by Tim Calkins
I had two very different managers at Kraft Foods. One boss loved big meetings; he was an entertainer at heart. He spent much of the day telling Jerry Seinfeld jokes and making people laugh. He loved having an audience. Every day he would gather the team and take the group down to lunch, where he would preside over a lively meal. The best way to communicate with him was in a big room, packed with people. The more individuals in the room, the better. For this true showman, a large group was just another opportunity for him to shine.
Later, I had another manager who was very uncomfortable in large groups. He was a soft-spoken individual who tended to get particularly quiet when in a room with a lot of people. For this person, a small group discussion was the best approach. If you wanted to win him over and answer his questions, you had to keep the meeting very small. Five was a good number, perhaps six. Anything more than that was a problem.
ARE THEY READERS OR LISTENERS?
Some individuals like to read and some like to listen. As business strategist Peter Drucker observed, “Far too few people even know that there are readers and listeners and that people are rarely both.”2
This is an important distinction. If people like to read, then you’ll want to allow for this. You will write your presentation with the idea that it will be read first. You will get the document out early and give people a chance to review it before discussing.
If people like to listen, you should get right to the presentation. You will talk through your recommendation. You can assume people didn’t and won’t read your document outside of the meeting.
WHOM DO THEY TRUST?
Most people have a few individuals whom they trust and respect. Perhaps these people have worked together for a long time. Perhaps they have achieved success together. Maybe they went to the same school.
Whatever the bond, these work colleagues become very influential; if they recommend something, it may well get approved. If they frown or raise issues, the recommendation will probably lose momentum. It is important to identify these people and include them in the meeting. You will also want to presell them. If you can win over the influencers, you are well on your way to securing ultimate approval. At Kraft, the senior executives at our advertising agencies were usually well respected. For topics involving brand strategy and communication, it was essential to get them on board.
HOW DO THEY THINK?
People think in different ways. There is no one way to approach complex issues, and you should think about how your audience approaches them before writing a presentation.
One important distinction is inductive vs. deductive reasoning. You can determine how they think by asking yourself two simple questions: Do they like to see the data and then get to the conclusion? Or do they prefer to see the conclusion and then examine the supporting data?
If your audience likes to see the recommendation first, they will get very frustrated if you lead with the data. They might fidget in their chairs or flip ahead. They might ask, “Where is this all going?”
Alternatively, if your audience likes to get into the data, they will be uncomfortable if you start with the recommendation. They will feel like you are jumping the gun and will be anxious, eager to look at and study the information before reaching a conclusion.
Missing this distinction can set you up for a very painful presentation. You have to understand how they view things and how they consider problems. People also want different amounts of detail.
Some people want to see information—the more, the better. These people like nothing more than a page of business statistics. They pore over it, ask questions and look for the important trends.
If you are presenting to someone who loves data, you need to present data. A presentation that has great headlines and graphics but little information will go over poorly. A picture of a waterfall will add no value. If anything, it will just raise concerns. Where is the data? Your audience will be unhappy and unsatisfied.
Other people can be frustrated by data. If you show them a page full of numbers, they will skip by it and move on. A picture of a rainbow might work exceptionally well, dramatizing the power of a trend. Showing these people a lot of information is not just a waste of time; it will diminish your standing. One of my managers at Kraft had little patience for data. A rigorous, analytic presentation would often be met by “This is fine, but where are the ideas? Let’s talk about ideas!”
Understand Their Priorities
One of the most important things to learn about life is that everyone has issues. We are all worried about something, all the time.
It is easy to lose track of this. You look at your colleague down the hall and think, “Wow, she really has it all. She just got promoted and she spoke at the big industry conference last week; she is supremely fit and has the nicest family. Her daughter just got into Stanford. I wish I had that sort of perfect life. Me? I can’t even get to the gym once a week.”
The reality isn’t quite so clear. Your colleague is likely balancing all sorts of issues, just like you are. She might be facing a health issue or struggling with an inattentive spouse. She could be deeply worried about an upcoming project.
In a company, everyone has challenges, priorities and problems. This is true for the most junior clerk in the mail department and the CEO. They are just different challenges, priorities and problems. As Jeff Immelt, former CEO of GE, observes, “Every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it.”3
As you head into the presentation, it is important to consider your audience. What are their priorities? If you know these, you can build a presentation that connects. Motivational speaker Tony Robbins starts with the audience, explaining, “My first thing in preparing for a presentation is you’ve got to know your audience and what their deepest needs are, their deepest desires, and their deepest concerns. That’s more important than anything else.”4
Consider the following questions:
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS TOPIC?
Start with this! If this is an important topic, the audience will be engaged. They will want to see more information and detail and might be willing to help. Be ready.
If they don’t really care about the topic, you will want to approach things differently. Assume they will check out in just a few minutes and plan on a brief presentation. They might get up and leave. If you need some help, think about how to grab their attention and then get to your recommendation or request.
You have to be honest about the situation. The presentation will surely be important for you. Anytime you are presenting to senior executives, you have an opportunity to advance or slow down your career.
The fact that a presentation is important to you doesn’t mean your audience will really care. For example, I spent a lot of time in my career thinking about the correct price for Seven Seas salad dressing. The CEO of Kraft just didn’t care; there were other, more important issues to address.
WHAT ARE THEIR GOALS?
It is critical to think about personal goals. What is important for your target?
If they want to show some quick results, then you should highlight how your plan will provide an easy win to boost the numbers. If your plan involves taking a hit to short-term profit, know that you will have a tough task.
If they are under pressure to make changes, make changes. Frame your recommendation as a fresh start. Use phrases like “It is time for a new approach” and “We have to change strategy” and “The current plan just isn’t working.”
WHAT ARE THEIR THEMES?
Business executives often embrace certain ideas; these form the core of the strategy. Someone might be thinking about reinvention, efficiency or disruptive innovation. If you can identify their theme, you can connect your recommendation to it. If your audience loves transformation, use the word “transformation” again and again.
When I worked for a manager who wanted innovation and fresh thinking, I talked about new ideas. In every presentation, I framed the recommendation as an innovation. I was innov
ating on promotions, advertising, packaging design and customer service. I had the most innovative team in the company. So much innovation. And the presentations generally went well.
Hostage negotiator Richard Mueller has used this approach successfully. He observes, “I don’t persuade a person because I use my words; I persuade a person because I use theirs.”5
Consider Their Perceptions
You need to consider your starting position. What is your target currently thinking about your situation? What are their perceptions?
We do this every time we tell someone a story; we provide information that builds on what people already know. If someone knows John is your colleague at work, you don’t say, “I work with a fellow named John and yesterday...” If someone knows that you are working on a big new project, you don’t say, “I just got put on this big new project at work, and you wouldn’t believe what just happened...” Unconsciously, we assess what the person we are talking with knows and start from there.
This is also an essential question when developing a presentation. You need to understand where you stand before getting to work on the document.
HOW MUCH DO THEY KNOW?
One of the most important things to consider is how much your audience knows about a topic. If your audience is knowledgeable, you don’t need to present a lot of background information. You can use industry jargon and show analyses with relatively little explanation.
A less informed audience will require a different approach. You will need to explain things in more depth. You should use jargon with care and explain different terms and calculations.
Getting this right is important. If you take someone with a lot of experience through basic industry information, they will be bored and frustrated. You might lose their support before you even get to the recommendation.
Moving quickly with a less experienced person is also a problem. They will likely be confused by your presentation. This will leave them with many questions and put them in a difficult spot. If they ask a lot of questions, they will slow down the meeting and look inexperienced. If they don’t ask questions, they will simply be confused. Neither option is good.
Understanding what your audience knows isn’t easy; you have to put yourself in their shoes. Harvard professor Steven Pinker, in his book The Sense of Style, calls this the “curse of knowledge.” He describes it as “a difficulty in imagining what it is like for someone else not to know what you know.” It is a particular challenge because we don’t know what we don’t know. Pinker explains it, “Like a drunk who is too impaired to realize that he is too impaired to drive, we do not notice the curse because the curse prevents us from noticing it.”6
It is useful to consider some basic questions when evaluating how much a particular executive might know:
How long have they been responsible for the business?
When did we last provide an update and what did we cover?
What reports have they seen over the past few weeks?
Who else have they heard from?
DO THEY ALREADY HAVE AN OPINION?
This is another critical question! If you are going to talk to someone about a particular issue, you need to know if they already have a point of view about the topic. This insight will have a major impact on how you proceed.
For example, if you are presenting to someone who agrees with your recommendation, you are simply working to confirm what they already understand and believe. If you are talking to someone who doesn’t agree, you have a much different task. You have to shift their opinion and win them over.
Even the basic structure of your presentation will vary based on your audience’s beliefs. If you are speaking to someone who agrees with you, you should quickly get to the recommendation. They will agree with it. The longer you wait, the more frustrated they will probably become. If your audience disagrees with your position, then this approach won’t work; you are better off presenting different options and comparing the alternatives in order to sort out which one is best.
Do Your Research
Understanding a target isn’t easy. You will probably have to work a bit to sort things out. You will need to do some research before the event.
One useful way to understand a senior executive is to talk to someone on their team. You might say, “So, Monica, I’m presenting to Angela next week on the new product launch. Any advice on presenting to Angela? What does she like?”
You can also simply ask the senior executive. If you have a chance to meet with the vice president before your meeting, you can inquire, “What do you like to see in a presentation?”
Be careful with this approach. Often, people don’t actually know what they want, or they don’t want what they think they want, and what they think they want they don’t want. This is one of the challenges of marketing.
For this reason, it is sometimes more helpful to ask someone for an example. Just ask the question “Can you show me an example of a presentation you thought worked particularly well?” This will give you some material to work with. What is the structure of the deck? How much detail is given? Is it short or long?
Perhaps the best approach is to simply observe your target. Look at what people do, not what they say. What do they seem to like? When do they get frustrated and annoyed? What do their presentations look like?
To be a great presenter, you have to know your target. And to do this, you need to become a student of the craft, constantly observing, noting and learning.
Create a Presentation Brief
Before developing a new piece of advertising, advertisers write a creative brief. This document concisely summarizes the task. While there are many formats for these documents, they all generally include something about the objective, the target and the message.
The same approach can be very useful when working on a presentation. A presentation brief pulls together several elements:
Objective: What is the goal of the meeting? Why are you writing this presentation anyway?
Audience: Who is the key decision maker for this presentation? What do we know about this person in terms of their preferences, priorities and perceptions? Who else will be involved in the meeting?
Format: How much time do we have? Where will the meeting be held? Will this be on-site or off-site?
Other Considerations: What other factors do we need to consider? Is this a particularly controversial topic? Is timing tight, such that we need to come to a final decision at the meeting?
A presentation brief might look like this:
Exhibit 5-1 Example of a Presentation Brief
Objective Gain agreement to everyday low-price strategy
Audience Susan Wellington, Executive Vice President of Grocery Products Division
Usually runs late, is tight on time, wants to read the deck in advance
Is under pressure to deliver good results this year
Is very familiar with the business
Knows about the plan and is generally supportive
Markus Oakdale, Head of Sales for Grocery Products Division
Strong supporter of the idea
Not too familiar with the financials
Format One-hour meeting in the corporate boardroom
Considerations Need a final decision at the meeting
Should have presenters from marketing, finance and sales
6
FIVE THINGS EVERY PRESENTATION NEEDS
* * *
There are a few things every presentation should have. These are basic elements. You can avoid a lot of problems by making sure your presentations always have these five components.
1—Cover Page
Put a nice cover page on the presentation! This is a simple addition, but it adds considerable value in two ways.
First, a title page is an easy way to dress up a presentation. It signals that you care, that you took the time to make the presentation look good. It adds a bit of polish. As my Kellogg colleague Craig Wortmann observed in a recent cla
ss, “Luxury products come in beautiful packages.”
Second, from a practical standpoint, you’ll need a title page to show as you begin your delivery. It always takes a minute or two to get settled—this is the time for the title page.
A title page should include several specific elements.
TITLE
This is the topic. In general, the title of a presentation should reflect the content. If the focus is on pricing, then the title should be something related to pricing.
There are two things to consider when it comes to headlines.
The first is neutrality. You don’t always want to lead with your recommendation; you only want to do this if you are confident that your audience is on board. Making the title “Recommendation to Enter Brazilian Market” communicates your perspective quite clearly. If your audience doesn’t like the idea, they will immediately begin attacking the recommendation. They will probably take a deep breath and review their objections, all the reasons why the Brazilian market is such a bad opportunity. A more generic headline, such as “Brazilian Market Analysis and Recommendation,” will reduce the immediate reaction. It gives you time to lay out your thinking before getting to the potentially controversial recommendation.
The second thing to consider is privacy. You might want to use a code name for particularly sensitive presentations. Corporate intelligence is a key issue for many companies, and you increase the chance that a competitor will end up with a presentation if you put the title right on the front page. More important, you increase the chance that someone will save the file with a clear description. This makes it easy for an uninvited visitor to find it. A file name like “Brazil Entry Recommendation” telegraphs the content. When I was at Kraft Foods, for example, we called the effort to launch a new potato-salad dressing “Project Spud.”