Creating the ‘wow’ factor in presentations (Part 3 of 3)

This is a guest post by Rangarajan V. This is the last and final part of the three part series. This series is especially helpful for consultants.

In Part I we learnt that we can improve as a presenter by paying careful attention to three aspects; thinking, making and delivering. Think about what we have to say and come up with few key messages. In Part II Rangarajan talks about 'making' and covers topics like storyboarding, message, headline. If your presentation passes the 'layman' test then it is going to be a 'wow' presentation. Now we will read the third part of the series.


3. Delivering the presentation

The culmination of days/weeks of hard work is almost here. Today is presentation day. The way you deliver your presentation today will determine whether your audience thinks of your effort as ‘oh-wow!’ or ‘umm-what?’ As a presenter or presenting team, what can you do to ensure that your chances of creating a ‘wow’ impact are increased?

Planning: The first thing to do is to plan the delivery of the presentation thoroughly. The following aspects are very important:

A. Understand the audience:

• Who all are going to be present for the session? What are their backgrounds? What are their personal agendas likely to be?

• Who is the key decision maker in the group?

• Who is the change leader?

• Who is the change resister?

• What are the likely arguments that the change resister can put forth?

You would have probably gleaned most of these bits of information from prior interactions/discussions. Ensure that you discuss these aspects with your team members and prepare lines of attack/defence well before the presentation starts.

B. Understand the presenting team: Most presentations are not one-man shows. There will be a team of people from the presenting side. Even if the final presentation is delivered by one person, the Q&A sessions during and after presentations are usually handled by team effort. Pay attention to small things that go a long way in ensuring a high-impact team performance:

• Demarcation of areas: Clearly assigning certain sections of the presentation to your team members helps ensure more thorough research and preparation of individual sections. For example, team member A is in charge of delivering section 3, team member B is in charge of handling all questions related to area 4 etc.

• Prepping of key messages: Even when there are 4-5 bullet points in a slide, the key message is going to be just one. While this message is likely covered by the headline of the slide, written and spoken language is different. Ensure that the messages sound correct when verbalized in speech.

• Understanding strengths and weaknesses of presenting members: Some people are better at turning around ‘bad situations’ while some people are good ‘front runners’, who make a high impact when the audience is unsure but not hostile. Ensure that the strengths and weaknesses of the presenters are mapped to the sections of the presentations that you assign them with.

• Preparing Plan B: It is important to have a back-up plan in case your presentation does not go well? What do you do if the presentation does not go as well as you had hoped? Can you have some other team member deliver a section? What is your retreat option? Should you weather the storm or go for a counter-attack?

C. Understand the infrastructure: This includes some of the following aspects

• The presentation room: Where are the projectors? Where is the screen? Where will the presenting team sit? Where will the audience sit?

• Presentation materials: Does the audience need printouts? Will you have access to white-boards? Do you need to use laser pointers?

Executing the presentation: This is the final piece of the jigsaw and probably the most important one. What all do you need to do to execute a good presentation? Some of the following will help

• Posture: Adopt an easy posture that you can maintain without much difficulty for the duration of your section/sections of the presentation. Typically, an ‘at-ease’ posture works well, but keep your hands to your side instead of behind your back. Do not pace around too much during the presentation. Keep your head still and upright

• Eye-contact: Maintain eye contact steadily with all sections of your audience. The decision-maker should probably receive slightly longer eye-contact than the rest of the audience, but not much. At the end of the day, the presentation is to the audience.

• Language: Keep your sentences short and simple. Avoid jargon (imagine this coming from a consultant!).

• Speaking style: Do not speak too fast or too slow. No matter what your natural speaking style is, a presentation requires medium-paced delivery and clear enunciation. Ensure that you practice this repeatedly. Occasionally, use silence as a valuable tool to drive home your point.

• Confidence: This is the most important aspect of your delivery. You need to come across as being assured and deliberate. This comes primarily from two things – practice and knowledge. Practice refers not only to the hours put in for the current presentation, but the accumulated hours of practice you might have put in for all presentations in front of various audiences. Knowledge refers to the knowledge of the subject matter, the audience, the team and the infrastructure outlined above.

Concluding thoughts: No matter what you do with respect to thinking, making and delivering the presentation, there are some aspects that will always be beyond your control. You will have good presentations and you will have bad presentations. The important thing is to feel happy about the good ones and more importantly, learn from the bad ones. As with anything else, keep at it to become better at it.

About the Author: Rangarajan has been a consultant for over 4 years with A.T. Kearney, a leading management consultancy firm that advises CXO level executives on matters of strategic and operational importance. Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, he did his post-graduation from IIM Ahmedabad. He has given multiple presentations to the Boards/CEOs/CXOs/Senior management of many leading Indian companies and brings a wealth of practical experience in handling tough presentation situations.

Creating the ‘wow’ factor in presentations (Part 2 of 3)

This is a guest post by Rangarajan V. This is the second part in the three part series.


In the last post we learnt that one can improve as a presenter by paying careful attention to three aspects; thinking, making and delivering. Think about what we have to say and come up with few key messages. Our key messages should cover two things; the necessity for taking action and what is the recommended action?


2. Making the presentation

Once the key messages are clear in your mind, you need to think about the best way to communicate your ideas to your audience. There is no one ‘best way’ of communicating your thoughts. Most people, however, tend to use Microsoft PowerPoint to make presentations these days. Even within PowerPoint, there are infinite ways of communicating the same idea. What is it you can do to ensure that you make a hard-hitting presentation? Keep the following aspects in mind:

• Storyboarding: Build a story or theme around what you want to say. Stories stick in people’s minds for a lot longer and facilitate better recall. Ensure that your story is logical and sticks to the key messages that you want to convey.

• Messaging: Have one key message for each slide. More than one message increases chances of confusion and, more importantly, tangential discussions! Your messages should seamlessly blend into the overall story that you create.

• Headlining: The headline of the slide is the crux of the presentation. If you accumulate all the headlines in your presentation, it should serve as an executive summary of the presentation. Keep the headline crisp and action oriented. The headline should reveal the key message for each slide

• Visualization: You have to convey the message above in an easy-to-grasp manner. Think of the most effective way of representing your facts/data/conclusions. Use charts, graphs and pictures when needed. The graphs should not contain more data than is necessary to make your point. Never use more than 2 graphs/charts per page

• Formatting: Pay attention to the details e.g. alignment of the chart title and the chart, page numbers at the bottom, spellings of words, colors of charts (not too bright!), size of text etc. These small details go a long way towards demonstrating your professionalism at work.

• Revision: No matter how many times you have gone through the presentation, revise it before you send it out to the audience. Check the flow of the story and the key messages once again. Ideally, for important presentations, run the presentation through an unbiased third party (preferably a layman) and seek his/her opinion.

The ‘layman’ test is often the litmus test for the presentation. If it can’t be understood by someone who has no context of your presentation, it may not be understood by your intended audience either (Remember: we often assume that the audience knows a lot about what we are going to speak about. It is surprising how rarely that is actually the case).

Thinking clearly about the messages and making the presentation simple and visual, with attention paid to the small details will ensure ~60-70% of the wow factor is created many days before the actual presentation. But, as in chess, the end-game is where things need to be closed out. If you do not deliver (‘present’) the presentation well, the game is lost!


The third and the final part will come tomorrow.

About the Author: Rangarajan has been a consultant for over 4 years with A.T. Kearney, a leading management consultancy firm that advises CXO level executives on matters of strategic and operational importance. Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, he did his post-graduation from IIM Ahmedabad. He has given multiple presentations to the Boards/CEOs/CXOs/Senior management of many leading Indian companies and brings a wealth of practical experience in handling tough presentation situations.

Creating the ‘wow’ factor in presentations (Part 1 of 3)

This is a guest post by Rangarajan V, a consultant at AT Kearney. This is the first post in a series of 3 posts.

Cheetahs are capable of running at incredible speeds of up to 100 kmph. Why?

Answer: Necessity – Over millions of years, cheetahs have had to become faster and faster to be able to catch increasingly swift prey. When one’s survival is going to depend on a particular skill, one tends to become better at it.

The same is the case with presentations. The more presentations you are required to make, the better you become at it. Ask any consultant and he/she will tell you. Consultants spend most of their waking lives preparing and delivering presentations to varied audiences. Making a presentation to a VP - Product Development head is not the same as making one to a Brand manager or a Sales head or a CEO. But the underlying objective is the same – to impress the audience, to make them say ‘wow’!

Easier said than done.


How does one create the wow factor in a presentation?

It is never easy. Nor is it ever guaranteed that the audience will react the way you want them to. But one can improve one’s chances by paying careful attention to each the following aspects:1. Thinking about what you want to say

Spend a lot of time thinking about what you want to say through the presentation. There may be a lot of thoughts in your mind, but the audience can get confused if you put too many thoughts into one presentation. Hence, simplify your thoughts into a few key messages that you think the audience needs to be left with. In most situations, your key messages would need to cover two things.

• The necessity for taking action
• What is the recommended action

Remember, making a presentation is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The end almost always is further action, or ‘next steps’ as consultants love to call it! Even if you think that a presentation is just a status report or a routine monthly sales analysis or a project report, remember that managers in today’s world are always interested in the results or the action implications of what you have to say.

These days, the ‘wow factor’ comes increasingly from providing the audience simple and effective thoughts and ‘calls for action’. Thinking about the exact messages that you want to convey is a crucial first step.

About the Author: Rangarajan has been a consultant for over 4 years with A.T. Kearney, a leading management consultancy firm that advises CXO level executives on matters of strategic and operational importance. Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, he did his post-graduation from IIM Ahmedabad. He has worked across engagements spanning strategy development, cost benchmarking, process improvements and financial planning for sectors as diverse as telecom, oil & gas, financial services, petrochemicals, automotives, textiles etc. More relevantly, he has given multiple presentations to the Boards/CEOs/CXOs/Senior management of many leading Indian companies and brings a wealth of practical experience in handling tough presentation situations.

Cheetah Image Source: Bernie Condon

Make Good Consult Presentations - Part III

This is the third and final post on "Making Good Consulting Presentations". As part of the series I have interviewed consultants who are working with large consult companies in India. Young consultants should find these posts really helpful.

In today's post I interview Mr. Peri Vishwanath, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate who has worked for 8 years as a Management Consultant. Let us begin.

AAP: What is the most important thing in a consult presentation?

Peri: Communicate your message sharply. If you are in the early stages of the project and are presenting the problem as you see it, do not go and say "The problem is that sales are low." After having figured out the problem go ahead and define it as sharply as possible. Clarity and sharpness of the message holds the key.

AAP: How do you prepare the presentation slides? Do you start by opening the software and typing straight into it?

Peri: It is better to prepare on paper first. Most people do this initial stage on PowerPoint and end up losing time and also the bigger picture. If you are presenting as a team it becomes even more important to sit, brainstorm and decide the flow and key messages/headlines on paper. Once you are clear on the flow, the rest is easy.

AAP: Time management is always a challenge. How should one manage time during slide preparation?

Peri: If you prepare the structure on paper that will save a lot of time for you. Sticking to a template is a second way to save lots of time. A lot of time can get wasted in deciding on font, color scheme and template design. To thwart this every consult company has a basic guideline which makes the job easier. One should also avoid spending too much time jazzing up the presentation.

AAP: What should one do at the start of the presentation?

Peri: You should state the purpose of the meeting in clear terms. Also mention the expectations from that meeting/discussion so that the client and you are on the same page. Many presenters start by cracking a joke to lighten the mood and establish a connect. You should try out what suits your style and how well you know your client.

AAP: How should one use Charts & Graphs in a presentation?

Peri: Charts and graphs are an indispensable part of every presentation. While using charts and graphs take note of the following:

1. Give an explanatory title
2. Mention the source of data
3. State the period (monthly/annual data)
4. Font in the chart should be legible
5. Capture the key message of the chart in a text box on the slide

AAP: What would be your final words of advice to young consultants?

Peri: Just be clear on the 'storyline' and remember that every presentation is a sales pitch. You are out there to sell your ideas.

Making Good Consult Presentations - Part II

This is the second part in a three part series on “What makes a good consultancy presentation?” As part of the series I am interviewing three consultants working with three consultancies and asking them what it takes to create and deliver a good presentation. Young consultants should find these posts really useful.

In today’s post I interview Mr. Ankur Choudhary, an IIM Calcutta graduate who has spent six years in Deloitte & ECS. Let’s begin the interview.

AAP: What is the most important thing in a consult presentation?

Ankur: It is your content. What you say is far more important than how you say it. If I have to give a weightage it would be like this: 60% content, 20% design and 20% delivery. A client can put up with a bad presenter but not with a bad analysis & recommendation.

AAP: Knowing what your client expects is very important. How do you find out what your client expects from your presentation?

Ankur: You need to spend a lot of time understanding the key stakeholders. It can be the MD or the head of department. You need to talk to them, know what they are concerned about and what are the main pain points (key issues) for which you have been hired. Focus the presentation on solving their problem. This will ensure that you don’t have a problem.

AAP: How do you structure a presentation?

Ankur: How you structure your presentation will flow from how you want to present your findings. You can start with the solution (recommendation) upfront and build arguments to prove it. You can also choose to throw all possible solutions and keep evaluating each one of them as you proceed in the presentation. In the later option, you build the presentation like a story and reveal the plot at the end. Whatever be your method, ensure that connect and flow are logical. The analysis presented in a slide should be connected to the next slide in some logical manner.

AAP: How do you emphasize on the main points of your presentation?

Ankur: You can lay emphasis on certain important points by repetition. You can attach a small summary at the end of each part of your presentation where you emphasize the main points of that section. Finally at the end of the presentation, you can again summarize. This ensures that your main points are driven home in the minds of the client.

AAP: What are the common mistakes which most presenters make?

Ankur: I would highlight the important mistakes which young consultants should learn to avoid.

1. Not understanding the key stakeholders well. What are their problems and what are they expecting from you?

2. Do not present the same analysis to the same people twice. It’s a waste of precious managerial time.

3. Do not have typo errors in your presentation.

4. Do not use different font sizes and style across the presentation.

5. Do not use clip art. It’s not considered professional.

6. Do not make colourful presentations. It makes the presentation look informal.

AAP: How have consult presentations changed over the last five years?

Ankur: A lot has changed in the past five years. The emphasis has shifted towards content and analysis. Earlier one could get away with a wonderfully delivered presentation. Not anymore. The clients have gone wiser.

AAP: What would be your final advice to young consultants?

Ankur: There are two things you should always follow:

1. Understand the pain points of the stakeholders and orient your work, analysis and presentation towards it.

2. Spend time analyzing and drawing conclusions from data rather that beautifying your slides. Do not spend too much time making your presentation look beautiful. You are paid for the content and not for the design.

Making Good Consult Presentations - Part I

This is the first part in a three part series on “What makes a good consultancy presentation?” As part of the series I am interviewing three consultants working with major consultancies and asking them what it takes to create and deliver a good presentation. Young consultants should find these posts really useful.

In today’s post I interview Mr. Rangarajan V, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and a consultant at A.T. Kearney, Mumbai.
AAP: What is the most important thing in a consult presentation?

Rangarajan: Just like in a movie a presentation has to have a solid storyline. It is very important to have the structure and the flow right. The main thoughts should be placed correctly and should be linked together so as to go on and prove your point (recommendation).
This will only happen if you understand what your audience needs. Do not focus on peripheral issues, but try to zero in on the main problems at hand and focus your presentation on them.


AAP: What are the mistakes one should avoid in consult presentations?

Rangarajan: There are two mistakes which I have seen most consultants commit.
1. Not listening to what the audience in saying while the presentation is on. You cannot start presenting X while your audience wants to know Z. You will only realise it if you are listening. Be flexible and talk of Z, then come back to X.

2. Putting too many thoughts on one slide. We all know that one slide should talk of one idea. But then an idea can have multiple dimensions. In that case people end up putting everything up on the same slide and confusing the client (audience).


AAP: How should one present charts and graphs?

Rangarajan: It is easy to fumble here. However great it might look but avoid using complicated graphs like radars, etc. Choose the simplest chart option; a bar, pie or line chart. Simplicity is the key. Use a few lines of text to summarize what you intend to say with the chart. Give the source of data and have a proper caption and legend.


AAP: Why do consultancies have templates? Does it not act as a disabler?

Rangarajan: A template is there to have consistency of identity. All the presentations from one company should look and feel similar. The template does not limit your thoughts nor does it act as a constraint.


AAP: Why do you give Executive Summary at the start? Is it not like revealing the plot before the movie has begun?

Rangarajan: Consultants present their recommendations to the top management. These people are always short on time and are interested in knowing the final action and how it impacts their business. How did we arrive at the recommendation is secondary. So it is advisable to start with a good detailed executive summary.


AAP: Is there something we can learn from consultants abroad?

Rangarajan: Rehearsal. Consultants in India are always busy making last minute changes to their slides. This does not leave enough time for rehearsal. When I say rehearsal what I mean is a complete dry run; standing and delivering the entire presentation at one go with the projector.


AAP: What would be your final words of advice to young consultants?

Rangarajan: Relax. Do not get nervous if you don’t have all the answers to your clients' questions during the presentation. However hard you may work and prepare there are always questions you have no answers to. Accept it and move on.

Consult Presentation Series

Consultants make presentations all the time. They work on a project for months and at the end their output is just a presentation. It encapsulates their understanding, their analysis, their recommendation and implementation plans. It is a showcase of their work and their talent. Their job depends on it.

Considering all of this, one thing is clear. No consultant can live without knowing how to present. When I say present it means understanding what to say (content), how to arrange it (design) and how to say it (delivery).

So if you want to be a consultant or are already one, what I am going to do will definitely be of interest to you. I am coming up with a three part series on "How to make good consult presentations?"

In the course of this three part series I would be interviewing three consultants from established consultancies in the world and presenting their thoughts on questions like:

What's the most important thing in a consult presentation?
What are the common mistakes young consultants commit?
What are the trends in consult presentations over the last five years?
How to gauge what the client expects from your presentation?
How do you structure a presentation?
How do you use chart and graphs in presentations? and so on...

These three interviews will be posted in the next two weeks. If you also have a question for these consultants then shoot them to me at vivek [at] jazz factory [dot] in or leave a comment here and I'll get them answered for you.