A former colleague recently reminded me of a memorable late-night rehearsal session in a Montreal hotel room, preparing a presentation for a final business pitch.
Imagine the scene: One day, the phone rings: you are invited to pitch for an investment mandate in a week’s time (often, the notice period is even shorter). At that moment, your agenda goes into freefall. What could be more important than preparing a 20-60 minute presentation, the outcome of which could generate a million euros in annual revenues for your company over several years?
Prepare your presentation in the same way an orchestra rehearses its performance, so that the music is harmonious, the performers perfectly coordinated and the audience won over!
Prepare the preparation
First decision to make: what is the composition of the presenting team? Some organisations think that the bigger the mandate, the bigger the team. In fact, a good team is made up of two to three people (unless your client has specifically asked for more). You will often have no more than 20 to 30 minutes to present, so you don’t want to be stepping on each other’s toes. One guideline for identifying participants is to be able to tell the customer what role each of them will play in the relationship. For example, “This person will manage your portfolio and will therefore be present at all reporting meetings”, or “This person will be your relationship manager, your first point of contact in our company who will keep you informed of our developments and provide you with the service you need”.
Once the participants have been agreed, the preparation and rehearsals need to be organised quickly.
The aim of this preparation is not to foresee everything – that’s impossible. The aim is to be comfortable with what is predictable so that your mind is free to deal effectively with what is not.
To give yourself the best chance of establishing a good rapport with your audience, call the client or their consultant to understand who will be in the room on the day and their sensitivities. I have sometimes observed a certain anxiety in asking these questions. If the formality of the process means that the person you are talking to cannot provide you with this information, the worst that can happen is that you receive a negative response. Nevertheless, you will have shown that you are interested and committed to doing things right.
It’s all about emotions.
Your preparation must focus on how you will connect with your audience. How do you create the emotions that will trigger the decision to give you the mandate? Even if the setting is formal and the atmosphere reserved, think of the meeting as a discussion, not a display of features and prowess (however grandiose). It’s by creating emotion that you’ll win the mandate (for more information on this subject, see my article It’s all about emotion ).
A common mistake is to spend a lot of time working on the content of your slides. What’s important is what you will say and how you will make a connection. The slides should serve your speech, not the other way around. Spend more time on stories and anecdotes that illustrate your proposition. Create images and metaphors. Above all, put yourself in your audience’s shoes and present your offer by showing them how it is a solution to their problems, not by listing features, however attractive they may be.
Some or many of the participants may not be finance specialists.
That’s why it’s crucial, in this situation more than any other, to apply two of my communication beliefs:
The client is more focused on his problems than on your powers.
Communication takes place in the ear of the listener, not the mouth of the speaker
Of course, you will be asked some questions at this meeting. Identify your weaknesses, the things you feel least comfortable with. Come up with answers that will allow you to deal with these issues with complete peace of mind and move on to the next topic. Be confident, prepare your answers and turn any weaknesses into strengths. If you are one of the three or four companies selected to present your offer out of the hundreds that applied, it means your proposal is extremely solid. Don’t let yourself get trapped in a mousehole!
Phone a friend to help you prepare.
To prepare as best as possible, ask one or two colleagues to help you. This doesn’t work if the presentation team prepares by itself, in isolation: it’s difficult to judge the dynamics of the presentation when you’re part of it. Hence the benefit of a third party. Better still, get help from someone outside your company. An external party will be better able to assess you candidly, even if it may be painful to hear. The important thing is that you can improve and be ready for the big day. What’s more, if this outsider is a decent professional, they will be able to give you their frank opinion, without it being painful to hear!
Does it seem too much to ask for outside help on a subject like this? Remember, you’ll have 20 to 60 minutes to convince your audience to entrust you with a mandate that could generate one million euros in annual revenue over several years. This is the time to pull out all the stops. This is where my fourth communication belief comes into play: All things being equal, the best communicator wins the business.
You’re wondering whether the presentation rehearsed in a Montreal hotel room mentioned at the beginning of this article was a success. The answer is yes. Was it because of the preparation and rehearsal? For sure not only because of that, but for sure also because of that.
