Presentations Training:
Presentation Training Tactics to Make Your C Level Audience Buy Into You

Your presentation makes your proposal come to life. It must instill a feeling of confidence about your company as it relates to the project you're bidding. It also must be memorable. The last presenter has an advantage, but many times who appears last is out of your control. So what you say and do must form a lasting colorful picture and positive feeling with the voters no matter who follows you.

The C-level and powerful people will probably attend your presentation and most likely will only have read your proposal's executive summary. Therefore, your presentation has to cover the essences of the proposal, as well as, the personal desires of the powerful and make all confident you have the where-with-all to complete the project seamlessly and successfully deliver what each values.

Proposal Points Relative to the Presentation

In the proposal articles, we covered the following points that must be integrated into the presentation:

1. The Three Key Factors -- (1) Showing you understand the project; (2) Showing you're capable of performing the project: and (3) Giving each voter what he or she wants to win that vote.

2. Numbers Names and Details -- These paint the colorful picture that will develop a memorable positive feeling.

3. Options And New Ideas -- Show you can handle the spec'd method before offering new ideas and benefits.

4. Focus on your capability to do the project well. Do not focus on the competition.

5. Explain project impacts, and circumstances that can affect the project and how you will and have handled them on other projects.

6. Wording -- This is critical. The audience has to feel it is all about them. They must feel confident you understand the project and their personal needs. They must feel you're capable of delivering the results risk free. So your words have to be carefully crafted.

Staging the Presentation

Typically, presentations are done in PowerPoint. However they can be done as casual conversations around a table, or with handouts or formally with charts on form boards. Ask what the most powerful voters' prefer before you decide how you will present. No matter your method, some large pictures, renderings and/or charts should be displayed for easy referral, but more importantly for imprinting your images to their memory.

Determine somehow who will be there from the buyers' side. You should bring people from your side that have relationships with those attending from the buyers' side and all your people should participate in the presentation. Rule of thumb: relationships are more important than expertise.

Keep in mind, every attendee has a boss, and those bosses' desires will factor heavily on what that attendees want to hear about - whether or not the bosses are present. Never underestimate the power of the bosses, and the impact it has on individuals.

It's also critical to know about the presentation room - the style, size and shape.

Tactics

Your presentation leader should have the strongest relationship with the most voters. When entering the room, this person should greet each of the attendee separately and ask what his or her expectations are for the presentation, and what in particular s/he wants covered. Some people feel uncomfortable doing this, but if you can, it may provide some insights about necessary concerns and/or desires that need to be emphasized in the presentation.

Handouts of the presentation (if they are to be given) should be given at the end of the presentation - unless they are a working document. An agenda with the names of your participants and their role is good to handout by the leader during the initial greeting process.

While the leader of the presentation is greeting the attendees, the rest of the team is setting up the presentation equipment, pictures, chairs, etc. Then they should start to mingle and ask each person they speak with about expectations or certain areas they want covered in the presentation.

When the presentation starts each participant from your side should introduce him/herself and give a credibility statement in 20 words or less. Be sure to use numbers, names and details. For example. "Hi, I'm Sam Manfer and I am the senior operations manager for the XYZ division. I've been in this position for five years, and I have 20 years experience in construction and installation and have been the project manager on the SSS overpass and the TTT tunnel projects."

The purpose is to give the audience a feeling that this person knows what they're doing as it relates to this project. Doing their own introduction is more believable than the leader doing it. It also helps build rapport. If the person has relationships with a number of the attendees, have him or her add something personal, such as "And I've worked with many of you on projects similar to this, such as the XXX and YYY projects in the past." The idea is to make everyone in the audience as receptive as possible to accept what that person will be explaining.

When presenting, participants must make eye contact. Many times people will be focused on the screen or pictures. Point where necessary, but look back to the audience as soon as possible. It's more important to look at the people then trying to hit the right spot.

Try to avoid dark rooms. You want the people to see you and your team, and you want to see the reactions of the attendees. It's okay to use index cards as prompts to glance at, but resume eye contact. Keep your eyes moving back and forth among the attendees? It's easy to get stuck on a friendly looking face or someone nodding. So be conscious you don't get stuck. If anything, concentrate on the most powerful voter.

Vocal projection is also important. If someone speaks very soft, or has a cold, it's hard to hear them and they come across as less believable. Have someone else present while the other person nods. Again, use numbers, names and details when describing anything. Be careful not to talk about things that are of no interest to anyone, but you feel may excite the voters about your company.

Practice makes for perfect presentations. So in the next section I will show you how to rehearse, handle Q&A's, and Wrap-Up to leave a colorful memorable impression in each voter's belly.

Source: Sam Manfer link

Related: Presentation Training

More Presentations Skills Tips