Just got a call from a company who was given five days notice to prepare for a presentation to win a contract. Given the demands in the marketplace today, perhaps you don't get even 5 days to prepare.
Two things come to mind:
1) Start preparing for a live presentation from the minute you know there is a possibility you will be called to deliver one
2) Get someone from outside your inner circle to work on this with you. Make this a priority--it is money well spent.
Prepare in advance
- Buyers expect sellers to present to them, so begin preparing before you need it.
- Make a list of 5 things this customer is suffering from--their pain/challenges/hot buttons.
- Write 2 slides for each of these problems that address these problems for this customer. Not generic one-size fits all, slides laden with pure corporate speak. No one is fooled by this, no matter what your marketing department says.
- Create one slide that shows the results this customer will enjoy 1 or 5 years in the future. Show them how they have already benefited from selecting you.
- Include discriminators and value adds that will be appreciated by this particular customer. 10,000 people in the company is meaningless to a customer who only needs the exact right 10 people to work for them.
- Preparing in advance when you are not under a deadline helps you see what you're doing very clearly.
Which leads to the second point: bring an outsider in to help you.
The outside consultant/coach will be free to say what must be said, which doesn't happen when the only people to work on a presentation are the ones who will be together long afterwards. You need a clear-eyed review that focuses on how effectively the message gets across to the customer audience. It's better if your outsider doesn't know a lot about you or the customer--they are unbiased when giving their input.
My client sent me their deck and it was a conglomeration of slides from 3 companies, no continuity and nothing remotely about the customer audience. I showed them this, suggested how to add personalization and to greatly improve the coherence and flow--without huge re-writing or any new graphics. By creating a smooth and meaningful progression of ideas, the speakers will be better able to speak from their knowledge, not just from a hodge-podge of words on slides.
What did this investment cost the company and is it worth it? It took me about 6 hours to thoroughly read the proposal and review and write up recommendations for their slides. I will spend about 8 hours coaching the team to deliver their solution with confidence and in a way that helps them connect with the audience. Even at the last minute, this investment of 14 hours will make a difference in the way their customer audience will evaluate their solution. The total cost compared to the contract value is very minimal.
There are longer-lasting benefits too: they have taken the first step in a new culture of presentation thinking and preparedness; they have opened themselves to feedback from someone outside their inner circle and found that it helps tremendously; they gained confidence that took them from "I hope we do okay" to "we are going to show them we are the only right choice."
Are you going to do things the same old way, or are you going to get started immediately building a new speaking culture that will increase the magnitude of your sales success?
Susan: great post. It's the last minute / hurry-up tasks that always seem to bring out the best / worst in all of us.
I liked your suggestion that you should show your customers what the future will look like. If you can do this well, then you will have won 1/2 of the battle.
- Dr. Jim Anderson
http://www.TheAccidentalCommunicator.com
The Accidental Communicator Blog
"Learn How To intimately connect with your audience in order to make an lasting impact in their lives."
Posted by: Jim Anderson | August 31, 2009 at 02:49 PM