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#148

"Name a big, relevant change in the world". Example given from Zuora, "We now live in a subscription economy". Except one problem: Instead of a nice solid color on the background of the slide, or a city skyline... ... it's a full shot of a skinny young blonde girl's legs. Like, can you sales guys be any more predictable and sexist? I'm sorry, this frat house behavior really needs to stop. There are so many better way…

In defense of the parent comment: It's absolutely a deliberate choice to include an attractive woman in that slide's background photo, just as it was a deliberate choice for the doors to be gold. I'd guess that people looking at the slide most consciously notice the conspicuous gold doors. But we all also notice that there's some sort of person standing there. That person is greeting us with a smile. We may not proce…

Thanks, I completely agree. The image has little to do with the caption, and it is very carefully crafted to be subliminally suggestive rather than overtly sexual.

I'm not saying these things should be censored or permanently banned--

--However, I am definitely saying everyone should strive to be better than this.

Zuora should use neutral imagery and win deals based on technical and reputational superiority. If they're winning because of a flashier pitch deck, then my post is lamenting this irrational form of deal-making :(

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#149

Good write-up -- is there a link to the actual deck?

After I published the post, Zuora released a version of the deck that I assembled from their public slides at https://www.zuora.com/resource/best-sales-deck-ever/. It's not the deck I got from their ex-salesperson, but IMO what you can learn from it is similar enough.

Re: The greatest sales deck I've ever seen (2016)

#150
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have yet to find a single person who claims to like them I like 3D well enough at least for the occasional novelty and film that uses it well, e.g. Gravity. There is just about zero content available however. My impression when I bought my TV was that there were certainly non-3D options available. But I got a pre-Christmas deal and I paid about the same as for an equivalent TV that didn't have 3D. It's the same wi…

And the better news is that if you don’t actually care about these silly new features you can get amazingly great TVs for next to nothing. I saw a 46 inch 4K LED smart TV at Costco for around $300. It didn’t have HDR (the current trendy hotness in the top of the line TVs), so I guess it’s considered substandard, but holy crap that’s a great deal.

I have one of the Visio ones. Yes, good screen, but never let one of those things on your WiFi. Jeez.
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