Condense Your Presentation

There’s an old military leadership principle called the “One-third/Two-thirds Rule.” Essentially, it states that a leader should use only one-third of the time available before a mission for his own planning; the remaining two-thirds of the time he should give to his troops to prepare. Sales reps should follow the same rule when giving sales presentations, recommends Michael Boylan, CEO of management consulting firm Accelerant International (www.accelerantinternational.com). Boylan calls it the “1/3…2/3 Condensed Presentation Format” and says sales reps who follow it will be more successful and feel more comfortable presenting than those who strive to fill their entire allotted time with slides and commentary.

Here’s how it works. Divide the total time you have been given for your presentation into thirds. You get the first third to give your presentation; your audience gets the second two-thirds to ask questions and dig into the areas of greatest concern to them. So if you’re given half an hour to present, you must complete your formal presentation in the first 10 minutes and leave the remaining 20 for your audience. You do this not by fast-talking like a cattle auctioneer, but by covering only the “top third” of each section in your presentation, says Boylan. Open with the teeth of the presentation – “The basic gist of what we’d like to convey today is how we can reduce your current X in the range of Y to Z percent over the course of 14 months….” – then cover one-third of each section to show how you’ll meet that assertion.

When you’re done, with 20 minutes still left on the clock, your audience will likely be sitting in shocked silence. They will be “pleasantly surprised and impressed with your level of organization and time management,” promises Boylan in his book, Accelerants: 12 Strategies to Sell Faster, Close Deals Faster and Grow Your Business Faster (Portfolio, 2007). Once they get over their shock, they’ll start hitting you with questions that will be “all over the map.” Don’t let it rattle you. Instead, remember you still have two-thirds more information on each key point. When the audience asks to hear more about a certain topic, you can pull up the appropriate slides and dig into them. Also remember that by letting your audience drive the direction of the discussion at this point, you can be confident you’re talking to the issues that are of most concern to them. It’s a vast improvement over talking for half an hour and hoping you touch on something of interest.

To deliver the condensed presentation, prep the room with flip charts you have folded up to the top so the audience can’t see what is on each one. As the presentation progresses, unveil each chart one by one. That way, when it is the audience’s turn to ask questions, they can see at a glance everything that was covered – something they can’t do with a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, by remaining on your feet and moving across the room, you’ll keep the energy level higher. And by using flip charts instead of PowerPoint – at least for that first third of the presentation – you’ll need to keep the lights up, which will help everyone stay awake.

“Some of our clients say it’s more exciting to be a part of this type of presentation,” concludes Boylan. “The questions come faster, and the tone is livelier.” All of which results in a better presentation.