Slide spin Personal Work Book

Slide Spin – Personal Work Book

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Contents

Contents ......................................................................... 2

Preface ............................................................................ 3

Introduction .................................................................. 5

AboutSlideSpin,Themainbook..............................................................................................5KeyTakeaways..........................................................................................................................6SalientFeatures.........................................................................................................................7Commonmythsaboutpresentations........................................................................................8

A SIMPLE test before we begin….. ............................... 9

WhatcausedthisGapandhowdoIbridgethis?....................................................................12

Thought Constipation Diagnostic .............................. 13

ConstipationTracker...............................................................................................................16

Brush Up or Rush Up? ................................................. 17Aristotle’smodesofpersuasion..............................................................................................18CreatinganURGE....................................................................................................................20Summary.................................................................................................................................24Questions................................................................................................................................24

The Boot Camp ............................................................ 25

Path to Victory ............................................................ 29

SearchingforInformation.......................................................................................................37Summary.................................................................................................................................40Questions................................................................................................................................41

About Author ............................................................... 43

Thank You For Your Time ......................................... 44


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Preface

“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine

them. “

Nathaniel Hawthorne This book is a companion workbook to my main book on presentation design– The Slide Spin – Essential Presentation Skills for Career Success. My main book, “Slide Spin – Essential Presentation Skills for Career Success” introduces various concepts to create the presentations in a methodical manner. This workbook explains how to put those ideas to practical use. Each chapter in this book starts with a summary of the underlying concepts described in the primary textbook. The idea is to make sure that the readers of Slide Spin get a chance to revisit and recall those thoughts. In case you have not read the main book, we recommend you to read it so that your comprehension will be total. Once you brush up these concepts, you will get a chance to assess your skills, record and remove inhibitions and benchmark your performance. The examples/exercises used in this book are done using the latest versions of PowerPoint on Windows operating system. This book assumes that

1. You have the basic working knowledge of PowerPoint and other office products. 2. You can do basic file operations like Open, Save, Close, Print and so on. 3. You can copy and paste information from various MS office products like

PowerPoint, Word and Excel. In case you are new to MS Office or MS PowerPoint, we recommend you to complete a basic course before reading this book. What can you expect from this book?


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1. Teaches you how to create compelling presentations even if you don’t have any

prior experience in designing. 2. Gives you an easy to use practical framework for effective presentation

development 3. Gives you easy to apply communication filter to pack the power in everything

you say 4. Introduces you to many online resources that help you to create stunning

presentation decks on your own 5. Gives you several practical insights of the presentation development life cycle


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Chapter 1

Introduction

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and

uses these skills to accomplish his goals. Larry Bird

In this information age and connected world, a great presentation could make or break a product, an idea or career. Communication and presentation skills are vital for personal and professional success. It is a well-established and the most acknowledged fact. However, this is also one of the most ignored aspects. Presentation is one of the best ways to express your creativity; impress boss/ client and fast track you to job success. Instead, most people dread them so much that they procrastinate starting them. The result of that apathy? Confused client / frustrated boss. A lost opportunity. One of the distinct features of a Democracy is the Freedom of Expression. Similarly, the distinct feature of a Meritocracy is the Power of Expression. While a democracy offers you the freedom of expression, you need to acquire the power of expression in a meritocracy. Slide Spin is all about acquiring such power.

About Slide Spin, The main book For your convenience and instant understanding, the summary of Slide- Spin is given below:


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Key Takeaways

• Creativity is a skill and can be acquired: Creativity is neither a gift that acquired

# What we feel/need….. Is covered in this chapter…..

1 Most people feel that they do not have the required capabilities to organize/manage and event/ presentation show, etc.,

Chapter #1 unveils and demonstrates our natural abilities to rise to any occasion.

2 We also feel that we lack creative skills to design presentations.

Chapter #2 demystifies several myths associated with creativity and presentation design.

3 The majority of the presentations fail to deliver because they are not developed in a structured method. We need a practical and proven method to develop the presentations for any occasion.

Chapters #3 through 8 explain various concepts, techniques and best practices to develop persuasive presentations

4 Having developed a presentation, we also need to know how to deliver the presentation.

Chapter 9 outlines few vital tips for presentation delivery

5 Once we develop a presentation, we may need to send the same to various people for revision/approval/final consumption. We need to understand the most effective ways to do so.

Chapter 10 introduces various techniques, and best practices to distribute our content in the most seamless manner.

6 We need to follow various trends and be up-to-date with various developments about presentation crafting

Chapter 11 evaluates various online tools/presentation platforms and covers various technology advancements

7 Despite all these, we need some help for creating presentations

Chapter 12 introduces various resources/ time savers available online to drastically reduce the effort and time taken for presentation creation and enhance the overall quality.


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by birth or a legacy that can be inherited. Creativity is not a super-specialty like Rocket Design or Neurosurgery. We have heard people say, “Born with a silver spoon in the mouth” but we yet to hear anyone say, “Born with a streak of creativity in the brain.”

• A great presentation could make or break a product, an idea, even an entire career. • Some people suffer from a condition called Thought Constipation. They have

excessive difficulty in articulating and expressing their thoughts in a simple yet ‘comprehendible’ fashion.

• Thought constipation is the #1 breeder of most problems we have at the workplace. • When it comes to presentations, the content is the king and context is the kingpin.

Understand the context first and decide the content accordingly. • It is not about how much you can pack in a presentation. It is about how much

they can unpack and consume. • Creating presentation is much like preparing a layered cake. You need to

identify the right ingredients, follow the right process and decorate it appropriately.

• PRISM framework offers a step-by-step method for presentation development and makes it a structured process.

• SIMPLE framework offers a six-stage content refinement process. • It is not sufficient if we design the presentation well. We also need to take care of

subtle issues involved while distributing it. • While developing presentations, we are never alone. There are numerous

resources available online which can save lots of time and enhance the overall quality of the presentation.

• We need to surf our inner-net to find if we have a flair for creating presentations.

• Talent mining is no different from water mining. We need to get the expert (in this case, the talent diviner) to explore our hidden potential. We need to take the effort to dig deeper to develop the skill. We need to practice and refine it further until it becomes an established talent.

• One of the distinct features of a Democracy is the Freedom of Expression. Similarly, the distinct feature of a Meritocracy is the Power of Expression. While a democracy offers you the freedom of expression, you need to acquire the power of expression in a meritocracy. Slide Spin is all about acquiring such power.

Salient Features

1. Prescribes cure for all Big 5 behind-the-slide conditions 2. Unveils PRISM, a step by step method for structured and guided development 3. Introduces S.I.M.P.L.E, a 6 stage filter for communication 4. Explains tips and tricks to do pre and post presentation activities 5. Reviews several online resources for presentation assistance 6. Explores various presentation platforms 7. Explains talent mining tips


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Common myths about presentations Following are some of the key myths of a person who wish to pursue presentation speaking skills § Myth # 1: I am not a creative person.

§ Myth # 2: My current job does not demand presentation skills.

§ Myth # 3: We have very good content on our website, plenty of advertisement

material designed by our ad agency. We also have the latest research reports. I can

include all these in my presentation.

§ Myth # 4: We have very good content on our website. I just need to copy and paste. I

am done.

§ Myth # 5: If my idea is not good, I will get ridiculed and I have to face plenty of

criticism, which I cannot handle.

§ Myth # 6: Creating presentations is a daunting task. I don’t have an expert at

presentations to help me when I am struck. Why start something that I cannot

complete anyway?

§ Myth #7: I have seen some of the best presentations with awesome graphics,

animations and brilliant presentation techniques. I don’t understand graphic design;

I know nothing about creative tools.

In this book, we will bust each of these myths and will prove that presentation design is a fun activity and is open to all. Jump in !


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Chapter 2

A SIMPLE test before we begin…..

“Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.” – Mark Twain

Most people in the corporate world have a general tendency to repurpose and recycle presentations. E.g., They show Induction presentation to a Business Prospect and vice versa. Invariably, they end up giving a wrong presentation to a wrong audience. What do we call this? Implementing Corporate Penal Code and sentencing the audience to a near death experience. The punishment term could be one hour or can even get extended to a full day. I am still discounting the shock the audience suffers after the CPC session. Needless to mention, depending the situation, it can prove to be very costly to the organization. How do we know if you have implemented CPC (Corporate Penal Code) in the past? Well, take your last presentation deck and ask yourself the following questions. Rate each aspect of your presentation on a scale of 1 to 10. Give 1 for Worst and give 10 for the Best. # Aspect Weightage Your

Rating

Final Score

1 Content presented is entirely relevant to the intended Subject or Solution Eg:

2


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# Aspect Weightage Your Rating

Final Score

You did not give the induction presentation to a business prospect.

2 The content thoroughly covers listener’s Interest and context. They are interested in seeing the only point: WIIFM, What Is In It For Me.

3

3 The claims you have made and items you have stated were fully Measurable and verifiable. Eg: Did you mention abstract statements like “we have a huge list of clientele.” “We have a mass following.” We are the largest. “Our customers love us.”

1

4 Each slide has a purpose and carries a Prime takeaway.

1

5 The primary objective of the presentation and the underlying message is Loud and Clear. Eg: Stating benefits rather than features. Articulating the end state blueprint. Mentioning resource utilization (Money, People, Time, etc.,)

1

6 The overall presentation is Easy on eye and brain. Reduce 1 point each for non-compliance:

1. Use of jargons 2. Excessive use of English: Phrases, too many

Adjectives, repetitive words 3. Round about expressions 4. Font size lesser than 14 5. Rainbow colours 6. Excessive animations, e.g., Letter by letter

animations (Cut ten marks for each animation) 7. Swoosh sounds for animations 8. Unformatted numbers 9. Large Paragraphs or bullet items with more than

ten words 10. Any other innovative ideas to confuse the audience

3

To sum up..


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q Content is within the Subject boundary q It matches with the Interests of our audience q Every statement / fact/ claim that is made is completely Measurable q Every Slide has an item that carries and conveys our Prime objective q All messages packed in bullets are Loud and Clear q The overall presentment is Easy on Eye and Brain Finally, Is your presentation SIMPLE? You will know in a minute. Now,

1. Multiply your rating with the weightage for each question. 2. Total your score

Write your Score here

Now, request one of the audience who sat through your presentation till the end (it could be your Friend/ Client/Boss/ Peer/ Subordinate or whoever). How did they rank you? If you could not get the score from them for whatever reason, no problem. What is your self-assessment of what could be their rating? We will not publish the result on your face book wall. So, mention the correct score.

Write their rating here

Now, Subtract your score from their score

Gap # Type of Presentation Permissible Gap

1 Revenue / Monitory Impact <5

2 Relationship Rescue / Rebuild <5

3 Matters concerning the interests of the Organization / Customer / Family / Nation

<5

4 New Concept / Idea <10

5 Any Other Presentation <10


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What caused this Gap and how do I bridge this? The gap could be because you did not have ideas or did not know how to express them. Whatever be the issue, This condition is called Thought-Constipation. Everyone has it to some degree, and it is entirely curable.

Figure 2.1

Mild constipation can cause minor bottlenecks. Severe constipation emits toxins and can become a hindrance and roadblock to your success. We will addresses the issue of Thought-Constipation to a large extent.

Figure 2.3


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Chapter 3

Thought Constipation Diagnostic

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

In this section, we will check your current thought constipation level. Remember, every person suffers from thought-constipation to some extent. It could be because of wrong consumption habits, lack of fibre ( means absence of content and bad judgement of the context) Given below is a list of questions. You need to answer Yes or No. Give yourself one mark for each ‘Yes’.


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# Question Score

1. I find it difficult to express my ideas 2. I often realize that I assume others know 3. People seem to understand my viewpoint after they have experienced it

themselves and not when I explain them

4. Often people tell me “You did not come across that way.” 5. Most of our prospects don’t respond to my calls after I give my

presentation to them.

6. I know that our presentation looks outdated, but I don’t have any idea how to improve it.

7. I always want to explain things better but realize that I fail miserably. 8. I always envy people with excellent communication and presentation

skills.

9. I could have done better in my career if I had little more proficiency in my presentation skills.

10. I always struggle to explain my ideas to my friends and colleagues. My boss trashes most of my thoughts.

11. I want to take a new initiative that can transform my workplace, but I don’t know how to initiate the discussion.

12. The application I use at the office sucks. I have few ideas on improving the user interface, but I do not know how to explain it to the IT team.

13. We have created a great product, but none of our clients/prospects seem to be interested.

14. We have built great products and services, but our customers and prospects always undervalue them.

15. Most of our prospects don’t even respond to my calls after they see my presentation.

16. I know that our presentation looks outdated, but I don’t have any idea how to improve it.

17. We waste a lot of time in making changes to our business applications. The amount of rework after each review is killing productivity, time, money and even our enthusiasm.

18. Enhancing my presentation skills help me achieve higher productivity and effectiveness.

19. I need to pick up some essential persuasion skills before I get promoted or give way to my peers and juniors who can present information better than me.

20. I keep looking for help frantically at all directions, but God does not give me a hand in this area alone.

Please visit the assessments section of www.MySlideStudio.com and take an online assessment. I will have the report mailed back to you.


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If you have scored above 95, Congratulations! You are passionate about your work and you are clear about your objectives. I am sure you will go through both these books to get that extra bit of knowledge. If you have scored between 70-95, you are there but your approach needs little bit of tweaking. This book is all about fine tuning your innate talents. Scored <70 ? Do not worry. This book will help you to master the presentation

skills you need. Remember, it pays to sharpen the saw. You will find my two books extremely useful. Low scores indicate one of the following behind the slide conditions:

• Thought Constipation • Slidorrhea

Figure 2.2

Ever since the birth of the Presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote, we were led to believe that high skills in these tools helps us communicate at our best. Remember, presentation skills are not about getting proficiency in PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation skills are also not about using fancy colours and graphics without a compelling content and message. Crafting impactful presentations require a proper strategy and structure. Most presentations fail to convey the point because they lack a structured approach. Slide Spin Twin Books (Slide Spin Main Book and Slide Spin Personal Work Book) help you identify the key requirements for creating persuasive presentations.


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Constipation Tracker If you are serious about enhancing your skills, I recommend you to take this test once in a quarter at at least for the first year. Use this tracker to record your improvement. Date Score Change Reason


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Chapter 4

Brush Up or Rush Up?

“There are always three presentations, for every one you actually gave. The one you

practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.”

-Dale Carnegie

Learning Objectives

At the end of this Chapter you will be able to …. R Understand why outstanding presentations require

extraordinary preparation.

R Understand the critical steps of persuasion

R The sequence of actions to deliver a memorable

presentation

R Answer critical questions required before crafting a strong

presentation


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Outstanding presentations require extraordinary preparation. Presentation development stage is the tight time to strategize and think about the best possible way to market your product, idea or solution. Finding shortcuts in this area can seriously undermine the strength of your product offerings. If you have built something with passion, you need to present it with passion. Let’s assume that you are launching a new company or a product. You are confident that the product you are going to sell indeed offers a phenomenal value to your customers. Your product is ready. You hire a creative agency and they come up with brilliant video, audio and billboard advertisements. Your entire team worked hard and there is an all-round brilliance across all teams. Now, the first customer walks into your office for a 30 minute presentation before he decides to sign up for a large order. What do most of the people do in this situation ?

• Some show product brochures. • Some show the TV commercials • Some read out the advertisements heard on Radio • Some go a step forward by making a fat presentation on company’s history ,

entire product evolution and how you failed at every stage before finally becoming successful.

This is obviously not what your prospect expected to see. What is the price of the botch up on this last step? Yes, Serious presentations require equally serious commitment.

Aristotle’s modes of persuasion A Reliable and practical method to captivate the audience has been discovered way back in 300 BC. What is more interesting is that the same theory holds good in 21 century and will be apt for another 3000 years or more.


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Aristotle defined 3 steps to persuade people. Ethos Credibility, image, public reputation, perceived expertise Logos Words, concepts, logic Pathos Emotions, feelings, gut reactions

Figure 4.1 Aristotle’s Persuasion Model

If you observe the pie chart in Figure 4.1, you will notice that Pathos account for 2/3rds of the impact. It also means that if we connect and appeal to the emotional brain or heart, heart in turn becomes our ambassador and will convince the person to lower the standards on Ethos and Logos. We see this all the time. Grand Ma told us to be Thrift, Mom also repeated, we have also read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” in college. But still, we buy Apple products instead of Apple Stocks! We read “Rich Dad Poor Dad” on our fancy tablet! That’s the power of Ethos and the power of irrationality. That is also theme of this book and vital ingredient in any presentation. 4.1 Now, list down the ingredients of your last presentation. Do they have the vital elements of Ethos, Pathos and Logos?

4.2 While giving the presentation, did any of the speakers practice this?


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4.3 What do we need to add to bring life to our presentations?

4.4 If you have done it, what more could be done to improve this further?

Creating an URGE

Figure 4.2 Creating URGE


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Whether it is a large project or small product, you need to create an urge in the customer’s mind to accept it. Most of the gadgets we own today are the examples of the irrational urge. The same is true even for movie, stage show or even a presentation. You need to create the urge to get more.

1. Understand the Situation 2. Offer Remedies 3. Demonstrate Gain (of accepting your solution) and Pain ( of rejecting it) 4. Build Excitement

Does your presentation create the URGE? 4.5 Do you have the complete understanding of the environment, possible remedies, Gains of your solution and pains if client rejects or postpones?

4.6 What is our remediation process?

4.7 How do we demonstrate Gain?


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4.8 List all items that positively impact the customer if they buy our product / solution

4.9 List all items that have a negative impact of rejecting / delaying our solution.

4.10 How are we conveying the effectiveness of our solution?


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4.11 List the SMART objectives of our action plan.

4.12 How do we create excitement in whatever we say? ( Eg: Ease of implementation , cost gains, competitive advantage, life style change, etc.,

4.13 Close your eyes and picture yourself receiving the mandate from the prospect. How does to feel to be successful in this deal? What would be the impact of this success on your career or the people whom you care for (e.g.: Boss, Spouse, Friend, etc.,)?

Now Start with the end in mind……..


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Summary

Key Takeaways Interest of the audience is the key. If the emotional brains are not unlocked, it is not possible to get our point across. Aristotle has identified 3 key elements to persuade people Ethos, Pathos and Logos. To craft or deliver an effective presentation, we need to captivate the audience. We need to pack the following elements in our presentations to create the urge

1. Understand the Situation 2. Come up with Remedies 3. Demonstrate Gain and Pain 4. Build Excitement

Questions What are the three elements in Aristotle’s persuasion model?

What are the five steps in URGE model ?


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Chapter 5

The Boot Camp

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best.

-St. Jerome

! Before you read this chapter, please read Chapter (Colourful World) of Slide Spin pages – 19 to 24

Learning Objectives

At the end of this Chapter you will be able to …. R Understand the seven colours of a compelling presentation

R Appreciate the need for a structured approach in order to

provide an enchanting experience to the audience


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To create an enchanting presentation, we need to pack the following elements:

1. We need to set the Context and make sure that the context is relevant to the interests of the audience.

2. Articulate our thoughts with the fullest Clarity 3. Achieve a high degree of Credibility by bringing relevant and verifiable data 4. Filter and refine the content and bring in Crispiness 5. Enhance the content and bring in Class 6. We need to bring the element of Connect with the audience by blending a right

combination of content, data, formatting and presentment 7. Maintain the right Chemistry

Figure 5.1 Seven Colours of a compelling presentation

To simplify the presentation design and delivery aspects, I have created a structured framework called PRISM. I have been developing presentations using this model for over six years and I am yet to find a person who is not impressed with my presentations that followed PRISM framework.


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Figure 5.2 PRISM In the coming five chapters, we will:

1. Set a Path for our journey 2. Find out the Recipe for success 3. Identify various elements that bring the substantial Impact 4. Add a Spark and shine to our work 5. Adjust the Modulation to suit our audience

In a nutshell, we will pass our content through the PRISM, we will present a colourful version. To put the actual learning in to a right perspective, we will work on a fictitious project.

Project To develop an attractive Sales & Investor presentation for an organization called FlexiFlow. About FlexiFlow FlexiFlow is an IT services company. One of their divisions has recently developed an IT solution for document and workflow management. Document and Workflow Management vertical is a crowded market with many established players. Many of their competitors are bundling the solution with hardware, and some of them are making it even more attractive by offering decent discounts, flexible payment methods and so on. Sam is the CEO of this organization. Sam is now pitching with a Fortune 500 company to implement their solution. It is a multimillion-dollar deal, and Sam’s team has been


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working for the last six months, responding to their bid invitation and in the process, has created a detailed solution document of over a 1,000 pages. Last week, Sam received a mail that the core project team would be visiting their office during the coming month to get a final solution walk-through. The project SPOC has told him that it is a final stage in the bid process and they will be selecting one solution provider from among three shortlisted companies. The Mandate You have been hired as a consultant to create a compelling presentation for an organization called FlexiFlow. You have ten days to create the first version of this presentation.


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Chapter 6

Path to Victory

If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. Frank A. Clark


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! Before you read this chapter, please read Chapter 4 (Path to Victory) of Slide Spin pages – 25 to 34

Learning Objectives

At the end of this Chapter you will be able to ….

R Understand the need for setting the right context before

developing the presentation

R Ask and answer many questions that define the context

R Understand the Zone of Common Interests between you

and the prospect/presentation audience

R Navigate to the right sources of information and extract

the correct information


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Setting the right Path for your project is the most critical aspect of the whole journey. Job well begun is half done. At this stage, we have to get answers to a lot of questions. More answers = fewer surprises. Try to respond to each of the following questions to a bring a full clarity on the subject. You will be surprised to know how many details were missing before this activity. 6.1 What are the stakes Involved? (How important is this presentation to you / your organization?) This is by far the most important question. This question determines what you will win and what you are likely to lose, depending on whether the final pitch is successful or not. The higher the stakes, the greater the number of hours of preparation, involving more team members. It is just a casual presentation

My life is at risk

6.2 What is the duration? (Number of slides and placement of images depend on the duration) Knowing the duration in advance will help you plan and sequence various steps in advance and uniformly space the presentation of key aspects. No, You are not going to implement CPC again! Make sure that there is no scope for Corporate Penal Code. To the extent possible, ensure that:

1. The presentation time does not exceed twenty minutes in a single stretch 2. The number of slides is capped at twenty 3. You factor one hour of preparation for each slide

30 minutes or lesser

More than 90 minutes

6.3 How large is the presentation room? (We need to apply the colours and font sizes accordingly)


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Small Room

Large Conference Room

6.4 How many participants? (Exclude the members from your team) Three or lesser

More than 20 6.5 Who are all likely to be present? # Name AAA

Rated Person*

Key Man / Woman

Opinion Maker

Trouble Maker

Our brand ambassador

Fence Sitter

Neutral/ Other

AAA Rated Person

While making investments, we always look for the rating of the stock/bond and will make sure that it has the highest rating, i.e., AAA. Similarly, we also need to deal with the person who carries the AAA (Triple A) rating. The person who has the following attributes is THE person:

• Appetite • Affordability • Authority

This person may or may not have the need, but if he/she has the appetite for our solution, it is sufficient for making our pitch. Note: If you are not convinced, take a look at your surroundings. You will find several people playing with their smartphones or people wearing more gadgets than clothes. Eg: More than one smart phone, Bluetooth, Fitness tracker, iPod and so on


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and on. Similarly, if there are affordability and authority, then we are talking to the right person. The people who do not qualify on these three aspects cannot take the decision independently. We can still speak to them because they may be the opinion makers but the person with AAA rating is the ultimate.

6.6 What is his/her knowledge about the subject we are going to present? – For AAA Rated Person He does not know much He carries an old baggage

6.7 What is his/her knowledge about the subject we are going to present? – Trouble Maker He does not know much He carries an old baggage

6.8 What are the top five things that they expect from us?

6.9 What are the top five things that they like?


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6.10 What are the top five things that they dislike , un-comfortable or anxious about?

6.11 What are the top Five questions we need to ask them before the presentation ?

6.12 What are the top Five questions we need to ask them during the presentation ?

6.13 What are the top Five questions we need to ask them after the presentation ?


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6.14 What are the top Five assumptions we need to list out before start of / during the presentation ?

6.16 What are the top Five items we want to showcase?

6.17 What are the top five take-away points of the presentation?


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6.18 What are the questions we need to ask them?

Remember, you will get more respect, and you will instil more confidence by asking the right questions than answering questions right. 6.19 What do we expect from them towards the end of the journey? Eg: We want them to cut the check immediately / They just need to clap and go

6.20 What are the authentic sources of information to create this presentation ?


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6.21 Who has this information within the organization and what are their stakes in this project?

At this stage, you might be wondering. “Is it necessary to go through so much of

pain?” The answer is Yes. Although this looks like a long list, It takes less than an hour but will save many hours for you and the people using your presentation.

Searching for Information Gathering the information required could be a daunting task if you don’t know who has what kind of information. With many people supplying the information, the activity becomes so much complicated than ever before. The following matrix simplifies the collection of data.

Figure 6.1 Suram’s Knowledge Source Navigator


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Slip Cat: If the person has lower involvement / interest in the project, he is less likely to be useful and less likely to give information on time. Some support functions come under this category. You always need to approach them first to make the best utilization of time. If the person in the support function ( Low Interest) has high Knowledge to share (usually members from IT/Finance/Risk Management come under this category), You need to be on top of this. Camel: If the person has high involvement but has low knowledge, he/she can be used to validate the information provided by the people in diagonally opposite category (i.e., High knowledge with low interest) Dolphin: You need pally with the individuals in the High Knowledge/High Commitment quadrant. They will be most likely to be with you until the end. Dodo: You can safely avoid people with low involvement and low knowledge on this subject. E.g., you don’t want to discuss your project with a dispatch clerk. 6.22 List out the information requirement , source , quadrant and person responsible # This

information….. Can be sourced from this channel…

And this person should share it with me…

And he/she belongs to this quadrant…..

Therefore the priority is….

6.23 What is the profile / of participants?

# Person Category Knowledge Perception Specific Expectations

Network Strength

1 Person with AAA rating

2 Opinion-maker 3 Trouble-maker/

Troubled party

4 Favourable/ Most inclined

5 Fence-sitter 6 Neutral


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6.23 How large is your zone common interests? When your organization’s offerings match with the requirements of your client, you can expect them to engage with you. The intersection of common interests is your sweet spot. Refer to the Figure 6.2 Zone of Common Interests. Your organization /product you wish to sell comes with some benefits for the customer. This could be one or more of the following : 1. Solving a present pain point (Cost, Time, Bottleneck , etc., ) 2. Improvement of efficiency, Service Standard 3. Enabling more options to have a higher competitive advantage for them 4. Have a sustained growth and matching with their road map Larger the intersection, deeper will be the engagement which in turn results in higher revenues, profits, and deeper relationship. This is the most important question you need to have perfect answers to. Most of the times, most organizations leave money on the table either because they fail to respond to this question or fail to portray their strengths appropriately.

Figure 6.2 Zone of Common Interests

7 Unknown


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6.24 List out all your features and place a tick against the envisaged outcomes for the client # Parameter Outcomes for Client / Prospect Current

Pains Improvement Areas

Competitive Advantage

Future Enablers

Other Factors

1 Core Competency

1.1 1.2 1.3 2 Unique Selling Proposition 2.1 2.2 2.3 3 Value Addition 3.1 3.2 3.3 4 Product / Organization Road Map 4.1 4.2 4.3

* Specific to your business vertical/geographical/political or economic conditions. It is also a good idea to repeat this exercise for your close competitors. If your common interest scale is larger than that of your competitors’, you can make the arrangements for your celebrations in parallel!

Summary

Key Takeaways

R We have set the overall context and objectives for the presentation and gathered critical inputs for setting the overall direction of the presentation.

R We have listed out various critical points such as top

objectives, points to communicate, points to absorb and points to clarify.

R We have also analysed the audience profile and made an

attempt to estimate their expectations.


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R We have listed out various sources of

knowledge/information and created a benchmark for validating the data based on the source where it comes from

R We have also established common interest intersection

and further refined our scope

R We have listed out critical outcomes (or the benefits) of the solution implementation.

Questions 1. What are the four quadrants in Suram’s knowledge source navigator?

2. Arrange the sources based on the quantity and quality ( Highest quality and

quantity first)

3. What is the Zone of common interests? How is it relevant to our current exercise?


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4. What could be the different outcomes of the solution that client is interested in?

Chapter 1

Introduction


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About Author

SuRaM, Subba Rao Mukkavilli is a digital thinker and business management professional with in-depth expertise of launching start-ups and has in-depth knowledge of enterprise application and team integration. He has expertise in people and process alignment, business transformation and strategic IT management. He has more than 20 years of experience across various facets of IT viz application architecture, network architecture, security, User Interface design, etc., Suram’s book on presentation skills called Slide Spin has recently received Global eBook Award, California, the USA in Silver Category. During his free time, he writes articles and blogs on various platforms. He is currently working as Executive Director at Karvy Insurance Repository. He can be reached at [email protected]


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Thank You For Your Time

Thank you for your time. Hope you have enjoyed

reading the Slide Spin book and found it useful. You can download the presentation template by subscribing to the newsletter. I truly value your feedback to develop the book further. I would be grateful if you can take out few minutes to leave a review on Amazon.com.

Yours truly, Subbarao Mukkavilli

Documents

Slide spin Personal Work Book