THE BARD GROUP, LLC

OBJECTIVE

Ensure your team is in the best position to deliver a winning presentation by fully briefing them on the client’s situation and making sure they know what they need to do to prepare.

CHALLENGES

What city am I in? It is a challenge to manage the heavy demands on your time given business travel, internal meetings, external meetings, emails, reporting, and more. Planning and practicing for a meaningful client meeting takes commitment, but without it, you significantly reduce your chance of success.

Your days get absorbed by other essential or even mundane tasks. But, what is more important than keeping an existing client or getting new business from a potential client? Your team is equally burdened with competing demands on their time.

TECHNIQUES

Your team will perform better when they have a full understanding of the client and their situation, clarity on their role, and time to practice. Here’s a schedule of activities to brief your team and help them prepare in the week leading up to the presentation:

8 DAYS BEFORE:

Create a Client Briefing document and share it with your team.

The document should include the following:

A. Information about the client

The company name you should use when referring to them in the meeting.
What you know about each person attending and their role in the organization (use LinkedIn as a resource).
What their company does and information on their industry, market, and competition.
Your firm’s history with this client.
What you know about the client’s goals, current situation, challenges, and opportunities.
Pertinent information about the RFP, bid, and pricing.
What you know about their buying/decision-making process and criteria.

B. Logistics

Date, time, location
Meeting space and A/V
Dress code for the client meeting

C. Ideal outcome

You want everyone working toward the same goal, so be clear about the ideal outcome of the meeting. This should be what you want the client to take from the meeting, not about what you want from the meeting.

D. Answers to these three questions (see Exercise 1 for more detail)

How do you want them to feel when you are all done?
What do you want to learn from them to help you connect their challenges with your solutions.?
What 3 key messages do you want them to remember?

E. Your story outline (see Exercise 2 for more detail)

The 3 key messages for this client
The 'So What’ for each point you make that tells them why they should care
Data or real-life examples to prove what you do works

F. Tough questions you anticipate

Questions other clients have asked that you were not ready for or did not handle well.
Questions you are hoping this client does not ask.

Examples:

“Why are you the right people to manage this for me?”
“What do you bring to the table that is different from everyone else?”
“Why should I do this now?”

G. The structure of the meeting

A high-level outline of the flow of the presentation, what topics you will cover and in what order.

H. Swim lanes

Your current thinking on individual roles:

Who owns each section of the presentation (the open, the close, and each core section).
How much time they each have.
What pages they are covering.
What key points they absolutely must get across in support of the overarching 3 key messages of the presentation.

6 DAYS BEFORE:

Hold a team call to get everyone on the same page.

A. Walk through the briefing document.

Share any new details you have learned since sending the document to the team.
Field questions.

B. Discuss the structure of the meeting.

Review the flow of the presentation sections.
Agree on who owns what and the key points they must cover.
Review how you will handle introductions.

Option 1 Each team member introduces themselves and explains (succinctly!) why they are at the meeting and how this benefits the client. The benefit of this approach is that the client may begin to warm to each of them.

Option 2 The Team Lead does all the introductions. The benefit is that you get to say wonderful things about each person building up their credibility.

C. Review takeaways to prepare for the client meeting.

Agree on what each member of the team needs to do, before the meeting, to be ready for their part and aligned with the main story. Examples:

Gather data
Revise their slides
Select proof points
Figure out the ‘So What’

5 DAYS BEFORE:

Conduct individual calls.

Now that the team has had time to prepare, schedule 30-minute calls with each member:

Discuss what they are thinking of covering and how they plan to engage the client.
Offer guidance as needed to ensure their content and message align with the overall story.
Answer questions they may have.
Build up their confidence.

1 DAY BEFORE:

Facilitate the team rehearsal.

The rehearsal is when you work out your anxiety and any final kinks before the live presentation. Your #1 goal in a rehearsal is to build confidence.

A. Logistics

Make the rehearsal mirror the live meeting as closely as possible (room, A/V, etc.).
Rehearse the day before rather than the morning or day of the presentation. There are three reasons why:

It gives each team member time after the rehearsal to practice on their own.

It reduces stress by not being last-minute, right before the meeting.

You get to sleep on it. During sleep, your brain processes and gets comfortable with the changes and the presentation on whole.

Conclude before dinner so everyone has the evening to fine-tune and rest.

B. Facilitation

The Team Lead runs the rehearsal, and establishes rehearsal protocol, including who is and is not allowed to provide feedback.

C. Rehearse in character

Stand and speak with the passion, pacing, and movement you will use when live.
Rehearse questions you anticipate the client will ask.
Leave time for people to rerun sections after they receive feedback so they leave feeling confident.

D. Provide the right level of feedback.

Be specific.
Make sure positive feedback outweighs negative.

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To learn more, refer to Rehearsing as a Team.

ADVANTAGES TO YOU

Each member of the team is more personally focused on the meeting and what is most important to this client and their situation.
You have worked out your anxiety and are heading into the presentation with confidence.
You will collectively show your best to the buyer because each member of the team is clear on what content they are sharing, why they are sharing it, and how they are going to engage the client.
Everyone knows their swim lane.
The points each team member is making tie back to the 3 key messages.

ADVANTAGE TO THE CLIENT

The client sees a knowledgeable team who is focused on them and their specific situation and is able to clearly and succinctly communicate their value.

EXERCISES

1. THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

Take a few minutes before writing your BRIEFING document to jot down answers to the following:

A. What 3 key messages do you want this client to remember?

These are specific to their situation and align what you do uniquely well to their challenges.
They differentiate you.
They convey your value and make it easy for the client to remember you.

B. How do you want them to feel?

We know that decisions are based more on how they feel about what you say than on the facts you share. How do you want them to feel when you are all done? Examples:

They felt you were a good fit for what they are looking for.
They felt confident in what you do and how you do it.
They felt like you “get them” and care about helping them.

C. What do you want to learn from them?

You have a great opportunity when you are in front of the client to learn more about how they are thinking or making decisions, and how they feel about what you do. You can adapt based on what you hear and learn during the meeting to increase your probability of a successful outcome.

What questions can you ask that will help you align your solutions with their challenges?
Which member of your team might seek out these answers during the meeting?

2. STORY OUTLINE

Outline your presentation before building your presentation deck.

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3. YOUR MEETING FLOW

1. Structure your content in the right order based on how the information best flows and what is important to your client.

2. Assign the right team member to each section.

3. Allocate the right amount of time for each section.

4. Leave at least 10-15 minutes buffer for questions. For example, in a 60-minute meeting you will allocate 45-50 minutes total for you and your speakers.