It has been quite some time that i have visited my blog. There has been a lot happening in the last few months. A couple of overseas trips for pleasure and business, a lot of travel in the US (braving all the weather in the US), a sales conference, a few home projects and in the middle of all this, trying to keep my sanity in place.
In these few weeks, on key aspect that I have been involved in is delivering client facing senior management presentations. Typically these sessions have been at the C-level, and they have involved globally distributed teams with different cultures, environments and of course needs.
In a way all of us are involved in presentations Its either as a contributor, presenter or as a SME..I wanted to share with you some good practices that have made my presentations really successful. Some of these might sound a little quirky, odd, but they are definitely worth a try! Here goes the list:
Logistics:
- "Have a bright room": Presenting to a dark room will avoid eye contact and not chemistry will develop in the room. Have a room that is well lit on the audience where you can have eye contact.
- "Try out the color schemes": Recently I was in a session where we were using a color scheme that was not tested before. We were using a really nice shade of Olive green. When this was projected in front of the client,it was really irritating fluorescent green! Beware of using unconventional colors. Usability plays a key role.
- "Good food and tea": In a presentation have some sweets and cookies. Sugar and chocolate are good mood lifters and its always a good idea to have some goodies!
- "Size does matter": No deck should be more than 15 slides for a 2 hour presentation. You can have slide separators etc. but the heart of the presentation should be 15 slides at most....
- "Dont be a victim of chair paralysis": Keep the dynamism alive in the room. Have a white board, let the client speak to a diagram, throw open ideas and challenge the discussion. Always remember, Intellectual thought leadership with humilty in the room is always respected by the client.
- "Adapt to change":There have been multiple instances when I showed up to a meeting and the client just wanted to have a chat across the table. Be well prepared mentally on the pitch. The environment should not be a hindrance in delivering a great story!
All the great wisdom in the world has been transferred in mankind through stories and fables. There are Aesops fables, Tales of Narnia, Panchatantra etc. All of these stories carry in them a very profound message conveyed through a simple story. The bottom line is that all of us like to relate to a story and it creates for us a visual interpretation of the topic discussed.
When to present your idea to the audience, use some of these techniques:
- "Have a story analogy": Always have a story that the audience can relate to. For eg: if you are presenting on Web based applications, have a story about how you helped "Mike a really nice client and Director in IT in Minneapolis develop a solution that helped his global team collaborate and have more efficiency and fun at work". If you noticed, you would have already pictured Mike and his team. This is what I mean by Visual Interpretation....
- "Listen, hear and if needed speak": The key to a successful presentation is to have your client speak and share. The slides you present must have the right slide in's for the client to chime in a contribute. Remember, every one like to contribute to a winning solution! Let the client contribute and collaborate!
Till next time a word of wisdom :"Take care of your customer.....or someone else will!"
