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Presenting to the Client After Proposal Submittal—Part Two
By Dan Safford
In the beginning, you tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em.
How you begin your presentation is critical. In fact, the introduction
is the most important part of your presentation (it beats the
conclusion out by a hair). Why? Because it's your only chance to make a
first impression. You can show the client you are enthusiastic and
excited about the project, or you can show that this is just another
dreaded part of the job (like writing proposals). You can lay out
compelling reasons why your team is the right choice, or you can show
the listeners that you are nothing more than one face in the crowd of
presenters they'll be seeing stream through their conference room in
the next few hours.
In other words, the first words out of your mouth lays the foundation
for how the audience will perceive you--and your pitch--for the rest of
the presentation.
With this in mind, here are a few tips for developing a powerful introduction:
Be bold, authoritative and confident. What you say shapes the
rest of the pitch. If you make bold statements ("Our job during this
next 30 minutes is hard-we're going to have to get you to agree to
change the way you do things.") the listeners will sit up and take
notice. If you are tentative ("We believe we are well-suited to conduct
this work."), the listeners will fall into complacency.
Think hard about the tone you want to achieve, then figure out the best
way to go about it. Make sure everyone on the team is on board; when
the time comes for them to speak, they must play their role in
controlling the tone of the presentation. If they don't, things can
unravel very quickly.
Lead with your theme. You should clearly articulate your theme
right up front. Don't be hesitant; don't nibble around the edges and
hope the panel gets it. This is not a mystery novel; the listeners
don't want the secret of why they should pick you to be revealed at the
end. If you wait until then, you will lose.
Make your introductory remarks compelling. You have only one
chance to make a first impression. Once you've made it, you can't
change it. And part of the impression you want to make is that you have
a compelling story to tell. You need to say what you're going to say in
a way that makes the listener think, Well, that's certainly
interesting. I wonder what other interesting things they have to say.
If you start off flat, you will stay flat, at least from the listener's point of view.
Let them know what you'll talk about. Make sure you give the
listeners a brief summary of the highlights of your presentation. They
need to know where you're going so they will be interested enough to
follow along. It can be as easy as saying, "In the next thirty minutes,
we'll tell you how we can increase the flow capacity at your facility
by integrating the outfall pump station with the Rockhill pumping
system. We'll tell you how we will use automation to regulate the flow.
And we'll outline our plan for doing all the work necessary within your
expedited schedule."
Simple.
You can even tell them which member of the team will say what, and give
the panel a heads-up about who sitting up there with you will address
what topic.
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