The building to the left sits on the roof of the Divyershee Chambers tower in Bangalore.  This is where our training classes were held and what a great view during breaks!   We completed our final day of training today, focusing on presentation skills.  Here is how we do it:

1. First, the message is created.  We broke up into teams, reviewed each person’s best executive level presentation material, and then selected one to modify.  Each team works through their presentation applying the concepts from the three day class. Most find their presentation states the obvious and then moves to a feature sell.  This is not executive level material.

2. I then worked with individual teams to identify their main objective for education.  Each presentation starts with a clear strategic aim; what are you trying to education executives on.  If it is your product, expect to be delegated back down to IT.  Once identified, we apply Hollywood’s best plot concepts to the presentation.  It must grab the audience, interrupt their current thinking, and provide answers to knowledge gaps that are created through the presentation. This drives them to action.

3.  Stories are used to illustrate and create visual concrete concepts for the audience.

4. The close must leave them wanting something.  There must be an urgency to action.

It is rare that I see this type of presentation right out of the gate, but why?  Don’t the marketing groups that create these sales tools understand marketing science?  Why should a sales rep spend months trying to break into an account, then more months working up the chain of command, only to show up with a boring presentation.  The company that figures this out will ultimately win.

With this in mind, I am headed to Germany tonight at 2:00 am.  I’m sure it will be an exciting plane ride!

© 2010, David Stelzl