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And Now for the Bad News... You spent hours preparing and rehearsing your presentation and the big day has come. During your allotted one hour you have a strong, solid fifty minute presentation, allowing for ten minutes of questions and answers. You arrive at the site anxious to get started. You walk into the meeting room and
your contact person approaches with some very disturbing news:
"We've had a number of things happen recently and can only allow
twenty minutes for your presentation.
Would that be all right?" Now you're faced with a real
dilemma . . . how can you squash a fifty-minute presentation plus
Q&A into twenty minutes? There are several approaches you can consider.
And now the big challenge . .
. supposed you're forced to deliver a presentation on a totally
different subject? Several
years ago I was engaged to conduct a motivational speech for a group
of thirty salespeople. In
opening the meeting, the sales manager stood in front of the group
and completely berated them for virtually everything you could think
of, failure to make sales calls, failure to achieve quotas, failure
to contact customers, failure to provide customer service, etc.,
etc., etc. He singled people out by name, pointed directly at them, and proceeded to list their specific failures one by one. Much to his credit, however, he did not use any profanity, but his raised voice and his flushed, angered face told the entire story. After
this thirty-minute tirade completed, he turned to me and said, "Okay
Dave, now get up here and motivate these people . . . they sure need
it!" Well now, this was great. I had prepared an uplifting, motivational speech designed to stimulate and encourage these sales professionals in all elements of their personal and business lives. Following this introduction, though, I knew it would be fatal to continue as planned. Bringing a flip chart with me to the front of the room, I began a discussion of each key point the sales manager brought out during out during his discussion. I listed each problem on the flip chart, and then conducted a discussion with the group generating ideas on how each of these concerns could be resolved. Participation on the part of the salespeople was excellent, and they left the meeting very upbeat and convinced that they had strong, concrete solutions that would help resolve these challenging situations. The sales manager said this was the best presentation he'd ever seen and has become one of my favorite clients. While it took several one-on-one meetings, he quickly began to modify his abrasive behavior towards his sales staff. So the real question is not how do you react or what do you do, but what plans have you made in case your presentation, through no fault of your own, is changed or altered. Strong presenters are prepared for every situation. To
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