1. Chapter 8: Making Client Presentations
PROPOSAL WRITING
Chapter 8: Making Client Presentations

2. MAJOR CONTENTS Step 9: Presenting the Proposal to the Client
Planning Steps
Organizing the Presentations
Practicing the Presentations
Survival Tips

3. Step 9: Presenting the Proposal to the Client
A client presentation is actually a sales talk.
You are selling the client on three major points:
You have a thorough understanding of the client’s situation
You have the best solution for the client’s needs
Your firm is the best one to do the job

4. Step 9: Presenting the Proposal to the Client
Good presentations are a matter of planning, organization, and practice

5. Planning Steps Why Are You Giving the Presentation?
Who Is the Client Audience?
What Do You Plan to Say?
When and Where Is the Presentation?

6. Planning Steps Why are you giving presentation?
Education or information
Propose recommendations and gain acceptance
Initiate action
Evoke interest
Interpret, clarify, evaluate
Introduce new ideas
Sell or persuade
To write a good objective, there are three criteria to keep in mind:
Attainable
Measureable
Reaslistic

7. Planning Steps Who Is the Client Audience?
In general, companies are interested in five main ideas:
Reduce costs
Increasing return on investment
Saving time
Improving quality and performance
Raising productivity
Planning step is more important than you may think. Many outstanding proposal ideas die on the presentation floor simply because the proposal team forgot about tailoring its talk to the client’s needs.

8. Planning Steps What Do You Plan to Say?
Separate what the client needs to know from what is simply nice to know
Do not bring up sensitive issues in the presentation
What the client doesn’t need to know
What areas you should avoid
When and Where Is the Presentation?
By knowing when and where the presentation will be given:
you know how much lead time you have to develop the talk.
you plan where to place your visual aids and what seating arrangement
You can estimate how much travel time to allow for yourselves and your
material

9. Organizing the Presentation
Organizing the Topic
Creating Text and Visual Aids
Organizing Your Team
Take Care of the Details

10. Organizing the Presentation
Organizing the Topic
You need to use an organizational approach tailored to captivate an audience’s interest and hold its attention throughout the talk.
The problem-solution approach
The descriptive approach
The best alternative approach
The events approach
The technical approach
By dividing the topic into categories, you can develop a concise, informative outline that addresses all the main points without bogging you down in excessive detail.

11. Organizing the Presentation
Creating Text and Visual Aids
Think about the best combination of text and visual aids to convey
Visuals are essential to any presentation as being more
supplement or enhance your presentation, not serve as the main focus or substitute for content that should be communicated verbally (main points are lost).

12. ORGANIZING THE PRESENTATION
Organizing Your Team
Do for the presentation and when and how they are supposed to do it
Be sure to have backup team members available about his or her particular area responsible for handling client questions

13. ORGANIZING THE PRESENTATION
Taking Care of the Details
Pay attention to the details
Do not assume that the client will be able to
supply what you need
Extra markers
Spare light bulbs for the projectors
Scissors
Tape and the countless other supplies

14. Practicing the Presentation
Practicing Individual Talks
Roleplaying with a Live Audience
Dress Rehearsals
Learning How to Relax

15. PRACTICING THE PRESENTATION
Practicing Individual Talks
All team members should practice their individual talks with other team members to refine the content and to coordinate visual aids
Roleplaying with a Live Audience
The entire presentation should be given in front of an in-house management audience
The audience’s role is to critique the presentation and provide realistic feedback for the team
Dress Rehearsals
Put all the talks and visual aids together in a setting that resembles the actual client meeting room as closely as possible
Develop the best arrangement of seating, equipment and speaker position
Learning How to Relax
Secret: it is impossible to be physically relaxed and emotionally terrified at the same time. Follow three guidelines:
Breathe
Move
Get Support (emotional support)

16. Survival Tips Handling Troublesome Questions
Turn the situation to your advantage
First and foremost, remain calm
Receive all questions cordially
Listen carefully to the question
Avoid flip or off-listen carefully to the question he-cuff answers
Avoid trying to impress or please your audience with a fast rejoinder
Keep the statement “I” centered instead of “You” centered
If questioner appears to be openly hostile or aggressive
Use a bridging technique follow with positive points
Question the questioner
Use humor to defuse the situation
Stay in control of the exchange