Preparing for a Presentation

This is an introduction to the most critical things you’ll want to do prepare for a winning presentation.

OBJECTIVES

• Come to the meeting with a focus on the client’s situation and a compelling story that conveys how your solutions can positively impact their business.
• Frame all of your key points in a way that makes it easy for the client to take in your message, process it the way you want them to, and understand how you are different and how that is to their benefit.
• Make a great impression as individuals and as a team, leaving the client feeling confident that you are in sync around how to solve their challenges.
• Engage the client in meaningful dialogue that benefits you both.

CHALLENGES

• Your time with the client is limited, so you need to use it wisely.
• It is much easier to focus on logistics and other mundane tasks than it is to prepare for a client meeting. When you procrastinate, you lose the advantage that time gives you to be selective about the information you share. Instead, you go into the meeting with the entire kitchen sink “just in case.”
• Whether you spend hours or days preparing, selling teams tend to focus on what to give to a client. Your energy is directed to your output. Rarely, if at all, do you concentrate on input, meaning how the information will be received by the client.

TECHNIQUES

How the client takes in and connects with the information you share is where sales are won. When you shift from output to input, from what you want to give, to how you want them to receive your information, the advantage turns dramatically in your favor.

A. Start with understanding your client

Identify the client’s business objective and the challenges that are making it difficult for them to achieve that objective.

Use what you have been told or what you have learned knowing there is always more you have yet to uncover. Then do additional research. The time you invest in learning more about them will pay off, both as you prepare for the meeting and during the meeting.

• With whom are you meeting? What do you know about them?
• What’s happening in their market?
• How knowledgeable are they on the topic you are presenting?
• Why are they meeting with you? What do they want to learn from you, and why?
• What are their business objectives?
• What challenges are they facing? What's in the way of their achieving their business objectives?
• What is MOST important to them?

B. Establish the goal of the meeting

1. The goal is what you want the client to get out of this meeting, not what you hope to accomplish.

2. With that goal in mind, identify what you want the client to do as a result of the meeting — the desired decision, takeaway, or next step.

When you are clear on what the end result should look like, you can be precise about what to present, why you are presenting it, and how you want it to be received.

3. Headline your goal.  Keep it concise and focused on their challenges and opportunities.

Example: ‍

“We want to talk through our assessment of the market today, how we are approaching your portfolio during the short-term and where we see the opportunities for you in the long-run.”

C. Build a compelling story specific to this client

1. Answer these three questions to help you build your story:

a) What do you want them to know?

They will remember only 10% of what you told them 48 hours after the presentation, so aim for 3 key messages you want them to take from the meeting, three things that align what you do uniquely well with their challenges.

Why three? Because your clients can comfortably store three chunks of information in their short-term memory. Any more than three creates a backlog and may be forgotten, or result in frustration or fatigue on their part.

As you prepare your 3 key messages, think about completing this sentence as if you are saying it to the client at the end of your presentation:

“If you remember nothing else, I would like you to remember 1, 2, 3.”

b) How do you want them to feel during the meeting and long after you have left?

We know from research that their decision will be based more on how they feel about what you say than on the facts you share. It is human nature to hang onto how we feel about things long after we forget the facts. When you create awareness around how you want them to feel, and you set this intention beforehand, you will engage with them differently.

Imagine they meet up for dinner 5 hours after your presentation, and they are talking about how it went. What do you want them to say?

Examples:

“I feel like they were a good fit for what we are looking for.”
“They feel different from the other firms we’ve talked to…”
“They seem to “get us” and understand what we need."‍‍

c) What do you want to learn from the client?

You have a great opportunity when you are talking with the client to discover things that will help you shape your story during the actual meeting and in future interactions. These include:

• More specifics around how they are thinking about their challenges.
• What they consider to be most important and why.
• How they will make the decision.

‍

2. Next, for each of your 3 key messages, figure out the ‘So What’.

The ‘So What’ is why the point you are making is important to THEM or how it benefits them directly. Said another way, the 'So What' is why the client should care. The ‘So What' helps the client process your information exactly the way you want. You leave no room for them to create their own interpretation.

3. Now that you have your 3 key messages and your ‘So What’ statements, select the data points or facts that prove what you do works. Facts can come in the form of:

• Case studies
• Real-life examples
• Statistics
• Or, other quantifiable results

4. Put your story into outline form before diving into your presentation deck. Follow a standard outline format.

‍

‍

The outline helps you get crystal clear on your messages and select your content based on what is most important to the client.

During the meeting, the outline serves as your mental guide helping you stay high level when you want or drill down when you think that is where the client wants to go. It also gives you the right places to pause naturally between subjects.

D. Structure the meeting

‍

‍

1. A great presentation has a beginning, middle, and end so you want to structure yours accordingly.

a) A strong opening sets the tone for the rest of the meeting. This is when you:

• Make introductions
• Confirm time
• Share your flow for the meeting, and
• Help them buy into their challenge because you cannot engage a client in solving challenges they are not feeling.

b) The middle (or core) is where you talk about your solution, your 3 key messages specific to this client, and your supporting proof points.

• Create a natural and logical flow for your presentation topics.
• Decide which key points belong in each section, and
• Plan how you will bridge between slides and sections.

c) Your close ties it all together. This is when you summarize what they said about their challenges and link that to your solutions.  

Example:

“When you pull all of this together, there are three keys to our ability to meet your challenges, three things that we believe stand out . 1…. 2…. and 3…..”

2. Allocate time to each section, leaving time for questions and engagement. For example, allocate 45 minutes if you have been given 60, leaving 15 minutes for dialogue.

3. Assign a member of the team to each section and be sure they know their “swim lanes” and which key points they should cover.

TIP: Try to secure a morning presentation slot to avoid the “Post-Prandial alertness dip”—the descent from a high degree of wakefulness to a dip in energy and urge to nap between 1-4 pm.

E. Build or refine your pitch book

1. Be very selective about the content you choose to include in your pitch book.

Solve to the least amount of information you need to convey your message — nothing more! Eliminate everything in your presentation that does not support your key messages. Not everything is critical, and not all information is created equal for this conversation.

The client is relying on you to make sense of it for them, to provide them with the salient facts, and to give them the ‘why it is important’ commentary. They are not looking for complex, data-heavy pages. If they want more, they will not be shy about asking. Engaging in conversation is much better than a monologue, both for you and for them.

2. Design each page around one main point.

Each page or slide should make one main point that ties back to or supports your bigger story. If the slide is just interesting and does not clearly support the bigger story—your 3 key messages—it does not belong in this presentation.

3. Design matters.

• Follow the 6x6 rule, a maximum of 6 bullets, and 6 words per bullet per page.
• Apply the ‘Billboard Rule’, which says that the audience should be able to get the gist of what the slide is about in 3 seconds, the time it takes to read a billboard as you drive by. If not, you have too much on your slide.

‍

‍

• Make your pages eye-catching by using graphics, color, fonts, and contrasts to draw their eye to your main point. Create visuals that tie directly and creatively to the key message; avoid using stock photos as fillers.
• Use consistent design elements across the entire presentation.

F. Lead a prep call and a rehearsal

1. Create a Client Briefing document. Your team will perform better when they have a full briefing on the client and their situation. Include the following:

• Information about the client and meeting logistics
• The goal of the meeting
• What you want the client to know and feel
• What you want to learn from them
• Your 3 key messages and story outline

2. Hold a team call to do the following:

• Walk through the Client Briefing document
• Review the flow of the meeting
• Agree on who owns what and how much time they have for each section
• Review the key points they must hit on in each section
• Review how you will handle introductions and hand-offs from one presenter to the next
• Agree on what each member of the team needs to do to be ready for the team rehearsal

3. Meet one-on-one with each member of the team to review their role and their content.

4. Rehearse as a team.

Practice like it is real-time. Do it in character, aloud, and exactly how you intend to do it live.

Be sure that positive feedback always outweighs negative. Your primary goal is to enhance performance while building confidence. Be specific about what the team member does well and where they can improve. Do not leave your feedback open to interpretation.

ADVANTAGES TO YOU

• You and your team will be more relaxed and confident because you are prepared.
• Your story will be focused on the client and their situation.
• The meeting will have a natural conversation flow which allows you to be yourself.
• Your client will understand and remember why you are different, and why you are the best fit.

ADVANTAGES TO THE CLIENT

• You make it easy for the client. They do not have to work too hard to understand your value and how you can help them.
• They know exactly what to take from the meeting and how they will benefit from it.
• They are fully engaged and can see themselves working with you and your organization.
• They can easily communicate why you are the best choice to others in their organization and be a champion on your behalf.

RELATED LESSONS

Differentiating

Building Your Story

Refining Your Presentation

Designing the Optimal Live Presentation

Structuring a Sales Meeting

Briefing the Team

Rehearsing as a Team

Rehearsing Yourself

Opening the Meeting

Closing the Meeting

Available upon request at info@thebardgroupllc.com