Unit I presentations Warm up

Discuss the following questions:

1 What is a presentation?

2 For what purposes are presentations made in business?

3 What makes a presentation effective?

4 What is the worst presentation you have ever experienced?

5 Even experienced presenters can make mistakes during a presentation. Can you give any examples from first-hand knowledge?

Listening I

1. You’re going to hear Alan Wroxley, Sales Manager of Brother, an electronics firm, talking about sales presentations. Listen and answer the following question: What is the main key for a successful presentation?

Aw – Alan WroxIey, dc – Derek Crown

DC Alan, I know that you've done many presentations in your job as a sales manager. Can you tell me why do business people have to make presentations?

AW Well, really there'll be three reasons, three main reasons why people make presentations, and they can be divided quite separately, although they're all linked together. The first one will be a new product, when you're trying to launch a new product to the sales force, into the UK, maybe to a group of sales managers from different companies. That would be a totally different approach to say, when you're launching a sales campaign, which might be used to promote that new product. And then the third area would be an incentive to actually get the sales campaign underway. So they're all linked but in themselves they'd all be different promotions. Sometimes they'd be made on the same day, but most of the time they'd be made separately.

DC I see, are the techniques required for those types of presentations, are they very different?

AW They differ slightly. Erm, the presentation for a new product, we would actually try and get your product there amongst the delegates, and you'd probably try to limit it to a small number of delegates. With a sales campaign it's not so important that you have the product there. The main message to get across is the benefits that the new product will bring and, if you like, the, er, incentives that go with it.

DC So you have to be pretty enthusiastic, for that type of thing.

AW Yes. The key to all of them is to be enthusiastic because what you've got to leave your delegates going away with is as much enthusiasm for the product as you've got. And if they've got that enthusiasm, they'll go out into the market, they'll promote your new product, they'll get involved in the sales campaign, and indeed they'll want to take part in an incentive, which is the third reason I was going to give you. They'll want to get involved in the incentive that will actually ensure that the sales campaign is a success, and that incentive might be a trip abroad, it might be to win a television or something like that. But, if you can infuse them with that enthusiasm they'll take that out and they'll do your job for you which is what you want them to do. That's, that's, I suppose the ultimate aim of a sales presentation is for them to go out and do your job.

DC I see. Erm, you've done a lot of presentations. Do you get nervous before them?

AW You do. I think the larger the presentation, or the presentation to more people,

the more nervous you get. Also, er, the more you know about a product the least nervous you'll get. So, I think the idea is to have, er, good preparation for any presentation, it does take the nerves out of it.

DC What ways do you use of getting your information across, Alan, in the presentation?

AW Well, there are various ways to use, and again it would depend on the type of presentation you're doing. If you're doing a small, rather intimate presentation, you might limit yourself to handouts, having equipment available for people to look at and use personally. If it's the larger presentation, or slightly larger presentation, you'll use an overhead projector. And then for the very big presentation when you're hiring a hotel, and you've got a lot of delegates coming from a long way away then often you'll use a professional media company, and you'll have a very slick presentation with music, with lights, erm, with slides and indeed often with video to get your message across. So those are the, if you like, the main tools of the job. I always find it useful to have handouts because when people come they might not write down the relevant points that you want them to write down, a lot of them won't make notes. Whatever presentation you're doing, whatever it is, you've always got to give something to go away with on what you've been presenting, or else it's forgotten.

DC Well that's useful information. What would you say are the elements of a good presentation? What are the secrets of success?

AW I think the main secret is enthusiasm. If you've got enthusiasm for your product then the people who are listening to you will have enthusiasm. Keep it pertinent, always keep it pertinent. You can wander off, so it's important that you do your research, as I mentioned earlier, that you know what you're talking about, and keep it, keep to the objective you've set yourself.

2. Listen again and make notes under the following headings:

• presentation categories and techniques

• nerves: causes and cures

• ways of presenting information

• handouts

• how to be successful