As my relationship with my workshop participants or my career transition candidates evolve into more than just a consultant-client relationship, and when they share their trials and tribulations at the work place I often hear them lamenting how difficult it is for them to make effective presentations. Once, a senior manager of an organization who was in my workshop wrote to me this sentence (with a smiley added at the end) : “I am cooked! Remember, the new area GM? Presenting to him tomorrow! Any remedies other than a malt?!”
I have delivered my share of successful and less than successful business presentations and over the years I have begun to trust a simple mantra for making the best out of any type of business presentation : Present the truth….present it efficiently….walk away with your integrity if nothing else. I hope you will find this useful too.
First, PRESENT THE TRUTH, don’t take people for a ride! A presentation be it to influence or to inform has one underlying purpose and that is to educate. Facts need to be conveyed first and foremost with confidence and conviction; not arrogance. Do not sugar coat what you have to offer with bombastic words and phraseology as usually that is a clear sign that you are fishing for something to cling on for dear life. Why? Because you didn’t go in with a clear ‘point-of-view’ (POV). Have a crystal clear POV and decide what exactly you want to walk away with. For example, your POV could be : I am going to inform the Boss that the launch of the new product in November this year is not the way to go as we have quite substantial historical data to prove this. Your take away could be : I will walk away from the presentation with the Boss’s agreement that another round of meeting need to be held with our external branding advisors’.
Part of presenting the truth also involves clarifying your intend and purpose. Why are you the one delivering the presentation? Why have you taken up the responsibility of presenting? Is it because of your expertise, your convincing ability, your humour, your strong personality? Or, is it because this is an opportunity for you to shine, to make an impact, to put your name on the organisation’s radar? The answer to this question will to a large extend influence your intend and purpose and hence your approach. If you are asked to deliver a presentation ask the person assigning you the task this question. For all you know, you could be asked to deliver the presentation for a purpose that you are not naturally and truthfully inclined towards. For example, if somebody had asked me to present a solution to a client with the believe that I can convince, I will be in trouble. I don’t see my self as a natural convincer. I am more like somebody who will say all that is need to be said; both positive and negative, and hope that the listeners have an open mind to make their decision. I sincerely believe that in my industry what differentiates between one product from another is the passion put behind its delivery and that is what I will hope for my clients to detect rather than trying to convince them that ‘this framework is better than that’. For me to present most effectively, I need a less rigid ‘client take-away’ especially from a first meeting. For example, if a client called me in to share our Coaching solution as a way out for their performance problems VS if I was asked to share our coaching solution and what ever else that I think they will benefit better from, I will definitely do better in the latter. It will be difficult for me to go in with an aspirin-pill that the client had chosen and walk away ‘convincing’ them that that is the right pill for their aches!. Some presenters are what I call ‘high-focus/narrow-information’ type. People like me are what I call as ‘high-radius/broad-information’ type. There is a need for both type of presenters for different purposes.
Another element of presenting the truth involves ignoring the pressures of the moment. Have you experienced walking into a presentation feeling well prepared and relatively positive about your balanced approach only to be greeted by a obnoxious client who shoots you down after your first few lines or PowerPoint slides? I have, but more on that later. If you have than you will agree with me that your most immediate reaction is to switch to the survival mode. What will one do in a survival mode? That’s right…anything and everything to survive. When we are cornered into a survival mode, it is hard to present the truth as we have lost our upper ground. So, regardless of what initial reception you get, keep to your game plan. But that doesn't mean that you do not readjust to your listener’s motives and requirements. This brings me to my experience with a rather difficult client who barked at everything that I presented and shot holes into my presentation to an extend that I began to doubt my own preparation, which is rarely sloppy. But, as I persisted with my POV and maintained a humble predisposition and explained why the training program that I am proposing will be of value to his people, I noticed that he seemed to catch on with the idea that one of the modules will help participants identify where their true passion in life lies. With that, a presentation that was at the risk of being terminated prematurely, extended into late evening over cups of coffee and teh-tariks. I got the project and made the training provider a happy man for a year.
Next in the equation for effective presentation is to PRESENT EFFICIENTLY. This means you are conscious of your listener’s time and you are humble enough to admit that what you have to say is probably not really a life-or-death matter that they are willing to forgo their lunch hour for. So, say your piece succinctly and get the main points across quickly and allow time for questions and clarifications. Deliver your POV as clearly as you possibly can and make it known what take-aways you are expecting out of the meeting. Arrive early to get your materials ready. Make sure your laptop battery is fully charged and the slides are already on the screen before your clients/audience walks in. If you are not using a power point presentation but only printed materials, use your early arrival to arrange them neatly. Have your notebook and pen ready and open. Don’t begin the meeting or presentation by saying trivial things like ‘this is a nice meeting room’. You will have better chance of scoring some points if you mention something positive about the company that you have read recently. If it is a follow-up meeting, summarize the major points from the previous one before getting into you latest presentation.
In the end I suppose what makes or breaks a presentation is our mindset going into it. If we can get that right, the tool set follows seamlessly.
So, Present the Truth…Present it Efficiently….Walk away with your integrity.
You might just not need any 'malt' the evening before!
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