Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story In Presenting to Win: Persuading Your Audience Every Time, the world’s #1 presentation consultant shows how to connect with even the toughest, most high-level audiences–and move them to action. Jerry Weissman shows presenters of all kinds how to dump tho
Customer Review: You will never present the same way again…and your audiece will thank you
Jerry Weissman is one of those rare people who has written an authoritative sounding book about how to present and has the real experience and background to justify every claim he makes.
The book starts with the premise that the presenter must focus on the audience and that he must make them focus on him. He must understand the mental point they are at (Point A) and moves them to Point B. He must understand what is in it for them (WIIFY) and constantly use it as he constructs every slide to walk them to Point B. He must also understand the setting of the audience, and his main points of argument. Finally, he must tie those points together with a flow structure that fits his argument.
That’s the first half of the book and as someone who has through some awful presentations, I can only wish reading this book were the equivalent of a driver’s license for public speakers.
The back half of the book draws on his background in television and employs standard cinematic techniques to improve the appearance of PowerPoint. It’s easy to overlook this part, but it makes a huge difference as well.
I’ve now had a chance to see people who have used these techniques for years present, and it makes a huge difference. I have also seen someone present in a tough situation using these techniques for the first time. This person is level-headed and not given to fads. His comment? “I wish I had run to Jerry’s book ten years earlier.”
If you speak in public, this is the one book you have to read, and re-read. It is common sensical, based in fact, and surprisingly intuitive.
Customer Review: How to take your listeners where you need them to go.
We’ve all sat through presentations that dragged on forever, but led nowhere. What’s worse, we’ve probably even given a few. As the author puts it, “The problem is that no one knows how to tell a story…and no one knows that they don’t know how to tell a story.”
Author Jerry Weissman boils it down to telling a compelling story. That’s easy to say, but hard to do. With this book’s guidance, you can become an effective communicator–whether convincing employees of the need to change, persuading prospects that you have the best solution or leading skeptical community groups to support your cause.
Presenting to Win overflows with practical advice on how to engage an audience by telling your story with a focus on what’s important to them. You become an `audience advocate’ whose concern for your listeners’ needs puts them at the heart of your presentation. As Weissman describes it:
“Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A, a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal…navigating them through an unbroken series of Aha!s…to Point B, a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates, ready to march to your drum.”
By following Weissman’s detailed roadmap, we can learn how to tell stories that move and motivate our listeners by keeping them engaged from a compelling start to a big finish.
Silicon Valley Presentation Guru
Weissmann’s first career was as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter. His friendship with venture capitalist, Ben Rosen, led him to his second career as a presentation guru. In 1988, he launched a business that taught high tech executives to move from feature-laden, techno-speak dissertations to engaging, listener-centric presentations. Yahoo, Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel all benefited from his teachings.
The Opening Gambit is Just the Beginning
Weissman offers plenty of real world anecdotes, how-tos, and helpful graphics that convey how to grab and keep your audience. His opening gambit concept typifies his approach. He first offers the rationale, supports it with multiple success stories, and describes a broad range of opening gambits.
To engage an audience, an opening gambit pulls them out of a state of disinterest or suspicion about you and your presentation. Asking questions is one of seven such gambits discussed. In 1993, Scott Cook founder of Intuit (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks) faced a jaded audience of investment bankers. Rather than launch into a feature packed discussion of his new product, he asked two questions:
* How many of you balance your own checkbooks?
* How many enjoy doing it?
After a round of chuckles, he continued, “You’re not alone. Millions of people around the world hate balancing their checkbooks. We at Intuit have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive home finance tool named, Quicken.” With this `Aha’ moment, Cook was off and running.
Beyond the Opening Gambit–Components of Successful Presentations
Equally insightful chapters on presentation essentials provide a level of detail and clarity that leaves nothing to chance. They include:
* Story development
* Graphic design
* Delivery skills
* Tools
* Q & A techniques
In each case, Weissman
Presenting to Win: A Blueprint Worth Following
Weissman demonstrates that even those of us who aren’t naturals can present to win. Learning what he teaches requires significant effort because his approach contains such a broad range of interrelated elements–and includes variations that differ depending on purpose, topic, and audience. Making it easy for our audience is hard for us. But, as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Intuit, and Yahoo learned, the effort is well worth it.
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