Developing a Compelling Presentations Culture eBook

7/29/2019 Developing a Compelling Presentations Culture eBook

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EXECUTIVE SERIESNo. 1

Developing a

CompellingPresentations

Culture inYour

OrganizationJOHN LOWE


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EXECUTIVE SERIES

PUBLICATION 1

Developing a CompellingPresentations Culture

in YourOrganization

JOHN LOWE

In the vast majority of companies and

organizations in the world, there are no

stated, accepted, executive-sponsored

expectations for exceptional

communications.

What an opportunity missed!


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C O P Y R I G H T

2013 Be Compelling Now, LLC.

All rights reserved under the International Copyrights Convention. Please note that much of this bookis based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. You should use this information as you seefit, understanding your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the examples illustratedherein, and you should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly. Theauthor is not responsible for any situational outcomes which do not meet your expectations. Anytrademarks, service marks, product names or features are assumed to be the property of theirrespective owners and are used for reference purposes only. There is no implied endorsement if used

herein.

becompellingnow.com
http://www.becompellingnow.com/http://www.becompellingnow.com/


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A B O U T

Order your copy of Remarkable Presentations >

John Lowe is a well respected communications coach and author of

Remarkable Presentations, How to Develop and Deliver What Your

Competitors Dont, available on Amazon. With over 25 years of award-

winning experience as a sales professional, John has delivered powerful

presentations which regularly won key deals for companies such as

Apple, HP, KPMG and Blackboard. He is a Certified Vistage Speaker, a

TEDX presentations coach, a member of the faculty at the Ty Boyd

Excellence in Speaking Institute and an Advisory Board Member of the

Raleigh Business Alliance.

John Lowe, Chief Message Coach

[email protected]

919-264-4591

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EXECUTIVE SERIES : PUBLICATION 1

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W H AT I S A P R E S E N TAT I O N

C U L TU R E?

it is estimated that over 30 million presentations are

delivered each and every day.If surveyed, most professionalswould consider a presentation to be a report or talk given in

front of a room accompanied by a slide show or other visuals.

While this is certainly what is considered the standard

presentation, it is suggested that the official definition of the

word presentation be considered.

presentation\pr-zen-t-shn (noun)

:something set forth for the attention of the mind

:a descriptive or persuasive account

This definition says nothing about where or how theinformation is delivered, or to whom. It does not require

visuals of any kind, or a discussion of any given length. When

this is taken into consideration, the types of presentations

given each day expand tremendously.


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Lets face it, a presentation is any opportunity you have to express yourmessage.It is fundamentally the expression portion of

communications.

Considering how critical this is, what is more important than

creating standards by which those communications be shared

with peers, team members, and those outside the organization?

In fact, communication is thelife-bloodof an organization. At

the end of the day, it comes down to people communicatingwith people about their ideas, plans, goals, commitments,

projects and proposals. Every opportunity for that to happen

is an opportunity for success or failure.

In order to propose and support such standards, it makes sense

to develop an organizational culture around this critical issue.

Creating a culture, an accepted norm for participation withwhich all members of the team are expected to comply, will

provide a framework for uniformity.

Much like a company has a culture of individual development,

or customer service, or product innovation, or fiscal

conservatism,a culture of compelling presentation qualitywillprovide a benchmark for the effectiveness of the organizational

communication, in all its forms.


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W H Y D E V E L O P S U C H A C U LT U R E?

Informal surveys or personal discussions quickly reveal that

most presentationsof any sort are less than compelling. In

fact, theyare more often than not average to poor. Howmany times have you felt your time was not well spent by

participating in meetings, sales or marketing presentations,

speeches, webinars, seminars, training sessions or other

communications events? It is much more common for people

to express frustration vs. excitement following a presentation

of any sort.

There is also formal surveyed evidence that this is true. For

example:

most execut ives say 90% of sales presentations are a waste oftheir time

professionals surveyed said 50% of meetings were a waste of timeexecut ives said the number 1 requirement for business success is

effecti ve communicationssales and marketing execs say over 50% of sales reps do not

represent the solut ion adequately


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Imagine if the majority of presentations given by members of

your organization were truly impactful, engaging, and

memorable.

Imagine if people, both inside

and outside your company were

eager to hear presentations given

by your team, and the reputation

for your organizational

communications was first class.

Imagine if your organization was

recognized by the industry and trade media for the quality and

engagement of your message delivery.

What effect do you think that would have on your success?

Making this effort is hard, but it is oh-so rewarding. It is also

among the most cost-effective development programs. Of the

many ways to develop an organization, creating a compelling

presentations culture can demonstrate an immediate return on

investment. Since so many presentations are given on a daily

basis, it is easy to see a rapid improvement.


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If there were a supported, concentrated, focused process on

organization-wide excellence in presentations quality and

effectiveness, it would result in the following benefits:

individual personal development would rise

individual morale would improve

individual and team performance would increase

internal miscommunication would be minimized

product demand would accelerate

brand recognition would be enhanced leadership development would be better

customer satisfaction and loyalty would increase

organizational reputation would climb

sales revenues would skyrocket

These benefits are all critical reasons why an organizationshould invest in developing a compelling presentations

culture. In fact, achieving only two or three of these benefits

would justify the effort.

Developing this type of cultural shift is not easy. It requires an

adoption of a new paradigm of presentations. It also requiresexecutive acceptance and promotion, for without leadership

setting the example, the program will surely fail. It requires

development at all levels of the organization, not just sales and

management. These apply to external presentations, but many


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people lead internal meetings, and developing the

communications at this level results in perhaps the greatest

return on investment. Not only are meetings and

communications efficiencies enhanced, but it also increases the

identification and development of future leaders.

By focusing on presentations skill development, people are asked toconfront perhaps their greatest fear, that being public speaking.

Confronting and conquering your greatest fears ranks at the top of

personal development.

Most people do not like making

presentations, and do not relish the

thought of dealing with it at all. In

fact, in lists of peoples greatest

fears, public speaking regularly islisted higher than death. That

means,many people have stated theywould rather die than give a speech.

This is precisely why accepting this challenge and developing

this culture is so valuable an effort. The personal development

which results is immeasurable in terms of enhancing the

professional quality and confidence of an organizations

people.


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In making the case for a compelling presentations culture, lets

examine the different types of presentations made within an

organization, and how raising the bar will benefit the

organization as a whole. Once again, presentations are not

always in front of a room with a PowerPoint slide deck. We all

make multiple presentations every day.

Presentations in your business may include:

internal meetingssolution updates

training sessions

executive strategy meetings

partner updates

media presentations

shareholder events

trade shows

webinars

sales presentations

customer events

seminars

one on one meetings

hiring interviewstown-hall meetings

How can you make them all compelling?


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E X T E R N A L P R E S E N T AT I O N S

First, we will examine the most commonly expressed examples

of presentations, those given to audiences outside the

organization. These often have to do with selling or marketingthe offerings of the company, and are critical to the overall

institutional success.

Sales Presentations

Most companies spend a great deal of resources on hiring,

training and getting their sales team in front of prospects. They

spend almost nothing on ensuring that the reps can present a

compelling story, and engage in a meaningful prospect/client

discussion. Surveys have indicated thatbuying executives (a) think

most sales presentations are a waste of time, and (b) overwhelmingly

prefer a conversation to a slide presentation. Most sales people,however, are not comfortable changing the way they do

presentations, and when surveyed, they listed help with the

value proposition discussion as a training priority.


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A sales presentation is any opportunity the rep has to share

solution-based information with prospects or customers.

It is any opportunity they have to further the prospect along

the sales cycle.

It is any opportunity they have to establish a trusted advisor

relationship.

These are mission-critical opportunities, and organizations

should invest significant resources toward ensuring that their

reps are the best they can be at taking full advantage of thesechances to move the buying process forward.

Trade Show Presentations

Speaking at a trade show or other industry event is perhaps

the best chance to obtain

multiple, qualified, hot leads.Many companies dont even

try to get approved for a

presentation slot, and of

those that do, few take full

advantage of it by preparing

and delivering a compellingmessage. Most either give a

company-sponsored product demo, or they contract with a

customer to provide a user testimonial presentation. In either


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case, they often fail to make a connection with the audience,

and fail to deliver valuable, problem-solving information.

What if you could have the undivided attention

of 20-40 very interested prospects in a room

for 40 minutes? What most business people do not

understand is that presenting at a trade show or industry event

is the absolute best way to get real, hot leads. These people

didnt come to the session to get off their feet for 40 minutes.They have a problem they think you can solve! They want to

be informed, and they want to be impressed. Unfortunately,

they usually leave without either being accomplished.

Executive Speeches

Corporate executives are often called upon to represent the

organization at functions, events, and customer conferences.

When doing so, they are seen as the face of the organization.

They represent the competency and trustworthiness of the

company. The audience, almost always people who for

whatever reason are interested in the organization, is looking

for that person to impress them with their knowledge and theircommunications skills.

So many times, executives fail to deliver. They use the excuse thatthey are so busy they do not have time to properly prepare.

Consequently, the organization misses a great opportunity to


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win more friends, supporters, investors, partners and possibly

customers, as well as fails to enhance their reputation

Web-Based Presentations

With the advent of easy and inexpensive delivery technology,

coupled with shrinking travel and event budgets, more

companies are resorting to web-based presentations to sell and

inform key prospects, customers and stakeholders. This is agreat tool, saving huge amounts of time and money. When

used properly, the attendees appreciate the savings and the

experience.

However,those de li vering theseevents tend to simply present a

slide show via the internet.Without the advantage of face

to face communications, these

slide events become incredibly

boring and tedious, and usually

miss the mark with the

audience. Youve been in the audience for these types ofpresentations. What was everyone doing? What were you

doing? Checking your mail or texts on your phone, right? Or

looking at your laptop. Or leafing through some other

information. When delivering a web-based presentation, the


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emphasis has to be on engagement. Otherwise, the

information is lost in translation.

Customer/Events

Customer events are most often new product rollouts or user

conferences, or executive briefings. These are opportunities to

share customer-specific information and further cement, or

even repair, the vendor-customer relationship. Once again,

critical opportunities to communicate in an impressive,engaging manner, and have your customers walk away

wanting to do more business with you.

Many times these turn out to be company-focused events instead ofcustomer-focused. Presenters want to dump as much

information as possible and try to impress their audiences with

their knowledge, features and developments. They fail to putthe emphasis on solving the customers problems, soliciting

feedback, engaging and creating dialog vs. lecture. Any time

there is the opportunity to interact with customers, especially

when providing valuable information with the goal of selling

them more stuff, you have to keep the focus of the event on

them and their problems. As soon as it becomes a companyadvertisement, they start wondering why they spent their time

and money to attend.


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Marketing Messages

While not considered to be presentations, marketingmessaging, delivered via advertisements, web sites, marketing

materials, white papers, videos, case studies, etc. are indeed

presenting the value proposition to the target market. They are

the most widely viewed form of organizational presentation,

and often mistake benefit statements and about us

information for impactful messaging.

Because marketing messaging is not delivered via a

conversation or even in person,the message needs to appeal to theold brain receptors of the target audience. (Old brain refers to theemotional, why section of the brain which dominates

decision-making.) Otherwise, it is received as simply more

noise in an otherwise overwhelmingly noisy marketplace. For

example, look at any number of web sites, and you will see

that 90+% of the information on any home page is about the

company, not the prospect. Its about the what, not the

why.

More and more, the focus of marketing messaging is shiftingfrom sell to engage, meaning you pull in your prospects by

sending out quality, informative, interesting and compelling

information which informs, not sells your prospect. They

make the decision to engage with you.


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The way you present your value message speaks loudly about

whether you are a transaction oriented company, or a

relationship oriented company.

Public Relations

Whenever someone from your organization addresses the

media, participates in a public forum, or offers information on

your behalf, it is critical that the

information be shared in a waywhich represents the company in a

positive manner. This may

influence key partners, markets,

investors, prospects or

customers. Most PR presentations

or statements are framed in a

conservative, stale format. This is the safe approach. It is

also the most boring. When developed and delivered in a

compelling way, PR statements can be used as an indirect

marketing tool, to drive demand, branding and differentiation.

If you are going to communicate anything to the

outside world, why take less than the utmostadvantage of that opportunity?


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I N T E R N A L P R E S E N T AT I O N S

Internal presentations often have to do with strategy, solution

development, marketing, human resources, budgeting, and the

like. These are the presentations most often taken for granted,as the audience is perceived to be forced to listen by their

required attendance. Unfortunately, because of this, many

internal messages are poorly developed, delivered and

received, and result in reduced efficiency, participation,

creativity, morale, motivation and results.

Team Meetings

How often does your company have team meetings that are

considered great or outstanding? How many result in

attendees saying a particular meeting was well worth their

time? If yours are like almost all others, the answer is not very

often. Many times, meeting organizers do not plan well, anddo not develop a meaningful presentation. More likely it

consists of bulleted talking points to guide the discussion.

Possibly useful. Definitely boring.


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Team members want to be engaged, they want to make good use oftheir time, they want to share constructive ideas. However, many

meetings are dominated by a set agenda that provides little

initiative for involvement. Imagine an organization wheremeeting attendees are anxious to attend and walk away

inspired to do their part!

Strategy Sessions

A strategy session is most productive when participation andcreativity are the focus. A strategy presentation needs to

promote those qualities by laying the foundation for the why

message. All too often, these sessions are dominated by data-

driven discussions, with charts, graphs and spreadsheets

providing the information to

be used as the basis for thestrategy development.

A well- developed

presentation which creates

an interest and motivates

attendees to share ideas

provides the best results.


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National/or International Sales Meetings

These events are expensive, time-consuming and critical to success.Often, they fall short ofexpectations and results. The

general session and the

awards presentations are

normally not the problem with

these events. Those are scriptedfor maximum motivation and

entertainment, although general sessions

dominated by talking executive heads with bullet point slides

still are the norm.

The biggest problem resides in the breakout sessions, where

sales reps are educated about solutions, policies and processes,

market data, competitive updates, forecasts, etc. These all-

important opportunities to inform the team are often the

most boring and least appreciated of the event program.

Presenters focus on what information they need to deliver

instead of why its important and how to deliver it in a way

that the reps would most benefit from. Sales people want toknow whats in it for them, and how can the information

presented make them more money. AND...they want to have

fun. Knowing how these folks are motivated is the key to

developing and delivering a great event.


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Project Updates

Groups and departments within companies have numerousopportunities for project updates. These are usually very

important to update the team, key stakeholders, or sales/

marketing on the status, progress and timelines for completion.

Often, they are treated in quickie fashion, meaning the intent

is to give a quick update and get on with the day. The problem

is, this minimizes the chance for feedback, creative ideas andsuggestions which may very well positively impact the project.

Attendees are often left with the feeling that the information

could just have easily been mailed in.

Partner Sessions

Many times there are partners involved in projects,

developments, funding, strategy or other activities. Partners

need to be treated with the same respect and involvement as

internal players. In fact, there is an argument to be made that

it is valuable to make a better impression on partners, as they

have potential influence beyond the walls of the organization.

When partners are treated as insiders, and provided with

information that not only informs but impresses them, they are


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more likely to go above and beyond to contribute to the

success of the organization.


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S E T T I N G E X P E C T AT I O N S

In the vast majority of companies and organizations in the

world, there are no stated, accepted, executive-sponsored

expectations for exceptional communications. There mostcertainly is the desire, and perhaps even the unstated

expectation of such results, but very rarely does that represent

itself throughout an organization as a key, driving principle for

the institution as a whole.

What an opportunity missed!At the same time, leaders will tell you that one of the key skills

that has propelled them to the top is their ability to

communicate well. Prospects will tell you that the number one

desire they have is to easily understand the value proposition

which is being presented to them. Managers will tell you that

their biggest challenge is how to most effectively communicatewith their team.


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Perhaps most telling of all is the fact that miscommunication

is listed as one of the top problem creators in any

organization.

Why then are there few compelling presentation cultures? The

most prevalent answers seem to be as follows:

1. Time everyone is too busy to focus on the development of

consistently high quality presentations.

2. Resource priorities there is only so much money available fortraining and development.

3. Change it is difficult to get most people to change the way they

present information.

While all those things are true, it can be argued that

developing a compelling presentation culture can help to

alleviate every one of those issues.

Compelling presentations can increase overall institutional efficiency,thereby creating better time management and reducing the numbers of

meetings which frees up more time for more important responsibilities.

Enhancing the quality and impact of sales and marketing presentationscan increase the number of deals won, and thereby increasing revenueswhich provides more money for training and development.


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By accomplishing the aforementioned two goals, organizational teammembers see the results and benefits, and are consequently more openand willing to adopt change.

Developing such a culture is a 5 step process.

1. Executive Support Institutional leadership must

embrace the program, and communicate it down throughthe team via their words and actions. This sets the level ofimportance.

2. Leadership/Management Training The organizationsleaders should receive training and coaching on their ownpresentation skills, which they can then share with theirteams.

3. Sales Focus Because the sales team has the most

impactful opportunity to demonstrate an ROI on this

process, a focus on improvement by this group will becritical to valuation and adoption by the organization as awhole.

4. Event Coaching Since large internal and external events

reach so many at a time, it is imperative that presentationsat these events consistently demonstrate the compelling

culture.5. Meeting Management There should be a focus on

helping the entire organization to understand the conceptsbehind running or participating in regular meetings in animpactful and meaningful way.


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The development of a compelling presentation culture, and altering the way

the organizational story is told, should not be overlooked as a foundational

way to establish brand quality and consistency, organizational excellence,

maximized efficiency and enhanced corporate reputation. It can be the

foundation for an entirely new and enhanced outlook regarding the

institutional brand, and how it is represented to the world.

What if your organization achieved a similar reaction toevery presentation made by members of your team?


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At Be Compelling Now,

John specializes in helping

organizational leaders and

teams to (a) develop and

deliver powerful, engaging,

memorable business

presentations and business

stories which create a

competitive advantage and

get decision-makers to act, and (b) build a culture of

compelling communications within organizations and teams.

Be Compelling Now delivers public and in-house workshops,

and is available for keynotes, team and individual training,big-deal coaching, meeting facilitation, special event

presentations and webinars. John is a Certified Vistage

Speaker, and a TEDX presentations coach.

John Lowe, Chief Message Coach

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]?subject=I%20want%20to%20Be%20Compelling%20Now!mailto:[email protected]?subject=I%20want%20to%20Be%20Compelling%20Now!mailto:[email protected]?subject=I%20want%20to%20Be%20Compelling%20Now!http://www.becompellingnow.com/http://www.becompellingnow.com/

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