I’ve done countless presentations in my career of all different types. For years, I taught classes on 3-D graphics and animation, later I presented regularly to the executive management at Adobe Systems and Bose Corporation, and more recently I’ve pitched investors and partners on why they should invest or partner with Punchbowl. After all of these presentations, you would think that I would have it down. Well, far from it. I still have much to learn.
I was reminded of how much I have to learn a few weeks ago when I was down in NYC meeting with a bunch of media companies. I was fortunate enough to have a friend of the company (David) traveling with me for these meetings. David is someone whom I respect a lot — and he is arguably one of the smartest business strategists that I know.
After the first day of meetings, David had some feedback on my presentation. Much of his feedback was specific to the pitch, but one piece of feedback was more basic than that. David simply pointed out to me that it took several slides until I finally told the audience why we were meeting. Here’s how my presentation was ordered for day 1 of my meetings:
1) Background on the company (team, vision, etc)
2) Business opportunity
3) Key metrics (user engagement, traffic etc)
4) Proposal
After David’s feedback, here is how my presentation was ordered for day 2:
1) Why are we here?
2) Proposal
3) Key Metrics
4) Background on the company
This may seem like a trivial change, but the second day’s meetings were much more successful than the first day. For my new presentation, I literally had a slide called “Why are we here?” and I answered the question. Straight, to the point, and no fluffy business BS.
Based on my initial success that day, I’m committed to this technique in future presentations. From now on, I’m going to tell the audience why we are meeting up front, and build the presentation from that foundation. I’d encourage you to try this: for your next meeting or presentation, make it very clear why you are meeting. Answer the question “Why are we here?” and you’ll find a clarity that didn’t exist before.
