A Very Painful Wake-up Call for Every
Presenter...
 If you're a frequent
presenter, you already know that the process of putting together a
reasonably engaging presentation is no easy task. Add to that a sea
of distractions going on in the minds of your audience, and it's a
wonder any of us make meaningful connections.
This quarter's newsletter offers up a
rarely acknowledged perspective - one that can directly affect your
success or failure.
Whether you're presenting to sell, persuade,
influence or simply inform, it's time to take into account the part
of the communication equation where you have absolutely no control -
yet all the power. Read on. . .
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You Were on My
Calendar Today . . . Unfortunately
 I woke up before my alarm
clock again this morning. But no matter how early I get into the
office, I guarantee you it won't be early enough to get on top of an
inbox full of emails and a sea of voicemails that have accumulated
since 6pm yesterday.
And you should know, you and your "big"
presentation isn't the first thing on my mind today. As a
matter of fact, your presentation is keeping me from a lot more
pressing things.
Believe me, it would be far
easier to simply skip your presentation and certainly no one could
blame me because their calendars are just as full as mine. But
unfortunately, I committed to my team to sit in on your company's
pitch and they're expecting my personal recommendations
tomorrow.
Let's set aside the pleasantries for a
moment. I don't know you. I barely know your company and if
you're like most presenters, you've probably spent the last several
days copying/pasting in enough material to fill two 60-minute
presentations. But the important perspective you're missing, and the
reason I will probably cut your time short anyhow, is that your
presentation most likely has a lot more to do with you and your
company than about the issues that are causing my team to lose sleep
at night. If you think we can't spot this presenter mindset in
a New York minute, you're wrong. We've seen it a hundred times
before and if you could just manage to stop to take a breath and ask
us a few questions, you may be one of the few companies we actually
ask to stay the entire hour. You see, we want to participate in the
conversation; you want to keep us mere spectators.
It's now 2 hours before your
"big" presentation and our days could not be more different.
You probably had a leisurely cup of coffee talking over your
presentation game plan with your co-presenter. I have an employee
who requires a corrective action conversation, a new hire interview
at 10am and a first draft of my quarterly operating plan that needs
to be on my boss's desk by the time I leave for your
presentation. I will no doubt come with an attention span as
short as my 5 year old and if you can't catch my interest in the
first ten minutes, then the next 50 will probably be a lost cause.
Believe me, I want you to be different - but precious
few presenters are. Most companies that present to us work way
too hard to find an edge that will make a difference for them.
Usually, one of a few things happens. They've bought into the
hype of some software or hardware gimmick that promises more
"pizzazz" or "dazzle". They spend days on a few ridiculously
complex slides that may mean something to them but we couldn't
figure out in a lifetime. Or maybe to make their case, they bring
along an engineering geek who buries us in overly detailed 'speeds
and feeds'. We'll I have bad news for all of you. We
could care less about pizzazz. The time spent on those insanely
complex slides is totally wasted. And the granular nuances of
how your product works is not important to us in this first
meeting.
What would win me over, at least
initially, is if you showed the good sense to turn your projector
off from time to time so we could have some kind of meaningful
dialog around the table.
Ask us a few questions. The presentation you
planned to "give" me means nothing if I don't "get" the value you're
offering us. I can't tell you how many companies lost important
opportunities right here in this boardroom - not because of better
competition - but because they couldn't get out of their own way. To
that extent, lose the buzz words that have worked their way into
your sales presentations over the years. And contrary to
popular sales opinion, we are interested in the steak and not
simply the sizzle.
You see, my company values our
partnerships with those who support our company. We want to know the
individuals behind the presentations because they are as much a part
of the solution as your product may be. Unfortunately, we rarely get
an opportunity for that insight in a presentation setting.
Most of the presenters we see here change as they walk through the
boardroom door. It doesn't seem to matter how personable they may
be, the act of standing in front of a laptop computer and projector
seems to turn them into methodical, bullet-reading presenters on a
mission. Their warm eye contact we experienced when we met in the
lobby is quickly replaced by darting eyes, nervous hands and happy
feet. Not very impressive.
If you could read my
mind as you stand in front of us this morning, you would see it's
going a hundred different directions. Your greatest challenge is to
help me get focused. And if I do give you an opportunity to go
the distance, I want your presentation to end not simply because you
ran out of slides. I want it to conclude because you offered
up a crisp, succinct statement of value that clearly addressed some
of our toughest issues today. That final impression is what's going
to get you back in our door again.
Well, the new hire
interview ran long and I'm now hoping my manager doesn't notice my
QOP is an hour late. And by the way, your competitor wants
30-minutes this afternoon to make their case before we make our
final decision.
I
hope you understand I'm giving you something very valuable that I
can never get back today - my time and attention.
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A Personal Note from
Jim
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"The reason most business audiences dread
presentations is not because most presenters are really that
bad. The reality is most are just painfully
average."
Time. It's
the currency in which most business professionals trade. We
all have the same amount of it but for us to make the right
impression the first time, we must help our audiences overcome
huge obstacles to simply hear our important messages. We think
presenting is about us and our point of view. The reality is, it
actually has less to do with us than we have ever seriously
considered. Winning the hearts and minds of busy business
professionals is probably the most daunting task any of us face in
today's harried corporate climate.
But it's not
impossible. There are those who have discovered the secret
sauce of gaining the intellectual and emotional high ground in a
presentation setting and here it is... the art of presenting is
first and foremost a relational skill, not a technical one. Here are
a few resources that could help you become the presenter you've
always wanted to be!
Leadership Communication
Asks More of Us - June
2008 featured article
Distinction is deeply vested
in the success of our client companies. Every time we work
with a senior executive, sales/marketing team or other business
professionals, we bring to the table a keen understanding of the
human equation involved in the art of presenting. I'm not sure
all your audiences will be like the one you just read about.
But I can honestly tell you, you are rarely the most important thing
in their day and the art of presenting is about moving you and your
cause dramatically up the ladder of importance in a very brief
amount of time.
Best
wishes,
Jim Endicott,
President Distinction Communication, Inc.
Last open enrollment
presentations skills workshop of the
year!
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