Presenting to humans not to aliens!

So..... here we are...Monday morning
The weekend is well and truly done and we don't feel too good about it. To add insult to injury, we have "Wap, Kaplat and Prong" coming in to deliver a pitch for the new marketing campaign.

I've never been a big fan of sales pitches, the concept of one hour of upside down triangles, Maslow and enough numbers and statistics to make my hangover explode beyond my normal pain threshold fills me with dread.

Fortunately, i sent these guys a few tips

DO's and DON'TS

• Come a little early and get set up to get those IT glitches sorted, we only have an hour and don't want to waste 20 minutes of it staring at our IT Manager crawling under desks with cables.

• Be relaxed and make us feel comfortable, a little bit of humour is good, but don't forget it's a business meeting not a Comedy club.

• A note on tone..... be humble but open. Your body language speaks volumes, so you don't have to. We are sat round a table, be clear and positive with a sense of humility...we don't want to spend an hour listening to David Brent.

• Speak about us and be knowledgeable but don't try to be too clever, nobody likes a "know-it-all" especially if you get the facts wrong.

• Leave the technical and business speak at home please, tell us what you think in language you would use in your every day life.
• If you are losing us or boring us you will know about it....when mobile phones come out, doodling is evident or we look somewhat glazed you have probably wasted the last 10 minutes even if the content was valuable.

• People buy people.....I am interested in you and your team, not your skills on powerpoint, so leave the swish animations and annoying sounds where they belong...at the bottom of your draw under lock and key.

• On the subject of powerpoint, make it visual and for illustration only....5 slides tops. It's Monday morning...lines of text or statistics in chart form will go straight over my head....leave them for the hand outs which I can go over in detail later.

• Be prepared.... There's a fine balance between reading the presentation off cue cards (do not do this!!!) and winging it (Please do not do this either!!).....

• Let us know at the beginning how you want this to work...if you want interruptions as questions come up or at the end of the session...either way keep to the time we have allotted and cover everything.

• There will be 8 of us round the table and we all have a stake in this project, some are more vocal than others but not more important, so please involve all of us.

• We will have questions and opinions......answer them honestly and don't be afraid to disagree...as long as you have good reason and can back it up....

If you would like some 1:1 help on your next presentation please get in touch

Dean Wading lives in Worcestershire and runs Dean Wading Consulting. 30 Year commercial veteran in the media industry, business development professional, Trainer and Coach