I see content development as a far larger piece of the pie. It is analyzing a business problem, determining the behavior an organization wishes to change and how they wish to change it. Content development is arranging time with the right people and ferreting out information from business partners and subject matter experts. And of course, content development includes designing impactful instructional experiences, crafting tools to guide those experiences, and measuring the results.



Do you agree? I would enjoy hearing from you.

Send a Motivating E-mail Reminder to Participants before the Presentation


Keeping your future attendees aware of the event will help to build excitement for it. If applicable, remind participants why the presentation is valuable to them personally, not just to their organization. Ideally, you want the attendees to feel as though they get to participate in your virtual presentation, rather than that they have to do so. Playing up what they stand to benefit from it personally only increases your chance of this outcome. Be sure that your requests highlight what would be of value to them, not to you. This announcement should be more detailed than the confirmation. Include help-desk information for technical problems that may occur before or during the virtual presentation. Warn participants not to plan to call from a cell phone. Often the reception is poor, and everyone gets to hear the static. Finally, recommend that audience members participate in the presentation using a headset or a quiet room, so that they can concentrate and not disturb others.


Review and Refine your Presentation Materials

If you have conducted the virtual presentation before, take some time to refine the presentation based upon your prior experiences and to personalize the presentation to the attendees. Include their company logo in your presentation and handouts. Use terms that are part of their industry jargon.


Check the Room where you will be Conducting the Event
If possible, gain information on the rooms that the attendees will use. If several participants are located in the same remote site, check that the site meets your needs in terms of the size and layout, access to computers, number of chairs, and equipment in working order. 

As the presenter, you may use a conference room, a corporate office, or your home office. You just want to make sure that you have a quiet and private location to eliminate distractions. If you will be conducting your virtual presentation from a home office, place the dog outside and ask your family to go to the mall or a park.

Select your Wardrobe

Lean toward the conservative side. Wear neutral, solid clothing. Avoid stripes, plaids, and floral designs. Make sure that your clothes contrast with the background colors. Try everything on beforehand to ensure that you have not gained enough weight to make for a distractingly too-tight outfit. This is the time to learn that a shirt is missing a button or that you need to take a trip to the dry cleaner.

Build a List of Participants
Include participants basic job information, and distribute the list to all attendees. This will provide attendees with a sense of community and you with a vehicle for referring to participants by name and knowing something about them. Add more information about attendees as they introduce themselves, such as their company, department, position, and what they hope to glean from the presentation. 

Upload Supporting Materials
If your virtual presentation software supports uploading materials to a shared folder, upload everything that you intend to distribute during the session to the folder. Then you won’t have to worry about whether participants will be able to access the materials easily before, during, and after your presentation.



Rehearse!
There is no substitute for rehearsal time. Each speaker needs to practice delivering her presentation aloud as if there were an audience listening. Rehearsing is the only way to work out timing, find the right words, and become comfortable with transitions and segues between talking points. Audiences can easily distinguish between a presenter who is confident, unrushed, and unflustered and one who is struggling with phrasing and pacing. When you rehearse, practice slowing down your speech. Most presenters tend to move too quickly and risk breezing by a key point. When you rehearse, do so using the computer that you will use for the presentation. That way, you will be able to recognize and resolve issues way ahead of time.

This is an except from “Virtual Presentations that Work”, published by McGraw-Hill and available from Amazon.com and other fine book sellers.

Let that phrase sink in. If you expect to be able to show your face in your clients’ offices again, that is how you have to leave them feeling.

1. Never Forget that you are Working With People.
You may think you are working with the FCA Company, but not really. You are working with Tina, Jim, and Joan. People who have hopes, wishes, and dreams. People who have families, and good days and bad days. Sure, they expect to get what they contracted for out of this project, but they also expect to get something else. Maybe it is a promotion, recognition, or a new set of skills.

No matter who you are working with on a project—it may even be the janitor—there is one thing you need to remember: They are employees of your client’s organization and you are not. You can never afford to forget that. I don’t care how important you think you are. I don’t care if you have a doctorate, 20 years of experience, and can weave a magic carpet with your toes. Clients are much closer to their own staff than they are to you. It is also far easier to eliminate you than to fire them. Unless you never intend to work in this town again, you need to treat every client employee like gold. And of course, no griping, complaining, gossiping, or speaking ill of people you are working with. It is unprofessional and will always come back to bite you.

2. Set Reasonable Expectations.

Peter Block in his book FlawlessConsulting,(1981), talks about the importance of being up front with your clients about what they can expect of you and what you can expect from them. He also discusses a consultant’s natural inclination to avoid talking about his or her expectations and needs for fear that it may blow the project.

Yes, there are clients who would like consultants to be able to complete projects without any involvement on their part. There may be some clients who expect consultants to know nothing, and rely on them to direct even the smallest of activities. However, the truth lies in the middle. Completing a successful project typically involves a collaborative effort. Good clients already know this. It is no secret. Getting this out up front is a good way of planning for success instead of avoiding failure.

3. Be Flexible. 

Stuff happens! Stuff that you and the client could not have foreseen. The consultants of those clients who are “dancing in the streets” know that a good relationship requires flexibility. 

4. Give Just a Little Bit More. 

Getting the job done is no longer enough. For clients to be “dancing in the streets delighted,” you have to give them a little bit more—and I cannot tell you what that is. It could be being flexible about their need to slip the schedule for a couple of weeks or it could be revising that module after it was set in concrete. Folks these days expect a little bit more, and they will get it from you or someone else.

5. Do a Darn Good Job. 

I don’t care how smooth you are. I don’t care if butter melts when you walk in the room. To retain clients and be invited to do other projects with them, you have to do a good job. Whenever you can, quantify the success of your project by its return on investment. The bottom line is that cream rises, garbage does not.

Block, Peter. Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. San Diego; Pfeiffer & Company, 1981.


This is an except from “Consulting Basics”, published by ASTD Press, and available from ASTD, Amazon.com, and other fine booksellers.

Always attempt to be the “guide on the side.” Unless you are a thrilling speaker or a Nobel Prize winner, or unless your audience is composed of young children, no one fully appreciates a sage. Attendees want to have some participation in the experience and some involvement in its direction. You are the presenter, though, and you are there for a reason. You were chosen because of your credibility and expertise. You have a great deal of wisdom and knowledge to share. That is not enough. A major factor in the success of your presentation will be your ability to relate to the members of your audience and get them involved in your presentation.

2.  Everyone likes a good story

Use case studies or stories to engage participants. Ask participants to share their own experiences related to the content. A good story is like the peanut butter with the pill inside—it makes everything go down more smoothly. When people are relating to you, they will be more open to the information that you present and whatever actions you suggest that they take.

3.  Use strong presentation strategies. 

Present key ideas using different types of media. These include text, graphics, animations, illustrations, diagrams, schematics, and models. Keep in mind that excessive animation can be distracting and that lengthy text is difficult to read on the screen. Use additional presentation strategies that include simulations, analogies, case studies, examples of doing it “right,” non-examples that feature what not to do, mnemonics, jokes, war stories, and testimonials. The sky is the limit, and you are restricted only by your imagination. There are many different content delivery types (lectures, interviews with subject matter experts, participant demonstrations, and so on), and you should switch between them frequently. Tell stories to support your main points, and add interesting photographs and other media. Present information in a video format when you need to conduct a live demonstration or to include a message from senior management or other company leaders. 

4.  Present familiar information from another point of view. 

If you are covering the history of England, do so from the perspective of King Arthur. Try acting out the role of the customer and presenting information from her standpoint on the efficient usage of the application you’re presenting.

5.   Focus on the delivery, not just the content.

While the content of your presentation is crucial, the way you deliver it plays a huge role in how the audience accepts your message. Here are a few important guidelines to adhere to.

● Stick to the schedule.
● Structure your presentation for maximum affect. 
● Present information in short and logical chunks.
● Maintain a casual and effective tone. 
● Keep a brisk pace. 
● Use repetition artfully.
● Gracefully handle distractions 


This is an except from “Virtual Presentations that Work”, published by McGraw-Hill Professional, and available from Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.

Focus on enabling attendees to answer the following questions:

Why did they come there? What was their goal?
What will they do tomorrow, in a week, and in a month to attain that goal?
What was their experience like?
What type of support can they expect from you, or from others?
What will success be like for them personally? 
How will they continue what they have started today?

Two Great Unfounded Fears

Most presenters have two unfounded fears: (1) that they will finish their presentation early, and (2) that they will not have enough time to share all the information that they wanted to cover. Since most of us are well versed in the subject matter of our virtual presentation, we feel that we have a great deal of knowledge and would like to share as much of it as we can with our attendees. Often, we overestimate the amount of knowledge that suits our goals and attendees’ patience. Whenever possible, slim down your virtual presentation so that you can end on time. Most of us have complained when presentations ran over, but I do not think that anybody has ever complained when one ended early. We are typically overjoyed that we have a few moments in which to send an e-mail or make a call before our next meeting. Finally, it is far better to leave your audience hungry for more than overwhelmed than bored with having received too much. Let the attendees crave a bit more, so that they will explore on their own, attend your more advanced presentation, or look forward to a follow-up call.

Receiving Feedback
One of the best ways to improve your virtual presentation is to solicit feedback on how well it went. As I’ve mentioned before, there are several ways to do this, such as asking attendees to complete a comment form or a survey. You may also feel that if they do not complete the form while they are in the presentation, they never will. You are probably right! My recommendation is that you think very hard about what type of information you really need and keep your questions to a bare minimum. Reasonable requests are:

How likely are you to use the skills covered in this presentation within the next week?
Are you interested in knowing more about how our event management services can make planning your next event more convenient?
How comfortable do you feel with your knowledge of our new health plan? 
Are there any areas that you still find unclear?
Would you like to stay in touch? How (e-mail or phone) and when?

Be very specific, and do not ask for information that you are not sure you will use. Regardless of how much time you give them, participants will probably spend less than a minute providing you with information, so choose what you request wisely. You can always send a more detailed questionnaire in a day or two.

Never End a Presentation with a Question-and-Answer Session
You need to end your presentation with an inspirational finale and a call to action. Nothing is more deflating than then a question-and-answer session. Try doing these throughout your session or early in your ending. I know that this sounds counterintuitive, but trust me: it works.

Be Helpful
Display your e-mail or Web address for at least 30 seconds toward the end of your presentation. This will convince attendees that you really do want them to contact you if they have any questions. Be sure to respond to any questions in 24 hours or less.

Disconnect Please
Ask all attendees to disconnect from the session, and make sure that they do so. Be very sure of this before you make any comments that you may regret later. People have lost good careers for not being careful about making sure that all attendees gave disconnected before making “questionable” remarks.

This is an except from “Virtual Presentations that Work”, published by McGraw-Hill Professional, and available from Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.

Need to present to more than 25 people at the same time

As stated previously, there is only so much space in a conference room. Whenever you need to send a message to the entire floor or the entire company, your best bet is to go virtual.

Need to reach people far away (cheaply)

If it’s in your company’s best interest to keep the travel budget low, then a virtual presentation can get your message across while saving a fortune in airfare. Virtual presentations will enable you to reach larger and more dispersed audiences that you may not have been able to reasonably accommodate in the past.

Have serious stage fright

Some people are excellent communicators in certain settings, but deathly afraid of being in the spotlight. They are great on the phone, but not so good in person. Although programs like Toastmasters can be beneficial in the long term for helping such people improve at presenting in person, in the short term, a virtual presentation is ideal.

Need the more advanced capabilities of virtual presentations.

You should consider using virtual if it would be beneficial to archive your presentation for viewing by those who were not able to attend in person. A virtual presentation may also benefit your organization by establishing and maintaining a cohesive group of participants (e.g., a community of practice) who stay in touch after your presentation. Finally, using frequent virtual presentations may foster collaboration and build stronger teams.

In-Person Presentations Are a Must When You . . .

Have bad news to deliver. If the meeting is about something that is deeply emotional, such as an announcement that layoffs are forthcoming or that performance has been poor all-around this quarter (and hopefully that isn’t the case for anyone reading this book!), then the message needs to be delivered in person. Many people feel that finding out bad news on a computer screen feels like a slap in the face on top of the bad news itself. It’s better to conduct these kinds of meetings in person.

Need to establish trust

A crucial objective of many meetings is to establish trust. Presentations designed to engender investor confidence or unquenchable desire for a new product would be a couple of examples. Establishing trust requires engaging many of the attendees’ senses. Visual cues and social presence are critical to building trust. These two elements are usually missing from a virtual presentation. They can be achieved only by someone who is highly skilled in the art and science of virtual presenting. After reading this book, though, you may become a member of this elite group.

Need to change attitudes

Conducting a presentation that can change people’s attitudes is difficult to pull off in person and nearly impossible in a virtual environment. As with building trust, visual cues and social presence are critical here. To succeed, these presentations not only need to establish trust, but must create an environment that is intimate, open, and accepting. After all, you might have to call people out on the carpet regarding their current attitudes before you explain the need for change. You may attempt such a feat with an audience of people who are already familiar with one another and are committed to the tasks at hand, but even then, you need to tread carefully.

Leave no Participant Behind

Avoid scrolling quickly—some people take longer to read and digest information than others. Be aware that it may take a while for attendees’ screens to refresh. Assume a couple of seconds of lag time so that you leave nobody behind. When it’s important that the audience notices a particular point, pause, verbally call attention to what you would like the attendees to notice, and ask them if they are seeing it. If you click on something, describe what you are clicking on. Be sure to speak slowly and clearly. Avoid statements such as “look over here” or “notice this.” Instead, use statements such as “look at the second bullet of the screen” or “notice the arrow at the top left-hand corner of your display.”

Be Very Careful before you Press the Send Button

Be sure that you are sending your message where you want it to go.
Otherwise, you can embarrass yourself and offend others. You typically have the option of sending comments to another presenter, to a specific attendee, or to all participants. Check for typos as best you can, using the spell-check feature of your word processing application to create and check your comment and then just paste in into your message window.

Maintain a High Level of Energy

Sustain a fast and lively pace that might seem just a bit faster than is comfortable for the average participant. Smile; even if the attendees do not see you, a smile always shines through. You’ll find that people seem to be able to hear your smile. Vary your intonations. This includes your pitch, volume, and inflections. When you change the way you sound at times, it keeps listeners interested. Stay positive and enthusiastic. Avoid statement such as, “I hope this works.” Use the singular “you” in your statements and questions. Instead of saying, “I wonder if anyone out there can answer this question,” say something like, “I wonder if you know the answer to this question?” Listeners should have the feeling that you are speaking directly to them. Use attendees’ names as much as you can to add further personalization.

Be Flexible, Agile, and Intellectually Nimble

This is probably the one element that separates great virtual presenters from simply good ones.

Avoid Distributing all of your Handouts at the Beginning of your Presentation

Attendees often look ahead. Wait to distribute handouts until they are needed. It is acceptable to include contact information in your handouts, so that attendees can reach out to you if they need to. Be sure to make this information understated and tasteful. Send private messages to attendees complementing their chats and other involvement in your virtual presentation. Also, send chat messages to participants whom you feel need a little extra help or encouragement.

A Few More Thoughts

Where appropriate, include support information such as Web resources and an e-mail box for questions to subject matter experts (SMEs). Include an “I didn’t know that “whiteboard where participants can write something new that they learned during the presentation and how they intend to use it. Expect that unexpected things will happen. Remember that you can broadcast the results of a poll as it is running or wait until it is winding down. I recommend waiting until it is winding down, so that attendees do not alter their answers to agree with the majority.

Who?
Who have you worked well with in the past (such as human resource executives or manufacturing managers)?
Do these people have the need and money to purchase the products and services you offer? If not, who does?
Can the people who you are accustomed to talking with recommend you to those people?

What?
What concerns the people who buy your services or recommend you to others (such as reduce cycle-time, cut costs, increased market share, visibility in the marketplace, or enhance customer service)?
What problems are they facing (such as increased regulations, lower profit margins, eroding markets, foreign competition, globalization, or government regulation)?
What are their wishes, hopes, and dreams (such as create impact or secure their own job)?
What do they like (such as security, cutting-edge technology, breakthrough ideas, less involvement, or greater involvement)?
What do they dislike (such as risk or lack of control)?

When?
When do your prospective clients purchase the services and products you provide? Do they buy it at the beginning of their fiscal year or at the beginning of each quarter?
When do they plan these purchases? When are they receptive to considering new outside resources and products? When do they make these decisions?

How?
How do they buy what you are selling? How do they like to interact with outside resources? Do they first like to determine how to meet their needs on their own, and then consider outside resources, or do they involve outside resources in identifying their needs and determining solutions?
Do they have established relationships with other consultants?

How is that going? Really! All relationships have good and bad.
What do they need that they are currently not receiving from their established relationships (such as fresh ideas, cutting-edge technologies, or dynamic virtual presentations)?

Now that you have a good idea of the who, what, when and how of selling, you are ready to begin locating clients, which we will cover this in our next issue.

Having been in the training and performance technology world long enough, I have noticed that the pendulum swings between creating a centralized training department to optimize resources and reduce expenses and creating business unit training groups to increase their alignment and responsiveness. When times and good and money is flush, companies go for smaller, more aligned, and more responsive business unit training groups. When money is tight, they move to the corporate centralized model.

Neither model is perfect. One tends to not be as aligned and the other creates some duplication and waste.

Which training model do you feel works best and why? What has been your experience? What have you done to make it work well?

I look forward to hearing from you.

You are an outsider

If you miss the friendship of your corporate colleagues, get closer to your own family—or buy a dog.

Consultants and crass and showy opportunists

My recommendation is to be squeaky clean and impeccably honest in all of your dealings and to treat all client information as if it was the recipe for Coca ColaTM. Continue to promote yourself as larger than life, but when people meet you, play down your accomplishments and be humble. You will demonstrate your expertise as consultant far better by truly listening to your clients and working with them as friendly equals, than by puffing yourself up. 

At the end of the day, you are just another supplier 

I recommend that you run the other way when a client calls you a supplier. I feel that consulting is a very personal service and lowering it to the level of someone selling an “off-the-shelf” commodity demeans the profession and the talented people who make it their life’s work. 

Think about this

How did you see consultants when you worked for a corporation? Be honest. How would you like your clients to see you? What can you do to accomplish this?

Reprinted from “Consulting Mentor” April, 2010 with permission from the publisher, American Society for Training and Development