by Nancy Wise
Do you recognise this scenario?
The senior partner dialled a number and spoke to the retail partner. “I’ve just heard that ‘Make Believe’ Town Council want to proceed with the town-centre development. They have asked us to pitch. You’d better take somebody from planning and somebody from finance. They want to see you tomorrow morning.”
The retail partner looked at his diary … meetings all day long with key clients. He knew too that his colleague in planning was in Scotland until tomorrow, and the finance partner was also away with a client, so there would be no chance to get together to plan anything before the town hall meeting. Oh well! No doubt they will be able to fudge something together in the taxi tomorrow morning on the way. At least there was just time to get the vital development figures together if research is given a sharp nudge. The figures are ready in the morning.
But are the partners? In the taxi they try to sort out who does what, who should lead the presentation, and if anyone had remembered to bring the illustrated brochure about the company. They felt muddled and under pressure during the presentation. It showed.
The material the finance expert had hoped to present was in fact used by the planning man, leaving him very little to say. The retail partner felt upstaged by the planning man and a certain resentment showed. The planning man talked far too much and in such a low dull mutter that the audience stopped listening. In the end Make Believe Town Council gave the business to another company.
Why? I believe that there are two main factors in successful selling. First, the product must be of prime quality (your company is certainly that). The second factor is that the act of selling must be totally convincing. The salesman must convey confidence, authority and enthusiasm as well as being able to handle his audience. A presentation and sales pitch put together during a rushed taxi trip cannot be expected to have polish.
Over the last 18 months, I have worked closely with a major company of chartered surveyors to help them to develop a pitch that is interchangeable despite any last-minute switch of presentation personnel. Many of the partners have taken the project seriously enough to find time to rehearse.
Because they are now working to a preplanned structure with prepared links, they are able to keep to the “story-line” knowing there is flexibility and room to elaborate and react to the client as the presentation progresses. They also feel confident because the important messages reinforcing the company’s depth, knowledge and experience are placed early in the presentation, leaving space to concentrate on the material most relevant to the client.
One partner is on record as saying that he now felt that the teamwork within the company had never been better demonstrated. Each member of the presentation group now has a role and no longer do people sit on the sidelines looking glum and giving the impression that they have been taken to the meeting merely to fill a few more chairs.
But why should people — who after all spend much of their professional life talking to clients — bother to redefine their presentation techniques?
They must bother because standards continually rise. Most people have spent a significant part of their life watching politicians, trade unionists, broadcasters and others using expert presentation to put over their points of view, night after night on television. This means that the audience has become far less tolerant and expects higher standards of performance. One of the major effects of this need for higher standards of personal presentation has been on professional groups such as accountants, bankers and business management. During the last five years they have been forced to learn new presentation skills, since many of them are now required to speak during competitive presentations for new business.
So, how can new techniques be acquired? There is a temptation to believe that all you need to do is to buy a video camera and a monitor screen and then ask a colleague to comment. I believe this is not only wrong — it can be destructive. Most people are intensely self-critical and worry, out of all proportion, about minor blemishes which may appear on the screen. If a colleague adds his criticism it can not only lead to business rifts and resentment but can destroy any feeling of confidence and enthusiasm.
Impartial, skilled and sympathetic guidance is what presentation training is all about. During training, advice is given about how to prepare the material, how to shape it and how best to make notes and use them unobtrusively during the presentation. (Over-long, over-written pages are a barrier to communication, not an aid.) Visual aids and their management are also discussed.
Training time is given to voice production, breath control and the management of nerves. For no matter how experienced the presenter, while the mind works well, the mouth all too often seizes up and the fluent flow of logical sentences that stream through the mind turns into a stumble of hesitant phrases which do little to convince a sceptical audience.
Let me elaborate on some of these areas and begin with preparing the material for a specific audience. First ask some questions about it:
What is its starting-point? How well-informed is the audience on your subject? How diverse are the interests and knowledge of the different members? What is their attitude likely to be towards you and whatever you are talking about?
Then, the notes. Decide a scheme of headings under which you will divide the presentation into sections — not too many. It is usually wise to have no more than four main headings, although the content under each may be further divided under subheadings.
Use postcards and write your speaking notes on them in BLOCK LETTERS.
Identify the points in your plan where you may need memory-joggers. Work out a listing of words and phrases that will remind you of what you want to say: headings, and brief notes of the points you want to make under each one.
Another major presentation consideration is the use of visuals. For most of us, the way we understand things is primarily by pictures — mental or real. As we listen to others talking, we try to “see” mentally what they mean.
Visuals can help your audience to have a vivid and immediate grasp of your point. They can save you time on explanation. They can enliven a dull section of your presentation and arouse interest and even curiosity. They can add impact to your key points. They can make an idea memorable. They can even give your audience some relief from the strain of studying you continuously — however attractive a sight that may be! Do be sure your audience can see each visual. Do not stand in front of it. If it is an object, make sure that everyone sees it wherever they are sitting. Do use your visuals firmly and decisively. Do not touch them tentatively. Do not flap your hand about in front of them in a weak ineffectual way — point boldly and with emphasis.
And training to present effectively embraces much more. I also take note of mannerisms; the twitching fingers, the wagging foot, twiddling of an ear lobe or rattling of coins. All are distracting and yet often enough colleagues have become so used to them that they either do not notice them or they would not dare to comment.
But in fact we communicate very powerful messages using body language. Usually this is a process we are completely unaware of — it is simply doing what comes naturally. But in a state of nerves, normal behaviour does not come naturally. One has to use a certain amount of conscious control.
Your posture should perhaps suggest alertness and interest, more than being totally at ease. Leaning on a table or lectern or lounging back in a chair is not likely to impress your audience with your energetic concern for what you are saying to them. Of course, you do not want to look stiff and uncomfortable, and neither do you want to fall into distracting mannerisms as a way of coping with your nervous tension. Frozen immobility, pushing hands deep into pockets, swaying from foot to foot, fidgeting with pen or papers, prowling to and fro like a caged lion — they are all to be avoided.
Facial expressions are a key part of anyone’s body language. Active exercise of eyebrows, cheeks and mouth give your eye contact a sense of lively interest in your audience and suggest your enthusiasm for your subject. Above all, remember to smile!
That is a mere outline of some of the areas a training session would cover. There is, of course, much more. Above all training is about helping the executive to maximise the impact he makes on his audience. Whether it be an old or new client his objective is to convince that client to agree to a defined action. Let me remind you of a management precept: “In persuasion 8% is content, 42% is appearance, 50% is how it is said.” Training in effective presentation can be that 50%!