Dalton Sherman is a 5th grader at the Charles Rice Learning Center in Dallas. He may not be smarter than you NOW, but he may already be a better presenter. Take the time to watch and enjoy your weekend!
Showing posts with label presentation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presentation. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Client Service And Conversation
While conversation is a common word to describe blogging, it's every bit as important when it comes to presenting your capabilities to a prospective client. What's more, it's a prospect predictor to who you are and the kind of client service you'll provide.
Having been on the client side, let me just say there's nothing more insufferable for a prospect than sitting through a 40+ slide PowerPoint presentation about agency capabilities. I especially liked being talked AT for 40 minutes and told to hold all questions until the end, so as not to disrupt the flow of the presentation. As if there actually were a flow.
Here are ten tips for your next agency capabilities presentation:
1. It's the prospect's meeting, not yours. You're there only to impart information that's relevant to them, not to expound upon what fascinates you about your own firm.
2. Engage in an actual conversation. Toss the PowerPoint. (Or if you can't help yourself, at least minimize it). Get to know one another. Everyone thinks capabilities are about qualifications. Maybe it's actually about capabilities. Are you capable of being fun, likable, smart, funny, human, etc.? Would I want to spend two hours with you in a car? Or would I likely jump out of the moving vehicle?
3. See to it that everyone in the room is well prepared about the prospect as well as its competitors, industry trends, etc.
4. Illustrate, don't explain. Tell interesting (short) anecdotes to make your point.
5. Show rather than tell. If you want someone to think you're creative, actually BE creative in every aspect of what you do rather simply list it in Times Roman as some kind of core agency strength.
6. Structure your presentation/conversation not in terms of what you want to TELL them, but in terms of the take-aways. Think of it in the bigger picture as it relates to the two or three conclusions you want the prospect to reach about you.
7. Ask great questions. In my mind, he/she who asks the best questions will make it to the next round every time.
8. Use the time to carefully evaluate the prospect in terms of whether it's a good fit for you.
9. Be yourselves, otherwise you'll never really know.
10. If you think it will be a good fit, then go after this prospect with a smart follow-up strategy - something specific to your meeting and designed to advance the relationship.
Let me know how it goes!
Having been on the client side, let me just say there's nothing more insufferable for a prospect than sitting through a 40+ slide PowerPoint presentation about agency capabilities. I especially liked being talked AT for 40 minutes and told to hold all questions until the end, so as not to disrupt the flow of the presentation. As if there actually were a flow.
Here are ten tips for your next agency capabilities presentation:
1. It's the prospect's meeting, not yours. You're there only to impart information that's relevant to them, not to expound upon what fascinates you about your own firm.
2. Engage in an actual conversation. Toss the PowerPoint. (Or if you can't help yourself, at least minimize it). Get to know one another. Everyone thinks capabilities are about qualifications. Maybe it's actually about capabilities. Are you capable of being fun, likable, smart, funny, human, etc.? Would I want to spend two hours with you in a car? Or would I likely jump out of the moving vehicle?
3. See to it that everyone in the room is well prepared about the prospect as well as its competitors, industry trends, etc.
4. Illustrate, don't explain. Tell interesting (short) anecdotes to make your point.
5. Show rather than tell. If you want someone to think you're creative, actually BE creative in every aspect of what you do rather simply list it in Times Roman as some kind of core agency strength.
6. Structure your presentation/conversation not in terms of what you want to TELL them, but in terms of the take-aways. Think of it in the bigger picture as it relates to the two or three conclusions you want the prospect to reach about you.
7. Ask great questions. In my mind, he/she who asks the best questions will make it to the next round every time.
8. Use the time to carefully evaluate the prospect in terms of whether it's a good fit for you.
9. Be yourselves, otherwise you'll never really know.
10. If you think it will be a good fit, then go after this prospect with a smart follow-up strategy - something specific to your meeting and designed to advance the relationship.
Let me know how it goes!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
PowerPoint - Presentation Tool or Leave Behind?
So do you use PowerPoint as a presentation tool, a leave behind, both, or neither?
Presentation Tool - As a presentation tool, used properly, PowerPoint can lend powerful visual and emotional enhancements to a well told story. That means using impactful visuals and very few words. You want your audience to pay attention to you, not simply read your remarks on a screen (as if you don't even need to be in the room).
Leave Behind - I recall when PowerPoint was first introduced into the workplace, people used it for the live presentation, but always drafted a complete narrative in the form of a Word document as a leave behind. Over time, people quickly surmised that if they're going to bullet point everything they're going to say anyway, then the PowerPoint presentation can double as the leave behind, saving lots of work by not having to create a separate Word document.
Consider of course that the purpose of the leave behind is so that later (whether having previously seen the presentation or not) someone can read the document in an unassisted environment and unequivocally grasp its purpose. Well, if you use PowerPoint as stated above, then it's going to fail miserably as a leave behind. What to do...
Both - The only way to use PowerPoint for both the presentation and the leave behind is to create two documents - the first designed as a presentation document and the second as a self explanatory leave behind. While I wouldn't go so far as to say this never works very well, I'm almost there. I just don't believe it competes with the difference in mindset one has when using Powerpoint versus Word. (BTW, if you do use PPT for both, just don't pass out your leave behind during the presentation. There's a reason it's referred to as the "leave behind.")
Neither - For those of you who are addicted to PowerPoint as if it's nicotine, consider trying other creative ways to make your case or tell your story. After delivering your presentation, try an alternative means of making your presentation stick with your audience. There's more to life than the PowerPoint leave behind.
Tomorrow, I thought I'd end the week with a Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit including the all new "PowerPoint Patch" which works just like the nicotine patch. (PPT Gum waiting FDA Approval)
See you then!
Presentation Tool - As a presentation tool, used properly, PowerPoint can lend powerful visual and emotional enhancements to a well told story. That means using impactful visuals and very few words. You want your audience to pay attention to you, not simply read your remarks on a screen (as if you don't even need to be in the room).
Leave Behind - I recall when PowerPoint was first introduced into the workplace, people used it for the live presentation, but always drafted a complete narrative in the form of a Word document as a leave behind. Over time, people quickly surmised that if they're going to bullet point everything they're going to say anyway, then the PowerPoint presentation can double as the leave behind, saving lots of work by not having to create a separate Word document.
Consider of course that the purpose of the leave behind is so that later (whether having previously seen the presentation or not) someone can read the document in an unassisted environment and unequivocally grasp its purpose. Well, if you use PowerPoint as stated above, then it's going to fail miserably as a leave behind. What to do...
Both - The only way to use PowerPoint for both the presentation and the leave behind is to create two documents - the first designed as a presentation document and the second as a self explanatory leave behind. While I wouldn't go so far as to say this never works very well, I'm almost there. I just don't believe it competes with the difference in mindset one has when using Powerpoint versus Word. (BTW, if you do use PPT for both, just don't pass out your leave behind during the presentation. There's a reason it's referred to as the "leave behind.")
Neither - For those of you who are addicted to PowerPoint as if it's nicotine, consider trying other creative ways to make your case or tell your story. After delivering your presentation, try an alternative means of making your presentation stick with your audience. There's more to life than the PowerPoint leave behind.
Tomorrow, I thought I'd end the week with a Stamp Out Bad PowerPoint Toolkit including the all new "PowerPoint Patch" which works just like the nicotine patch. (PPT Gum waiting FDA Approval)
See you then!
The Kitchen Table Approach To Presenting
As part of one man's effort to stamp out bad PowerPoint, I've obtained some terrific input from the community at Linkedin, who have graciously offer their thoughtful suggestions that include alternatives to using PowerPoint and ways of employing it more effectively.
I look forward to sharing many of those insights later in the week. In the meantime, let me offer what I typically call the kitchen table approach to presenting. Consider all the conversations you've ever had with family and friends sitting across the kitchen table. I would guess that 99% of the time you're neither nervous, nor do you have difficulty succinctly making your point. You don't memorize what you're going to say, your just know what you want to say and you say it, free from worry about whether you forgot a small detail that most often matters more to you than to the effective delivery of the content.
Rehearse your next presentation at the kitchen table over coffee or your favorite beverage. Look the person in the eye, make your case, and do it from your heart. No slides, no memorized bullet points, no laptop on the table. This rehearsal technique works even if you plan to use PowerPoint in the actual presentation. The key is to create slides that bring your kitchen table speak to life, not to make your case in a manner that fits the slides.
Give it a try! My guess is that you'll be less nervous, your audience will be more engaged, and in the future, you may still use PowerPoint; you just won't have to rely on it.
I look forward to sharing many of those insights later in the week. In the meantime, let me offer what I typically call the kitchen table approach to presenting. Consider all the conversations you've ever had with family and friends sitting across the kitchen table. I would guess that 99% of the time you're neither nervous, nor do you have difficulty succinctly making your point. You don't memorize what you're going to say, your just know what you want to say and you say it, free from worry about whether you forgot a small detail that most often matters more to you than to the effective delivery of the content.
Rehearse your next presentation at the kitchen table over coffee or your favorite beverage. Look the person in the eye, make your case, and do it from your heart. No slides, no memorized bullet points, no laptop on the table. This rehearsal technique works even if you plan to use PowerPoint in the actual presentation. The key is to create slides that bring your kitchen table speak to life, not to make your case in a manner that fits the slides.
Give it a try! My guess is that you'll be less nervous, your audience will be more engaged, and in the future, you may still use PowerPoint; you just won't have to rely on it.
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