A Successful Pitch Depends More on Preparation than Presentation

I love making presentations. 

I feed off the energy in the room, whether it’s a keynote speech to many or a pitch presentation to a few. I enjoy the feeling of connection with other human beings (I even enjoy the challenge of engaging those in the audience that might be resisting that connection) and I get a lot of satisfaction from watching heads nod as an idea lands or even sparks debate.

This makes sense because my new dominant business strengths profile is the  Communicator (if you want to discover what yours is, take this short quiz).  

That’s not the case for everyone. There are lots of people who hate being at the front of the room (maybe even you?). They feel self-conscious and unsure. And they might decide that a great way to fix this is to improve their presentation skills or get a speaking coach.

I don’t disagree. I’ve never actually worked with a speaking coach, but I’d welcome the chance. Why wouldn’t I want to improve a skill I get so much satisfaction from?

But a good presentation is also the byproduct of thorough preparation. All the skills training in the world won’t turn you into a strong presenter if your content is terrible and you’re unprepared.

Here’s a simple set of three quality control factors you should apply to your presentation content before writing a big check to a presentation coach: 

Is your message client-focused? 

It’s almost a cliché to say that agencies talk way too much about themselves, but clichés are born from real and stubborn habits and patterns. 

We naturally default to talking about ourselves, not because we’re self-centered jerks, but because we believe that’s what the clients have asked for in the brief with requests to –

“Define your process…”

“Tell us who’s on the team and what their experience is…”

“Describe the work you’ve done in our category…”

Sure sounds like they want to hear all about you. But really, what they’re saying is “give us a lens through which to see ourselves and our business challenges reflected in the work you do.” 

One tactic that can help to offset this is to define “win themes” as you start to prepare for a pitch. These are the top reasons why you are the best agency for the job. It could be knowledge of the category, mastery of a marketing discipline, or a unique methodology, among others. These become your touchstones. They will help you talk about yourself in the context of your client.

Are you killing them with content? 

Ah, another classic–too many slides and too much info on each slide.  

There are lots of reasons why we do this, all of them bad and avoidable: 

“I use the slides as my script so I don’t have to memorize it.” 

“The client asked for a detailed description of our process.” 

“Someone else is going to present this so I have to make sure they have everything they could possibly need to know.” 

“I didn’t have time to edit the bullet points.” 

Just because all that information makes sense to you doesn’t mean it makes sense to your prospective client. 

When you overwhelm your audience with too much information, it feels like an assault—and the audience reacts as such. 

Blame it on our lizard brain, the oldest part of our brain responsible for our primitive survival instincts. It’s also the first stop for any incoming message where it determines whether the message is friendly or a threat.  

When the lizard brain is confronted with dense, wordy or incomprehensible information, it goes into defensive mode and it doesn’t give the analytical part of our brain, the neocortex, a chance to weigh in before it says “run!” 

Are you presenting final, well-rehearsed content? 

Maybe it feels like final content to you, but without running through a practice scenario (aka rehearsing), you’ll never know how much still needs to be edited, reordered and refined. 

I will always proselytize the power of rehearsal and I’ll always have an uphill battle because everyone hates to rehearse. I even hate to rehearse but I do it because it makes me a better presenter. Not only does it get me comfortable with my material, it reveals where the rough spots are and gives me a chance to smooth them over. 

Want to know what it feels like when I make a well-rehearsed presentation? 

It’s a feeling of comfort that overpowers the nerves—a dominant sense of “I’ve got this.” 

It’s feeling the content flow in a natural, instinctual way. 

It’s knowing that, even if there’s a glitch or I forget something, I can recover. 

It’s being certain (because I’ve been told by others) that I appear relaxed and that I’m connecting with my audience. 

It’s the ability to gracefully multi-task–to deliver my content, read the room, and make adjustments all at the same time. 

It makes all the rehearsal worthwhile because it feels great. 

So, before you allocate some of your precious budget to presentation training, ask yourself if the fundamentals are in place. 

What you may actually discover is that when you nail the fundamentals, you and your team automatically up your presentation game. 

Why? 

Because you now have confidence in your material, enough to allow some passion and humanity to show through. You’ll tap into your natural human talent for narrative, which will render unnecessary the need to read off slides. You’ll be prepared in a way that lets you react to unexpected interruptions without throwing you off track. 

And you might even find it feels great to you too.