Give your work its Best ShotPresentation Tips

August 30, 2007 Flora Caputo

How to get over your jitters and also put your best foot forward.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse.No way around it, guys.

Use notes to rehearse and organize your thoughts. Do not use them in the presentation.

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Presenting v.s Selling

There is a differenceOne allows too much room for the client to dismiss your efforts, the other helps to ensure you will get a solid signature on something at the end of the meeting.

•Presenting is going through the piece and explaining what is there in a methodical way.

•Selling is presenting your creative choices grounded in rationale based on the strategic findings from the account team and the business issues of the client. It takes the subjective out of it.

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Question?When do you start the sell?

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When do you start the sell?

Ideally, you start at the very beginning,

and continue through the whole presentation. I will explain how to do that.

Typically, most people start to sell the creative at the end of showing the creative. They wish to give their reco at that time and explain why their reco is ideal.-The issue with that is that you have given the client too much time to process, question and form opinions on their own, so the sell for you at the end is much harder.

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From presenting to selling, how to do it:

From presenting to selling, how to do it:

Starting off on the right foot.Make your intended outcome very specific. Tell the client what you want them to feel, think or do about what you are showing or proposing.

When do we start the sale? NOW.

This takes confidence, so you have to believe in the work. REALLY believe it. If you don’t, something is amiss.

•E.g.”We have 3 campaigns for you today that we know will address all these issue that you are facing. We are excited about them and we know you will be too.”

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From presenting to selling, how to do it:

Front load your material (up for debate)• Think about formatting your presentation in a

pyramid format v.s linear format. Start with your main ideas, and support behind, v.s 10 min of upfront and then the ideas (more linear). You lose your audience. If the client needs more, they’ll ask.

• Possibly “chunk out” a long preso. For better absorption-take breaks with Q& A, etc.

• Screw reiterating the brief…noise noise noise!• Get to the main ideas early• Reality: People like looking at pics of their kids,

not yours. Something to remember as you present to your clients

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From presenting to selling, how to do it:

Directing your presentation on a positive path

You are in charge. Own the room, steer the sheep• What are the key ideas, core ideas? Give each

idea “the hook” so clients easily remember what each concept is (even give each a name). Also, what makes each one different? Site why your reco is better.

• Why should they care about your decisions? Make it relevant to them, their problems and their brand.

• Only tell them enough detail about how its going to come off, so they are confident that it can be done. Don’t get in the weeds.

• Make sure to add that special Jacobs Agency touch. What little insights or things have we added value to that only we can give them and was the reason they asked us to do it in the first place.

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From presenting to selling, how to do it:

Ending your presentation in a way that leads to a positive discussion.

• Don’t just leave the work hanging in a “There you go, what do you think?” approach. Again, do not give them room to take a sharp left down negative alley. You still have the floor. Close it and guide them where you want them.

• Wrap it up, reprise the names of the campaigns and core thoughts, go over a reco if you have one. (Ie, you better have one. It’s why you are there.)

• Leave with next steps or introduce the next section and presenter and what they will be going through. Have closure. Mentioning next steps guarantees there will be some and the projects doesn't’t take a poop.

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Key Thoughts

You are the Shepard, lead the sheep. Empower yourself (read the “Preacher” article attached).

Because of this, SLOW DOWN! Take your time. Breathe. They are there to listen to what YOU have to say. These marketing people have been excitedly waiting to meet the “freaky, cool” people from the “agency” all day. It is their bright spot in their dull, grey, number crunching afternoon. They are giving you the floor, so take it! Have them eating out of the palm of your hand.

Notes on Body Language

Standing will usually give you more opportunity for impact than sitting.

Effective eye control helps build rapport with the client. Also, helps you read the client and /or the room.

Use your natural body language. Keep it relaxed and conversational.

Try for bigger gestures rather than more of them (smaller may make you look like a Spazmatron).

Notes on Delivery

In general, it helps to talk slower. You’ll avoid lapsing into monotone, be more expressive, and use fewer Aaahs and Ummm as well. It’s a paradox, but you can cover more material in less time if you go slower and choose words better. Breath, slow down, and REHEARSE!

You have impact and the element of surprise on your side. They are anxious to see the work. Don’t give away that power by early handouts and decks. Be in control of the information

Show enthusiasm and excitement for the work. It gets your client excited.

Thoughts on Materials

PowerPoint is well used in presentations, but don’t make it your enemy.You lose your power when you read your visual aids v.s work with them. PowerPoint should only be an outline over what you are going to talk about, so you add value to what you are presenting by adding content.

However, if this is a leave behind, be careful to have enough information there so it stands alone. Bottom line-never just read PowerPoint.

Do not present to the PowerPoint with your back to the group. Present to the group the PowerPoint. Be like the weather lady or weatherman with PowerPoint. Use your hands to highlight words or images on the screen.

One last thing on PowerPointDo not overuse PowerPoint. Yes, it’s a fun gadget. Nice technology. But if you are only presenting to one or two people in the room, consider something else to create excitement or chemistry. PowerPoint may be overkill and can keep things at a distance and not allow chemistry to grow.

Built comps, oversized mounted boards, slick oversized presentation booklets can also work well, might be more tactile, and allow for “closeness”. Consider boards as back up when traveling or as a recap.

Final Thought on Materials

Content Tips

Keep your dialogue in a business language. “Cool, trendy, great, nice”– Marketing Managers can’t do anything with that. They want to know how they are going to sell 10,000 boxes of macaroni by the end of the month and how what you are showing them is going to do that?

Read business mags. and journals to improve vocabulary and understand terminology that these marketing people use. When you pepper those words in with the “creative” terms that they vaguely know, they trust that you get their business AND you are pretty cool and creative. It helps the TRUST factor

Bob Savard (my presenting mentor, trainer and hero) Quotes that are good to remember:

“The safest place is out on a limb because the biggest danger is being ignored. Don’t be close to the tree with everyone else. It’s better to be by yourself. The way to get there is with breakthrough creative.”

“We have to know what they (the clients) know, but we also have to know something they don’t. Use that as a back pocket. It’s how you add value.”

“Art directors, leverage your talents and what you know that the clients’ don’t”

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My outline for presenting creative and recommended approach. If you follow this, you’ll be rocking.

Before anything: Take a deep breath, and stand up. Own the room.

Step 1: Boil down

In a few sentences, give a recap of what the team did, what were the challenges (some the AE group addressed, some they did not that you as a creative know we needed to pay attention to.) Add color and a smile, “though it was a challenge, we enjoyed it and tackled it and feel we have solutions”. This will lead you to “the sell” step.

“As you can see, we had a lot to digest in this project. We needed to talk to the C-suite issues, we needed to address the Benefits of BI as well as roll in the people-ready messaging. Being that the main piece is direct mail, we also had to develop compelling, breakthrough creative that an executive will open. And at the end of the day, we want a lead; we need the phone to ring. So we needed to explore a range of incentives. But between the people-ready visuals and the great benefits of this solution, this gave us a lot of places to play….”

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Step 2: Sell

Though it was a challenge, you are walking in with what we feel are 2-4 ideas that we feel achieve all those issues/challenges. Tell them that, believe that, and that you are VERY excited to show them those ideas. Make them believe that you are going to show them solutions!

“And we are very excited to share some ideas with you today that we feel really achieve all these issues/challenges/messaging…”

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Step 3: Manage expectations

Explain how the client will be seeing the ideas, and how many, and any other tidbits you wish for them to know or keep in mind as you go through them.

“ …These platforms we are showing you within the context of a direct mail piece, and we have three campaigns to share in digital comp form. What you are going to see today is not only a range of incentives and formats, but also how we serve up the people-ready branding, some very tightly woven into it, and some looser. That way you can get a feel for where you feel comfortable from that perspective…”

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Step 4: Concept intro

Move into the concept 1 with a brief set up. Were there some core issues that lead the thinking and the idea that you are about to show? Was there a direction that strategically you needed to cover in the range and are showing them right now? Introduce the idea in that way.

“ …This first idea was born out of just really trying to address the main issue as to why people are not currently doing BI; training, time and investment. When you look at your solution, and the main benefit being that it is all Office based, than a lot of these training issues go away. So we lead with this ease of use benefit, with this campaign called “blah blah” –[change slide]Can say, “Which is why we call this first campaign blah blah”

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Step 5: Concept presentation

Talk through the concept. Start with message and headline, and how the words or the idea attempt to address said issues mentioned earlier. Talk then about design, color and image. How does all that help reinforce the issue you were trying to solve? Add color and excitement for the idea when you can. But don’t get in the weeds. At the end of the day, the client is not an art director. He/she wants to know how this is going to solve the objectives.

“… As you can see this image of these employees peeking out of the office look expectant and ready for action in a surprising way. This reinforces the idea that they are in fact very ready and already trained for this solution…”

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Step 6: Present the rationale slide

The hardest thing to present is this slide. Keep it in a recap-try to just read parts of it. Point out core words on the PowerPoint that hit the main ideas that make that campaign different. It will help the client keep them straight in their heads.

Rationale is there to live beyond your visit…keep that in mind.

“…‘Already trained in office, already people ready’…very important core idea here…[continue reading slide].”

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Go through the concepts

Step 7/8/9Keep repeating 4, 5 & 6 until you are through the concepts.

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Step 10A: Next Steps (if done)

Wrap up the concepts, and invite the clients for POSITIVE feedback and then introduce next steps.

“… So those are our ideas we had to share with you today. We were very excited to share them with you. We feel all of them would achieve great results for you guys. We would love to hear what you all liked about the ideas and then we can discuss next steps…”

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Step 10 B: Transition

Wrap up the concepts, and introduce the next section of the presentation and presenter. Invite them for positive feedback now or after we go through the rest of the presentation. At that point, they will let you know if they want to wait or just dive in.

“… So those are our ideas we had to share with you today. We were very excited to share them with you. We feel all of them would achieve great results for you guys. Now Natasha is going to jump in and talk in depth about our media plan, but we would love to hear what you all liked about the ideas. Would you prefer to talk now or after Natasha is finished? We can go over next steps after the presentation.”

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Step 11: Drink with your team

If there is time, go and celebrate with a drink with the AE team. You deserved it!

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Here’s a cool 5 minute video about best presentation tips:

http://vimeo.com/44267609

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