Presenting to Win The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition

by Weissman, Jerry

• ISBN13: 9780137144174
• ISBN10: 0137144172
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-17
• Publisher: FT Press

Summary

Named by FORTUNE Magazine as a "Must-Read" "Jerry Weissman makes the challenge of producing and delivering effective presentations delightfully simple. Read it and benefit!" Tim Koogle,Founding CEO, Yahoo! "A great read for all of us who have ever struggled with any aspect of our public speaking skills. Presenting to Win contains the same timeless techniques that helped me [18] years ago." Jeff Raikes, former President, Microsoft Business Division, Microsoft Corporation, and CEO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "Jerry is The Man when it comes to making great pitches. If your pitch doesnrs"t get a whole lot better after reading this book, something is wrong with you." Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director and Chairman, Garage Technology Ventures, and bestselling author of The Art of the Start "Presenting to Win is the shortest path to applause for any presenter. It will be your bible for the PowerPoint Age. Itrs"s loaded with easy actions and real examples that really work. Irs"ve used them. I know." Scott Cook, Founder, Intuit Thirty million presentations will be given today. Millions will fail. Millions more will be received with yawns. A rare few will establish the most profound connection, in which presenter and audience understand each other perfectlyhellip;discover common groundhellip; and, together, decide to act. In this fully updated edition, Jerry Weissman, the worldrs"s #1 presentation consultant, shows how to connect with even the toughest, most high-level audiences...and move them to action! He teaches presenters of all kinds how to dump those PowerPoint templates once and for all and tell compelling stories that focus on whatrs"s in it for the audience. Weissmanrs"s techniques have proven themselves with billions of dollars on the line. Thousands of his elite clients have already mastered them. Now itrs"s your turn! bull; What you must do to tell your story Focus before Flow: identifying your real goals and message bull; The power of the WIIFY: Whatrs"s In It For You Staying focused on what your audience really wants bull; Capture your audience in 90 secondshellip; and never let go! Opening Gambits and compelling linkages bull; Master the art of online Web conferencing Connecting with your invisible audience bull; From brainstorming through delivery Crafting the Power Presentation, one step at a time

Author Biography

Jerry Weissman, the world’s #1 corporate presentations coach, founded and leads Power Presentations, Ltd. in Foster City, California. His private clients include executives at hundreds of the world’s top companies, including Yahoo!, Intel, Cisco Systems, Intuit, Dolby Laboratories, and Microsoft.

 

Weissman coached Cisco executives before their immensely successful IPO road show. Afterward, the firm’s chairman attributed at least two to three dollars of Cisco’s offering price to Weissman’s work. Since then, he has prepared executives for more than 500 IPO road shows, helping them raise hundreds of billions of dollars. His techniques have helped another 500 firms develop and deliver their mission-critical business presentations.

 

Weissman is the author of the global bestseller Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003); In the Line of Fire (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005) and its companion DVD, In the Line of Fire: An Interactive Guide to Handling Tough Questions (www.powerltd.com); and The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America’s Top Speaking Coach.

 

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Updated and Expanded Edition	p. xvii
Preface: What's Past Is Prologue	p. xxi
Introduction: The Wizard of Aaahs	p. xxiii
The Mission-Critical Presentation
The Art of Telling Your Story
A New Approach to Presentations
The Psychological Sell
Company Examples: Cisco Systems
Microsoft
You and Your Audience	p. 1
The Problem with Presentations
The Power Presentation
Persuasion: Getting from Point A to Point B
Audience Advocacy
Getting Aha!s
Company Examples: Network Appliance
Luminous Networks
The Power of the WIIFY	p. 11
What's In It For You?
WIIFY Triggers
The Danger of the Wrong "You"
Company Examples: Brooktree
Netflix
Luminous Networks
Getting Creative: The Expansive Art of Brainstorming	p. 21
The Data Dump
Managing the Brainstorm: The Framework Form
Brainstorming: Doing the Data Dump Productively
Focus Before Flow
Company Example: Adobe Systems
Finding Your Flow	p. 41
The 16 Flow Structures
Which Flow Structure Should You Choose?
Guidelines for Selecting a Flow Structure
The Value of Flow Structures
The Four Critical Questions
Company Examples: Intel
Cisco Systems
BioSurface Technology
Tanox
Cyrix
Compaq Computer
ONI Systems
Epimmune
Capturing Your Audience Immediately	p. 69
Seven Classic Opening Gambits
Compound Opening Gambits
Linking to Point B
Tell'em What You're Gonna Tell'em
90 Seconds to Launch
Winning Over the Toughest Crowd
Company Examples: Intuit Software
DigitalThink
Mercer Management Consulting
Cisco Systems
Yahoo!
Macromedia
Argus Insurance
TheraTech
Microsoft
Network Appliance
Cyrix
ONI Systems
Laurel Elementary School
Communicating Visually	p. 91
The Proper Role of Graphics
Presenter Focus
Less Is More
Perception Psychology
Graphic Design Elements
Company Example: Microsoft
Making the Text Talk	p. 103
Bullets Versus Sentences
Wordwrap
Crafting the Effective Bullet Slide
Minimize Eye Sweeps with Parallelism
Using the Build
Bullet Levels
Verbal Style
Visual Style
Text Guidelines
Making the Numbers Sing	p. 121
The Power of Numeric Graphics
Bar Charts
Pie Charts
Typography in Numeric Graphics
The Hockey Stick
Subtle? Yes, But...
Using Graphics to Help Your Story Flow	p. 133
The 35,000-Foot Overview
Graphic Continuity Techniques
Presenter Focus Revisited
Graphics and the 35,000-Foot View
Company Examples: Modex Therapeutics
Intel
Bringing Your Story to Life	p. 163
Verbalization: The Special Technique
Spaced Learning
Internal Linkages
Internal Linkages in Action
Verbiage
Company Example: Central Point Software
Customizing Your Presentation	p. 183
The Power of Customization
The Illusion of the First Time
External Linkages
Gathering Material for Customization
External Linkages in Action
Company Examples: Elevation Partners
Cisco Systems
Animating Your Graphics	p. 197
How Versus Why and Wherefore
Perception Psychology
Cinematic Techniques
Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 and 2007
Animation Options
Animation and the Presenter
Company Example: Microsoft PowerPoint
The Virtual Presentation	p. 215
Anytime, Anyplace, Anyone
How the Virtual Presentation Works
Preparing for Your Virtual Presentation
Connecting with Your Invisible Audience
Creating a Winning Virtual Presentation
The Future of the Virtual Presentation
Company Examples: Microsoft Office Live Meeting
Cisco Systems WebEx
Pitching in the Majors	p. 229
End with the Beginning in Mind
It All Starts with Your Story
Practice, Practice, Practice
Every Audience, Every Time
Company Example: Microsoft
Tools of the Trade	p. 235
Presentation Checklists	p. 237
Acknowledgments	p. 241
About the Author	p. 243
Index	p. 245
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Foreword to the Updated and Expanded Edition Foreword to the Updated and Expanded EditionIn the five years since the publication of the first edition of Presenting to Win , I am proud to say that it has made a significant impact upon readers, selling more than 100,000 copies in 12 languages. By the same token, I am surprised to say that it has not had as great an impact upon the presentation trade. Despite the many gratifying emails, letters, and telephone calls from around the globe praising the book, and despite the continuing stream of clients that take the Power Presentations program upon which the book is based, I've discovered that most presenters, after reading the book or taking the program, nonetheless default to a practice counter to the main theory in its pages.Simply put, that theory is stated in the subtitle: The Art of Telling Your Story . True to its promise, the book offers techniques about that classic art, but it does so for only two-thirds of its total pages. The other third is about graphic design in presentations, yet that aspect is not even mentioned on the cover. The imbalance is intentional.The reason for this emphasis on the story, which includes sharp audience focus, clear structural flow, strong narrative linkages, persuasive added value, and even specific positive verbiage, is that the story is much more important than the graphics. No audience will react affirmatively to a presentation based on graphics alone. No decisions are made, no products sold, no partnerships forged, no projects approved, and no ships of state are launched based on a slide show. Witness the powerful speeches that move hearts and minds: State of the Union addresses, inaugurals, nominations, eulogies, sermons, commencements, keynotes, and even locker room pep talks. None of them uses slides.Therefore, what presenters say and how they say it are of far greater importance than what they show . That is why the lion's share of this book is devoted to helping you tell your story, and why I have even written about the delivery of your story . . . your body language, your eye contact, and your voice . . . in a distinctly separate new book: The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America's Top Speaking Coach .Does this mean that I am recommending that you abandon all slides ye who enter the podium area? Not at all. Microsoft PowerPoint has become the medium of choice from grade school rooms to corporate boardrooms, and far be it from me to advise a sea change as radical as complete rejection. Graphics play several valuable roles: as illustration of key information, as reinforcement of messages, and as prompts for the presenter, so please leverage this powerful tool.All I ask . . . no, urge . . . you to do is to use PowerPoint properly, by applying the repertory of techniques provided in the other third of this book. The most essential of which is the overarching principle of relegating your graphics to a supporting role, making you, the presenter, the primary focus.This seemingly simple plea for a shift of emphasis unfortunately has found very few converts. Presentations are still universally defined by and equated with the slides. This is standard operating procedure with every type of presentation, from IPO road shows to private financing, from product launches to industry conferences, from board meetings to sales pitches, and in every sector of business, from information technolog