Formal oral presentations communicate a message in a way that is unlike any other method of delivery. Nothing is more influential than a dynamic, face-to-face presentation followed by a lively discussion among the various stakeholders.

A powerful presentation will endure in the minds of the audience and ultimately become a motivating force that positively influences their decision making. To make your presentation memorable, you must understand what makes people receptive to what you have to say, deliver a credible and convincing message, and stay focused on your topic.

This involves a great deal of deliberate, thorough preparation. It must not be treated as an impromptu event. To ensure the success of your targeted outcome, your presentation must be thoughtfully planned, it must be insightful, and it must be compelling.

This book describes the essential elements, processes, and behaviors needed for preparing and delivering an impactful, enduring formal oral presentation. Its focus is on selling products and services of all types, in both commercial and government buying/procurement applications.

It provides you with sound guidance based on decades of successful, real-world experience and lessons learned. Templates are provided to help you sharpen your presentation. All material covered is applicable to both individual and team presentations. And, when considering winning approaches and strategies, it applies to your professional life and your personal life as well!

Expert tips and instructions are included to help you learn how to win the hearts and minds of your audience. The book describes in detail how to develop and deliver your message to win potential customers, influence people, and ultimately obtain an enthusiastic and reassuring nod from decision makers.

In a selling environment, oral presentations are fundamentally very different from written proposals. Winning oral presentations require much more than merely demonstrating compliance with the customer’s requirements or entertaining the audience.

From the perspective of your customer or the people you’re attempting to influence, formal oral presentations exist only to help them decide how to best satisfy their goals and objectives. This is a critical part of their decision-making process.

Through interaction with you, your key personnel, and your team, an oral presentation offers a singular opportunity for you to convince the customer that you are uniquely qualified to satisfy their needs. To rise above the competition, your presentation must demonstrate distinctive value that addresses all their requirements, it must be brilliantly easy to understand, and it must be memorable.

There are many common misconceptions about oral presentations. If any one of them influences your presentation planning and preparation process, it can contribute to a less than successful outcome. Potentially toxic assumptions include the following:

• Orals are simply a briefing.
• Orals are a verbal summary of a written proposal or document.
• An orals coach or speech coach isn’t required.
• Orals only minimally affect decisions or influence the customer/audience.

Don’t allow any of these misconceptions to negatively impact your presentation. Orals are truly unique and present you with an opportunity to shine. Don’t fail to capitalize on this opportunity! Understand the principles and processes that winners use to deliver an oral presentation as a powerful differentiator in the eyes of the customer.

Formal oral presentations are not unique to a particular market segment or industry. Just think about how important an oral presentation can be for any purpose. Think about how it ultimately impacts the selection process in the mind of any decision maker.

Most people use a variety of inputs to make decisions, but nothing can influence and connect you with your audience like a successful face-to-face meeting followed by an honest and open discussion. Important facts that could easily be missed via the written word are emphasized, graphics and illustrations are thoroughly described and discussed, questions are answered on the spot, and most importantly, the decision maker experiences first-hand what it’s like to work with you.

As you prepare yourself and your team for an oral presentation, remember one thing: an absolute will to win is essential for success. This commitment will energize your proposals and presentations, and it must dominate and drive everything that you do.

Government Orals — What They Are, How They Originated, Why They Are So Important, and the Requirements the Government Must Follow When They Are Used

Understanding Why Orals Became a Part of the Government Procurement Process and How They Are Used Is a Key to Success

The orals process originated in the 1990s when the government determined that orals offered an efficient way to streamline the procurement process, minimize and clarify outstanding issues associated with the procurement, and improve the overall quality and end products of the acquisitions. The orals process also allows the government to evaluate the competence of key personnel, understand how key personnel (including teammates, subcontractors, and vendors) work together, and although not a formalized requirement, assess how well the government team feels it can work with the contractor’s team. For these reasons, and others discussed in this book, orals are an exceptionally important part of procurement when they are called for by the government.

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.102 states that oral presentations may substitute for or augment, written information provided by the bidder. Taken to the extreme, this means that the government may not require a written technical proposal and can base their entire selection on an oral proposal supplemented by certifications, representations, and a signed offer sheet (cost/pricing). Winning the contract can depend entirely upon the responsiveness and quality of your presentation.

Think of an oral proposal in the same way you would a written proposal. The contracting officer must establish the ground rules for the presentation in writing, may record the presentation, and will score the orally presented information according to the criteria stated in the solicitation document.

On this point, FAR 15.102(d) states: “When oral presentations are required, the solicitation shall provide offerors with sufficient information to prepare them.” Accordingly, the government solicitation may describe the following items:

1. The types of information to be presented orally and the associated evaluation factors that will be used for scoring.
2. The qualifications for personnel that will be required to provide the oral presentation.
3. The requirements for, and any limitations and/or prohibitions on, the use of written material or other media to supplement the oral presentation.
4. The location, date, and time for the oral presentation.
5. The restrictions governing the time permitted for each oral presentation.
6. The scope and content of exchanges that may occur between the Government’s participants and the offeror’s representatives as part of the oral presentations, including whether or not discussions (see 15.306(d)) will be permitted during oral presentations.

The Appendix of this book includes the FAR language associated with oral presentations (FAR 15.102). Although there have been few changes to the criteria for orals over the years, it’s always a good idea to check the latest release of the FAR to review and understand all current requirements.

Customer’s Objectives

Understand the Customer’s Direct/Indirect Goals and Objectives

Customers use oral presentations to evaluate any number of formal and informal buying criteria and assist them in their decision-making process. Their goals and expectations include, but may not be limited to, the following:

• Understand proposal content and individual/team competency.
• Assess face-to-face interaction and compatibility with the presentation/implementation team.
• Observe how key personnel
  • – Present themselves.
  • – Work together.
  • – Interact with the customer.
  • – Communicate information.
  • – Address and answer questions.
• Interview the account manager, program or project manager, and key personnel.
• Test the ability of the team’s leadership in a variety of ways.
• Reduce their supplier selection time and cost.

To win, you must be well prepared to address these criteria as carefully and diligently as you would in a written proposal. Complexity arises from the fact that orals are a stage show that must be believable, persuasive, memorable, and engaging. The presenters are the performers, and the audience and evaluators are the customers—the people who will ultimately make or greatly influence the final buying decision.

Designing compelling team presentations that meet your customer’s complex needs is much more challenging than preparing and delivering individual presentations. Generally, team presentations require many people, more material is presented, there are more opportunities for errors and inconsistencies across the presentation, and timing can become an issue. For this reason, we will concentrate on team presentations even though every principle and technique described in this book is equally applicable to individual presenters.

Your Team and Your Team’s Objectives

Carefully Select Your Team Members Based on Individual Qualifications, Not on Pure Sales or Speaking Skills Alone

An effective presentation team will use orals as an opportunity to:

• Address all your customer’s requirements.
• Show that your team understands your customer’s needs and desires.
• Demonstrate knowledge, competency, and capabilities.
• Articulate win themes and discriminators.
• Stress strengths.
• Mitigate weaknesses.
• Counter or exceed the competition’s strengths.
• Subtly call attention to your competition’s weaknesses; also known as “ghosting.”
• Demonstrate that your team’s leadership, product, or service is the best for your customer.
• Connect with your customer.

Select presenters based on their qualifications, not on their presentation skills. Carefully examine the qualifications that your customer is looking for: the skills needed to perform the work following a contract award combined with demonstrated successful past performance in like environments or situations. There is no substitute for experience when measured against other key qualifications. An orals or speech coach can help you develop winning presentation techniques in days, but there is no way to credibly insert years of valuable experience into an empty resume.

As you assemble your team, remember that your customer, audience, and evaluators will be looking at, and listening for, key attributes of your team and its approach. Specific questions exist in the customer’s mind, and it’s your job to ensure they are answered and fully satisfied. Here are just a few of those questions:

• Do the individuals making the presentation work well together as a well-rounded team?
• Is the prime contractor really in charge here? Do their subcontractors and vendors integrate well into this team? Do they complement each other or do they conflict with each other?
• Does the entire team have a clear understanding of what I’m looking for as their customer?
• Can I work well with this team?
• Will this team work with me as issues arise in the future?
• Is this team committed to our mutual success?

Orals Coach or Speech Coach?

When Learning a New Skill or Enhancing an Existing Skill, Use a Professional

A professional orals or speech coach can help to prepare each presenter to deal with the unfamiliar psychological environment that contributes to orals complexity and the angst that most people feel when required to stand up and formally address an audience. A major source of anxiety in every speaker facing a new presentation environment is a fear of “the unknown.” Indeed, there are many unknowns to worry about! An experienced orals coach can help to eliminate this fear and put speakers at ease.

There is an important distinction between an orals coach and a speech coach. A speech coach will hone your presentation skills but will not necessarily work the presentation content or your ability to address your customer’s needs. An orals coach will not only provide advice and guidance on presentation skills but will also help to ensure your presentation content addresses your customer’s needs and specific requirements.

An orals coach will also assist you in understanding how to deal with post-presentation question-and-answer sessions (Q&As). How you respond during a Q&A can easily determine if you will win or lose, regardless of the quality and overall effectiveness of your formal oral presentation or written proposal. Never underestimate the importance of the Q&A, and always ensure that your team is well prepared to deal with it.

In short, an orals coach not only polishes every aspect of your presentation but also addresses compliance with all the customer’s needs, including how to respond during the Q&A. In an environment in which the customer is using orals to help reach a decision, these two elements of the presentation—compliance and Q&A responsiveness—are crucial and can make the difference between winning and losing.

The orals coach will guide each presenter to project the following:

• Confidence—the single most important thing that each member of the team must have.
• Expertise in their respective areas.
• Detailed and specific knowledge of the customer’s needs and requirements.
• Passion for both the subject and their desire to serve the customer.
• Commitment to the customer’s mission.
• Energy, honesty, and sincerity.
• Reliability, responsibility, dependability, and motivation.
• Compatibility with their team and with the customer.
• Soft skills that are designed to engage to the customer include the following:
  • – Being convincing, enthusiastic, thorough, and positive.
  • – Aligning your thinking and delivery to support and reinforce the messages being articulated.
  • – Addressing your appearance, gestures, posture, and ability to clearly project the message.
  • – Bringing out your most likable personality traits (and candidly squelching the ones that are detractors).

An effective orals coach will guide you through the proven process described in this book to ensure you address all customer needs and team objectives thoroughly, competently, and in a compelling way that your customer will remember. Your coach will ensure that you are exceptionally well prepared to function professionally, capably, and impressively in a formal orals environment.