Why Do Business School Preach Positive or Selling Presentations?
Picture a business conference... A business person is giving a presentation on a product of interest, new invention, new idea, or a popular concept to be incorporated with a product of service. As they are presenting they are spitting out every positive feature, benefit, and how it will succeed. (In other words this person is trying to market their product) They show how it will fit into the finances, the plan to implement it, and how everything will integrate etc. Then finally the sample of the product or service at work. (a show and tell if you will) At the end of the presentation a barrage of questions ensues mostly of a negative nature- How will this work when our company is only breaking even? Why would this be any different from what we've been doing in the last 124 years? This seems way too costly? This will never work you would have to change the entire companies culture for it to be accepted.
Well being a great presenter that this business person is he counters every question into an answer and more importantly a "positive" answer. In essence trying to sell this product or service he is trying to sell. These questions are too easy for the presenter your basically telling him, "you have a great shot if you come up with a great answer please, sell me into your product or service". Why Why in the world would investors do this? Some do there homework and formulate there own opinion some rely on experience. A great presenter can change an investors mind (investor goes in does his homework knows that a product or service has an 80% fail rate but in the end he votes the plan in- this is called a great seller and yes this does happen in the business world). However, I believe in the logical approach, "How realistic is this? what are the good and bads? and how are you going to fix the bads?"
So lets go back to the question session of the business presentation. The presenter is ready for every hard and critical question. The following questions----- in a script format.
PRESENTER: Thank You for listening to my presentation about widgets. I am happy to answer any questions.
Questioner 1: What are all the negatives of your product or service? In other words, what will make this venture fail?
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
uh oh what happened here? The question was bold and up front and not sugar coated. The presenter at this point is shocked and can only say in basic terms "I don't know".
Questioner 2; Your financials seem to suggest how the widget can produce wealth when the company is making a profit and the economy is well. However, what would happen to the financials as well as the demand if the economy were to falter and the company could not compete at the level it is now.
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
Questioner 3: If we launch your widget and it fails to produce any money what is plan b or c or d or e? What if the employees rebel to this new widget? How will it be modified?
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
So what happened to this particular presenter well he heard a statement saying, "Your presentation seems to be a propaganda to sell your widget, in the question session you didn't have answers to the most important questions therefore, we ask you to be more prepared in your future presentations and be more realistic, he teared up and threw his note cards at his boss and said "I quit!"
Hard lined questions and no answer from the presenter. In this session the presenter loses because the questions that are asked were not mainstreamed and were not "sell me" question. They were quite bold and upfront questions.
So, why do business schools preach to present a positive presentation no flaws, no fail, no bad points? How does this make any sense from a non-selling point of view? It doesn't? It's fluff and the question sessions are fluff. Why would you ask "sell me" questions?
How will this work when our company is only breaking even?
Why would this be any different from what we've been doing in the last 124 years?
This seems way too costly?
Solutions?
Not the questions to ask. When making a presentation one should be conservative but also show that their product or service can make a profit even in the down turn and show it (during questionnaire or presentation). One should show the positives as well as negatives that can come about from this service or product. Having a balanced presentation catches people off guard and makes the presentation much more interesting. Prove how it works, how it can succeed, how it can fail, how to fix it when it fails and how it can be accepted. People tend to ignore the acceptance especially when they push for a new system.
For instance, former workplace I was at had a new way of tracking how many came in. For about 5 or 6 years it just sat there gathering up dust. Well maybe they didn't have the software or gadgets for it? No.... It was because they did not want to use it for many reasons, too complicated, old way is better, or they were just lazy. So the time finally came when the company stepped in and basically had to force my former workplace to use it.
In the end the business schools and companies need to stop living in the fairytale fantasy of "ethical" or "acceptable" business "selling" presentations and more on Business "logical" presentations. I've seen many companies (and many companies I've worked for) where there implementing a system where they were sold that "this is a better way of doing things". What happens? Some cases the companies lose millions, some cases its successful or some cases it creates chaos. But just think about those cases where it loses money or creates chaos, "who thought of this stupid plan" "why did they implement it" "how can they be so stupid" Well here's why....
Selling Presentation
Winning the investors with confidence, little bit of facts and hope
They formulate a plan
Implement it with flaws
it fails and there is no plan b and they are too far into it.
Simple...
Well being a great presenter that this business person is he counters every question into an answer and more importantly a "positive" answer. In essence trying to sell this product or service he is trying to sell. These questions are too easy for the presenter your basically telling him, "you have a great shot if you come up with a great answer please, sell me into your product or service". Why Why in the world would investors do this? Some do there homework and formulate there own opinion some rely on experience. A great presenter can change an investors mind (investor goes in does his homework knows that a product or service has an 80% fail rate but in the end he votes the plan in- this is called a great seller and yes this does happen in the business world). However, I believe in the logical approach, "How realistic is this? what are the good and bads? and how are you going to fix the bads?"
So lets go back to the question session of the business presentation. The presenter is ready for every hard and critical question. The following questions----- in a script format.
PRESENTER: Thank You for listening to my presentation about widgets. I am happy to answer any questions.
Questioner 1: What are all the negatives of your product or service? In other words, what will make this venture fail?
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
uh oh what happened here? The question was bold and up front and not sugar coated. The presenter at this point is shocked and can only say in basic terms "I don't know".
Questioner 2; Your financials seem to suggest how the widget can produce wealth when the company is making a profit and the economy is well. However, what would happen to the financials as well as the demand if the economy were to falter and the company could not compete at the level it is now.
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
Questioner 3: If we launch your widget and it fails to produce any money what is plan b or c or d or e? What if the employees rebel to this new widget? How will it be modified?
PRESENTER: At this time I do not have sufficient information to answer right now but I will get back with that answer at a later time.
So what happened to this particular presenter well he heard a statement saying, "Your presentation seems to be a propaganda to sell your widget, in the question session you didn't have answers to the most important questions therefore, we ask you to be more prepared in your future presentations and be more realistic, he teared up and threw his note cards at his boss and said "I quit!"
Hard lined questions and no answer from the presenter. In this session the presenter loses because the questions that are asked were not mainstreamed and were not "sell me" question. They were quite bold and upfront questions.
So, why do business schools preach to present a positive presentation no flaws, no fail, no bad points? How does this make any sense from a non-selling point of view? It doesn't? It's fluff and the question sessions are fluff. Why would you ask "sell me" questions?
How will this work when our company is only breaking even?
Why would this be any different from what we've been doing in the last 124 years?
This seems way too costly?
Solutions?
Not the questions to ask. When making a presentation one should be conservative but also show that their product or service can make a profit even in the down turn and show it (during questionnaire or presentation). One should show the positives as well as negatives that can come about from this service or product. Having a balanced presentation catches people off guard and makes the presentation much more interesting. Prove how it works, how it can succeed, how it can fail, how to fix it when it fails and how it can be accepted. People tend to ignore the acceptance especially when they push for a new system.
For instance, former workplace I was at had a new way of tracking how many came in. For about 5 or 6 years it just sat there gathering up dust. Well maybe they didn't have the software or gadgets for it? No.... It was because they did not want to use it for many reasons, too complicated, old way is better, or they were just lazy. So the time finally came when the company stepped in and basically had to force my former workplace to use it.
In the end the business schools and companies need to stop living in the fairytale fantasy of "ethical" or "acceptable" business "selling" presentations and more on Business "logical" presentations. I've seen many companies (and many companies I've worked for) where there implementing a system where they were sold that "this is a better way of doing things". What happens? Some cases the companies lose millions, some cases its successful or some cases it creates chaos. But just think about those cases where it loses money or creates chaos, "who thought of this stupid plan" "why did they implement it" "how can they be so stupid" Well here's why....
Selling Presentation
Winning the investors with confidence, little bit of facts and hope
They formulate a plan
Implement it with flaws
it fails and there is no plan b and they are too far into it.
Simple...
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