Full Workshop Playbook

Watch the video below to get the full walkthrough of our Workshop playbook. A proven system designed to shortern sales cycles by 30-50% and increase close rates by 2x turning interest into pipeline that actually closes.

*Important: Video Overview On Entire Process (Watch at 1.5x):

Suggested 31-Minute Workshop Structure: 

Presentation Templates:

Gamma Presentation [link]
Google Slides [link]

Detailed Workshop Outline:

1. Pre-Workshop Preparation (3-5 minutes)

  1. See if there’s anything to customize for the prospect in advance
    • Review and confirm these two things:
      • What they do as a company/ specific industry they’re in
      • Who they sell to / what the specific business unit is you’re presenting to
  2. Confirm Workshop Logistics
    • Ensure you have your deck or Gamma doc (if you’re using gamma.app) ready to present using the framework below.

2. “ACE” the Opening (A, C, E)

  1. A – Appreciate & Acknowledge: Title slide (1–2 minutes)

    • Start on the title slide.

    • Thank them for their time and confirm who they sell to, and/ or what they do.

    • Example:

      “I appreciate you taking the time to meet today. I had a look at your business and understand [company name] is focussed on selling to [target market]” OR “…your main focus is selling insurance for home, auto and business.” OR “…your team is focussed on [specific business process(es)]. Have it got that right?”

  2. C – Confirm the Agenda & Challenge: Agenda Slide (2–3 minutes)

    • Go to the agenda slide.

    • Make sure the bullet points match the invitation email

    • Ask the following opening question:

    • Say:

      “Great. To make this workshop as valuable as possible for you, I’m just curious which of the agenda items from the invitation email was most interesting to you or relevant to improving your business?”

    • Always ask if there’s anything else they’d like to add here (they’ll often share more contextually relevant info to help you steer the workshop in your favor).

    • Example:

      “Anything else you’d like to add there?”

  3. E – End Goal: Workshop Goal Slide (1 minute)

    • Go to the workshop goal slide

    • Outline what the goal is by the end of the call.

    • Example:

      “Got it. So my goal for you today is to walk you through how [subject ie: ‘AI’] can help you build sales pipeline and close more deals from cold outreach. By the end, I’ll get you to a place where you could to move forward with an AI solution—or at least have the clarity on how AI can help you. Does that work for you guys?”

🎬 How To Kick Off The Main Workshop

“Before we dive in, just a quick bit of context for this workshop. I’m [Your Name], [Your Role] at [Your Company]. Aside from workshops like this, we help companies [insert short, sharp outcome your product or service delivers].

*If you want to add a simple slide here, go ahead. Just this to 60 seconds or less.

3. Share a Commercial Insight (The ‘Why’ and ‘Why Now’) (5 minutes)

  1. Present a Compelling Commercial Insight: Insight Slide (2-3 Minutes)

    • Go to the commercial insight slide.

    • It should share a supporting statistic about something (or your specific product/service domain).

    • It should also highlight competitive advantage for your solution — this builds credibility for you.

    • Do your best to share something RELEVANT to their business / industry.

    • Say:

      “I’m sure you’ve seen the data around AI in business development. This research from Smartlead, one of the top cold email sending platforms, sees a 142% increase in reply rates using highly personalized AI-outreach. Any feedback or thoughts on this?”

      • Other examples:

        • McKinsey: 1.7x More Likely to Be Top Performers

          “According to a McKinsey survey, companies that fully integrate AI into their operations are 1.7 times more likely to be top financial performers than those that don’t.”

        • Accenture: 38% Profitability Boost

          “Accenture found that companies leveraging AI can see a 38% boost in profitability, positioning AI as a direct driver of competitive advantage.”

        *Further example stats to use (AI specific) (Digitaldefynd)

      Why it’s critical to use “Insights” early in sales cycles:

4. Share a Relevant Case Study (5–7 minutes)

  1. Go to Title slide one of your three case study slides. All 3 slides should have their logo.
    1. Position And Describe The Client

    • On this slide you’re going to describe who the client is and what their challenges were (anonymized if needed). Ideally you should show their website (you can link out to it).

    • Say:

      “So the case study that we promised to share from the email is about our client, [Client name], and they're the [describe clients business focus and size].”

    • You can click to their website to make it more credible for your audience.

  2. Go to Situation Before Your Solution slide
    1. Describe the main challenge and previous state your client was in before your solution
    2. The challenge should describe the situation
    3. The previous state should have specific metrics if possible

    • You can simply read your challenge and state

    • For example say:

      “They usually had only 2 qualified sales calls/month and their SDRs spent hours on unqualified outreach.”

    • Ask if they have any questions about the client or their previous situation.

    • Say:

      “Any questions about this client or their previous situation?”

  3. Go to After Implementation Slide
    1. Describe results, timeline and any additional benefits.

    • Ask if they have any questions about the client or their previous situation.

    • Say:

      “Any questions about this outcome or how we made this happen?

      They may ask questions, which is great - and the perfect “setup” for the next section”. If so, just answer them, but say you can show them how it happened next. Or address whatever else they want to know about.

    • Next, segue to the features or capabilities that made those results possible.

    • Say:

      “Ok, now I’m going to share the key capabilities/ deliverables of our solution / service that helped achieve these outcomes.”

5. Outline & Demonstrate 2–3 Capabilities (10 minutes total)

You’ll walk through each capability one by one:

  1. Introduce the Capability

    • “And the first capability I’m going to show you addresses the part of the problem where you need better lead qualification…”

  2. Show How It Works

    • If it’s software, do a quick high-level demo or a visual walkthrough.
    • If it’s a service, briefly explain the process diagram, workflow, matrix or framework.
    • Keep it high-level but clear.

  3. Ask the Three Key Questions - * IMPORTANT*

    1. “Do you think what I just showed you would solve the [pain point] or help you improve [desired results] you mentioned?”
    2. “What impact do you think this could have on your specific process/ business?”
    3. (Optional) “Can you see yourself and your team using this?”

  4. Repeat for the Next Capability

    • Make sure each capability ties back to a specific pain or goal they expressed.
    • This keeps the discussion personalized and relevant.
    • DO NOT SKIP THESE QUESTIONS - IF YOU DO, YOU’VE WASTED THE ENTIRE MEETING.
    • Don’t go to the next slide yet.
    • Transition to “other solutions” slide.

    Say:

    “Before we wrap up, I’m curious what other solutions you guys have tried, or considered to improve [business process]?”

6. Value-Forward Component: Other Solutions (5 minutes)

  1. Go to the Other Solutions slide

  2. Acknowledge Competing or Alternative Approaches

    • We want to how we’ve aware they may consider other vendors or approaches, and we want to know if there’s any possible competition to address.
    • Say:

    “What we typically see with clients/ customers we’ve worked with are they’ve tried or are considering some of all of these possible solutions. Anything else here on your radar, have you tried or already in use?”

  3. Pros & Cons

    • Provide 2–3 alternative solutions with transparent pros and cons:
      • Hiring in-house: Deep internal expertise, but high cost and slower ramp-up.
      • Another AI platform: Might have a different feature set but requires extensive customization.
    • Keep the descriptions short. You can just read the titles, and skip the pros and cons.
    • This transparency builds trust and credibility.

  4. Check for Questions

    • Encourage them to talk about these alternatives.

7. Close the Call & Make The “Offer” (3–5 minutes)

  1. Go to the next steps slide.

  2. Say:

    “[Name] based on your situation, I’d like to make you an offer.”

  3. Present Your Call to Action

    • Move forward to the next step.
      • Free Trial or Test of Service
      • Free Audit or Assessment/ Forecast (if a service/consulting).
    • If applicable, mention any guarantees or special arrangements (e.g., no payment until results are seen, deposit structure, etc.).

  4. Ask for a Decision

  • Examples

    “Would you be against us running a test to prove the concept?”

    “Would you be against us preparing a revenue forecast for your situation?”

    “Would you be open to… [insert your 'offer’ here]”

  1. Two Possible Outcomes

    • Yes to your “offer”: Then you can outline next steps, timeline, deliverables, etc., and proceed to the next step.

      OR if they say:

    • ‘We need more time/ not the right time”, Something else to happen, “need to speak with someone else”, then we need to understand what the real objection is.

    • It’s only 1 of 4 things: Value, other decision maker, uncertainty, or time/ money.

    • Say:

      “No problem. Based on the capabilities I showed you, I’m just curious, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “this won’t work for us” and 10 being “this is exactly what we need”, where would you say you are precisely?”

    • If they’re a 7 or less say:

      “Got it. What would it take for you to be an 8 or higher?”

    • If the objection is time/ money, uncertainty or value, try to solve it and proceed to the next step to book the next call.

  • If you can’t solve it, but you learned why your offer isn’t getting traction. Update it for the next workshop and try again.

  • Tip: You want to make the offer so good, they feel stupid saying “no”. 

IN EITHER CASE:

  • BAMFAM (Book a meeting from a meeting):

    • Immediately schedule a follow-up call:

      “Got it. Can we get a call on the calendar now to discuss —does next Tuesday at 2 PM work?”

    • Confirm the meeting invite and that they accept it on the spot. Usually suggest the same time as the call you’re on - because people are incredibly predictable.

Putting It All Together: Suggested Timeline (Approx. 30–45 Minutes)

  1. Pre-Workshop (Email & Agenda Confirmation) – Asynchronous
  2. ACE the Opening – 5 minutes
  3. Commercially Valuable Insight – 5 minutes
  4. Case Study – 5–7 minutes
  5. Capabilities Demonstration – 15 minutes (5 minutes per capability)
  6. Other Solutions (Pros & Cons) – 5 minutes
  7. Close & CTA – 3–5 minutes

(Adjust as needed based on depth of discussion and number of participants.)

Tips for Success

  1. Stay Engaged & Curious
    • Listen closely to their responses. Show genuine interest in their goals and pain points.
  2. Use Visual Aids & Demos
    • If you’re presenting in a Doc or GAMMADOC (GAMMA.AI) format, keep visuals concise and relevant.
  3. Personalize at Every Opportunity
    • Continuously tie features back to the specific challenges they’ve mentioned.
  4. Keep It Conversational
    • Avoid going into ‘pitch mode.’ Focus on understanding and problem-solving.
  5. Confirm Next Steps Immediately
    • Don’t leave next steps vague. Always aim to get a date and time for a follow-up call if they’re not ready to commit on the spot. This alone will increase your close rate 20% to 50%.
    • If you’re not booking at least 20%-30% of your workshops into next steps calls, your offer needs work - it’s just not compelling enough and it needs iteration.

An Invitation

If you've read this far, you already know there's a gap between where your pipeline is and where it could be.

Most B2B SaaS companies we talk to have one or two pieces of a growth engine in place. Very few have all three working together as a system. That gap is usually what's keeping growth slower than it should be.

If you like to discuss installing a growth engine that scales without adding headcount or wasted spend — book a call below. We'll look at your specific situation and tell you exactly how we'd apply this to your business.

No pitch. No pressure. Just clarity on what's possible and whether it makes sense to go further.

Find a time below.

Best regards,

Brooks Van Norman

CEO & Founder

Ready to fill your pipeline — from first touch to closed deal — and build a growth engine that doesn't depend on who you know?

Get access to the system that’s helped 40 B2B SaaS founders generate more than $120 million in decision-ready pipeline. 

Find a time below 👇

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