A Quick Tip for your Presentations

Article submitted by: Jay Lipe, CEO

When I was a marketing manager for Novartis, I worked with several folks who were notorious for meddling. They were indecisive in their marketing actions and it started to seep over to my area.

We were all in Jacksonville one year, to give a presentation to the national sales force and executive staff; 75 people in all. I had finished organizing my slide presentation (this was before the days of PowerPoint) and was comfortable with the flow. The day before the big presentation I did not want to fuss and fidget over the whole thing. I just wanted to play golf with the sales force (can't emphasize enough the value in marketers' building bridges with sales folks).

Anyway, 2 hours before my tee time I got a call from my boss who wanted me to cancel golf and come over to "just practice your presentation in front of us". I politely declined and went off to play golf.

The next day I was first on for the presentations and I thought it went well. Then my counterparts, all of whom "practiced" their presentations at the session I passed on, proceeded to go on.

What do you think happened?

Every one of their presentations was jumbled, poorly organized...heck, some slides were backwards and some were UPSIDE DOWN. In short, these presentations, the ones that had been "practiced" the day before, had clearly suffered from changes, edits, and reedits up until the 11th hour.

To suggest you always institute a 48 hour lockdown on your final presentation before it is given. That way you can focus on how to tell your "story" the best way possible.

Jay Lipe is the president of Emerge Marketing LLC, a firm that helps growing companies focus their marketing. He is the author of the books The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson Press, 2002) and Stand Out from the Crowd: Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity (Kaplan Publishing, Fall 2006). He is also a sought after speaker and seminar leader, and can be reached at 612.824.4833, through his Smart Marketing blog or through his website. Hear a podcast interview with Jay discussing Small Business Marketing.