A contractor in Maryland had an opportunity to remodel a historic church that was over 100 years old. His competition for the project were some of the largest General Contractors in the world. So, he knew that if he wanted to win the contract, he was going to have to do something totally different than everyone else.
The presentation team started brain-storming options by creating a list of every project they had ever worked on involving a church, a historical building, and/or work in a downtown area. The list was pretty extensive.
Next, they combed through each project to find the ones that had the absolute most in common with the current project. For instance, one of the earlier projects was a historic church with similar acoustics and an antique pipe organ that the parish wanted to preserve and update.
Each of the five presenters on the team selected three examples from the list that each had personal experience on. Once they had their case studies, the marketing team made a poster for each presenter. Each poster had the following on it.
- The Presenter’s Portrait and Expertise.
- Fantastic Images from Each of the Three Selected Case Studies.
- And a Short Bullet Pointed List of Each Project Referenced.
The team realized that the selection committee were deacons and church leaders who loved the historic nature of the church. Almost all of them were over the age of 70. So, walking in with a flashy PowerPoint slideshow wasn’t going to put them over the top.
Instead, the team members focused on creating an emotional experience for the committee.
The Project Manager (PM) started the presentation by saying, “You’re going to hear a lot of fantastic presentations today by many of the top construction companies in the area – many of them are the top companies in the world. And any of these companies will be able to refurbish this fantastic building.
“We hope though, in the next few minutes, we’ll be able to show you how our team will be able to retain that emotional connect that each of you probably experienced when you walked through those doors for the first time – years ago. Ultimately, this is just a building. But, with a little care and a lot of forethought, you can retain that historical connection with your current members. And, at the same time, be able to create an entirely new emotional experience for new members of your congregation.
“Here’s how we’ve been able to do that for other church leaders over the years.”
He started by talking about the beautiful wooden arches in the main cathedral. The team knew that this feature was the centerpiece of the church. They also knew that, because it was original to the building, it would need to be completely replaced.
So, the PM told a story about a similar situation. He moved to his poster and pointed to the arch of a cathedral in the top photo. “A couple of years ago, I led a project where, just like here, the woodwork inside of the church was historic and original to the building.” He told them about how his team had matched the replacement wood by sourcing it locally so that the replacement matched the original almost exactly.
Then, one at a time, the project manager introduced the other presenters. And each of them shared just a little of their expertise and then went into detail about just one of the projects on his poster.
Each of them chose case studies specific to the needs of the project. And each of them created that emotional connection with the committee. That emotional connection built trust and rapport with the church leaders. And it got them the project.
Your team can do something similar. Your case-studies are the only thing that make you and your team different from your competition. And the better your team is at presenting these stories, the more shortlist proposals you will win!
According to Scientific Studies, Storytelling May Be the Most Important Part of Your Shortlist Presentation
Stories and case studies can do several different things to make the content of your presentation better.
First, stories capture and hold the attention of your audience. A great story is also memorable. In addition, a good story can build rapport with and make you more relatable to your audience. Your team can also use a good case study to build credibility.
There are also a couple of phycological advantages to having your team insert more stories. For instance, the shared experience of what phycologists call “immersion” builds more of a team atmosphere in a presentation.
The major, major, major thing that a good story does, though, is reduce nervousness in that the presenter feels during the presentation. Your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are, most likely, not expert presenters. So, putting them into a position where so much is at stake is likely to increase their anxiety.
A good story, though, will reduce this nervousness exponentially.
Let’s cover each of these advantages in a little more detail.
Stories Help Capture and Hold an Audience’s Attention
Over a decade ago, I flew to Atlanta for a business conference. This was still in the early years of the social media craze, and one of the breakout sessions was an overview of this new marketing phenomenon. This was after the My Space era and right at the beginning of the rise of Facebook.
The presenter was a high-tech guru who was an expert in this new trend. However, the speech was terrible. In the forty-minute that he spoke, I think he went through about 80 slides. He had a ton of great information. But alas, the longer he spoke, the droopier my eyes got. No matter how hard I tried to stay focused, my mind kept wandering.
Keep in mind that I was really into the topic. But the delivery was so dry and boring, I found it tough to really pay attention. I had to sip coffee every minute or so just to stay awake.
Later that night in my hotel room, I was flipping through the channels on the TV. I came across the first episode of the AMC hit, The Walking Dead. It started with Rick, the Sherriff, locked in a hospital room waking up from a coma. He wanders the hallways looking for any other person. Along the way, he sees spray painted directions telling him not to open certain doors locked with chains and padlocks.
I was mesmerized. Time flew by as more of the story unfolded. When the episode ended, I couldn’t believe that I had been sitting still for almost an hour watching every moment.
The session at the conference was important to me, and I was interested in the topic. But I was bored to tears the whole time. And years later, I remember almost nothing about it other than how bored I was.
The TV show was about a topic I had absolutely no interest in – a zombie apocalypse. And the content had absolutely no value to me whatsoever. But I watched the entire episode and can describe it to you in pretty good detail over a decade later.
The big difference between the two was that the makers of The Walking Dead were really good storytellers. The tech guru was not.
Stories are captivating. They have the ability to capture and hold the attention span of the audience for longer periods of time than facts and figures.
Art Kramer is a professor of Psychology at Northeastern University and director of The Center for Cognitive and Brain Health. He says, “Computer scientists and psychologists have been studying attention spans for about 20 years, over which time the average time that a person can focus on one thing has dropped from around 2½ minutes to around 45 seconds.”
I’ve noticed the same thing. Decades ago, when I began to coach presentation skills, I first had my students focus on getting really good delivering short, two-minute presentations. I didn’t choose that timeframe arbitrarily. I chose it because that was the average attention span of people back then.
So, what does this have to do with telling stories? Well, an audience will pay attention to a story for a longer period of time than a series of data points. When you include stories or case studies into your shortlist presentation, you can get your entire audience to hang on every word for up to two-and-a-half-minutes.
Most shortlist presentations go off the rails very early because the presenters use the tech guru strategy. Instead, use the Walking Dead strategy. The committee will pay more attention to your words!
Case Studies Send a Message People Will Remember
A few weeks ago, I had a VP of a company I was coaching tell me, “This potential client uses a scoresheet. And over 30% of the team’s entire score is based on their relevant expertise to the project.”
She was adamant that the team bombard the committee with every possible relevant fact to prove to the committee that the group had the appropriate experience.
I responded by saying, “I understand. But the committee isn’t going to remember any of that data.”
She replied with, “Oh yes, they will! They always take notes!”
We have to understand that the people on each of these buying committees are still people. And no matter how smart or experienced your audience is, each member of that audience still has flaws – just like the rest of us. One of those flaws is that we only focus on details that we feel are important to us – right now. Another flaw is that we only remember a small portion of what we hear.
That is… Unless the speaker conveys the data in a narrative – a story format.
For instance, at the beginning of the chapter, I told a story about a contractor who was competing to remodel a church. Let me ask you a few questions about that story. See if you can recall any of the facts about it.
- What state was the church located in?
- How old was the church?
- How many presenters did he have on his team?
- What was the main artifact that the church wanted to preserve?
- What was the main visual aid that each presenter used?
- What did this visual aid look like?
- How old were the deacons in the church that the team was presenting to?
There is a good chance that many of the answers to these questions popped into your head very quickly. You may not have remembered the answer to every question – we are all human beings. However, you probably recalled quite a few.
Let’s keep going. I also spoke about a tech guru who delivered a very boring presentation.
- What city was the conference in where he spoke?
- How long did he speak?
- How many slides did he have?
And here is the real test… The VP said that a certain percentage the group’s presentation score was based on their experience. Do you remember what percentage?
If the number 30% popped right into your head, you just proved my point.
Hopefully, as I’ve asked each of these questions, the answers came very quickly.
Okay, now let’s test your memory of facts and figures. At the beginning of this section, I gave you seven shocking facts about memory. (This was the bullet pointed list on the black background.)
Can you remember all seven?
Can you remember any of them? If so, what percentage did you remember? Three out of seven? (That’s less than 50%.)
So, by delivering data in a story format, you access that long-term memory storage of the committee members. They will remember facts, data, names, dates, and statistics. If you just lump all the facts, data, names, dates, and statistics on a series of slides and verbally tell them these things… They will forget almost everything you say within an hour of your presentation.
And then, of course, they have a whole new group presenting right after your team that have a whole new series of facts, data, names, dates, and statistics. By the end of the day, there is no way they can remember much of what any of the teams actually said.
Yes, they probably made a few notes. But think about the last time you went to a conference and took notes while a speaker was presenting. By the end of the day, it will likely be very hard to decipher what notes you put down for the first presenter that morning.
The committee members will have a similar challenge.
If you want your team to be memorable in a positive way, use fantastic case studies as the backbone of your presentation.
When You Share Stories with Your Audience, You Build Rapport with Them as Well!
Building rapport is essential when you’re presenting, especially in high-stakes situations where huge contracts are on the line. If you think about it, the committee has already been through your in-depth proposal. They have probably already checked your company out to see if you have experience with this type of work.
So why require the actual team who will be doing the work to come present to them in person?
In today’s world, there are a ton of other ways to check your team out. Why do they want you to present to them?
The most common reason I’ve come across is that what they really want to know is…
Do they think they can work with you well?
They want to know if you and your team are easy to work with. Are you arrogant jerks or are you team players? Is your team going to help them solve problems or are you going to cause problems for them?
Well, when you share stories about your experience, you connect with your audience on a personal level. When you share a case study, you’re showing more than just your expertise; you’re showing your humanity. And people trust people who they feel they can relate to.
When you tell a story about your challenges, your audience can see that you’ve faced similar issues to theirs. This common ground builds a connection. They realize you understand their needs because you’ve experienced something similar. Whether it’s a tight deadline or an unexpected complication, the fact that you’ve navigated it successfully makes you relatable.
Dr. Paul Zak wrote in Harvard Business Review about the scientific reason why stories make you more relatable to your audience. He said that a good story induces “immersion” in the brain. This releases an empathy-related chemical into the brain called oxytocin. The more oxytocin released, the more we relate to (and like) the person telling the story.
This concept of immersion occurs when you are so focused on what you are seeing or hearing that you feel like you are actually there in the moment. Think about a time you were on your sofa watching a captivating movie. Then, someone walks into the room, or you hear a sound, and it startles you. For a while, you forgot you were sitting on your couch, right? That immersion occurs naturally in short bursts when we hear great presenters tell great stories.
When I was in college, my dad took me to a motivational business conference. The keynote speaker was a guy named Les Brown. At the time, I think I was 21 years old. And, of course, like all 21-year-olds, I already knew everything. I just went to humor my dad. He really wanted me to realize that college wasn’t the be all and end all. So, I sat in the audience. I took a few notes.
Dominick Brady from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Then, Les Brown came on stage. He was fun and energetic. And he told the audience some great points. But what was so remarkable about him was he told these captivating stories one after the other. He created an emotional connection with the audience. When he finished, the whole arena jumped to their feet in a roar of applause that lasted forever.
As I was driving back to school, I thought about what I had seen. I felt like I learned more in that hour-long presentation than I had in the entire last semester at school. What was the difference?
As I look back now – decades later – it’s obvious. I had a few professors who were fantastic teachers. One, Mr. Barnes, co-taught a one-semester class with two other teachers. So, I only learned from him for about four weeks or so. But I still remember his name.
Mr. Barnes had been a successful businessman who taught classes in college on a volunteer basis. The reason he was such a great teacher was that he told us practical stories about how the stuff he was teaching us had practical application in the business world.
I respected him. And I guess I empathized with him. He created a connection with his students just like Les Brown did with that huge arena.
So, remember, the committee that you are presenting to really wants to know whether they can work with you. They way you can prove to them that they can is to share relatable stories with them.
Your Case Studies also Build Credibility (Show Your Experience) without Sounding Like You Are Bragging
In the introduction of the book, I mentioned that my first “shortlist” coaching session was with an engineering firm competing to be a Program Manager for a school district.
They had done this type of work successfully with hundreds of different school districts. And the way that they had determined to emphasize this was with a “movie credit” roll during their slideshow.
You know… At the end of the movie, tiny little print scrolls up the screen showing the cast members, the director, the gaffers, etc. (It is usually really boring unless Ferris Bueller comes back on screen to tell you to leave the theater.)
I asked the group to brainstorm a more “theatrical” way to present this experience. “Do you have photos from each of the hundreds of projects?” I asked the VP.
“Yeah. We have a drive with hundreds of different photos from every project,” he replied.
We decided to send the photos to their marketing department to create boards (posters) of each project. Now, keep in mind, this took quite a while. And the idea wasn’t cheap to pull off. But, once they had the boards, they could reuse them for future presentations as well.
They came to the presentation with HUNDREDS of these boards. And they lined them up in a u-shape against the wall of the presentation room. (They also tagged a few of the boards to make them easy to locate when they needed them.)
As they delivered the presentation, anytime they referenced a past project, they pulled that single board from the pack. Then, the speaker would place that board on a tripod and tell a fantastic story about how that project was similar to this one. Next, the speaker would go insert that board back into the pack where the board originally came from.
The group did this probably ten times during the presentation. And every time they did, their credibility with the committee grew and grew.
There was also a psychological effect on the committee. Because there were hundreds of posters. The thoughts of the audience were likely, “They had ten really spot on examples of how they have done this before… One for every poster they showed us… And they had hundreds of posters. Dang, I bet they have hundreds of more stories just like those.”
And, the committee was absolutely right to think that.
You Can Also Use These Case Studies to Show Evidence of How Well Your Team Works Together
Years ago, one of my clients was a general contractor trying to win a contract to rebuild one of the terminals at DFW airport. His firm was small compared to some of the huge companies competing. The advantage the big companies had was that they had all the talent they needed under their own roof.
The advantage Mr. Agilar had, though, was that he could subcontract the best of the best in each specialty. During the presentation, he delivered personal stories about how he had discovered each of the subcontractors that he brought with him. He built up their expertise in the eyes of the committee by sharing at least one story about past work they had done together.
He used these examples as a way to edify each subcontractor. And he used what others would call a disadvantage as a dramatic advantage.
The immersion that Dr. Zak wrote about is important here too. As the stories your team relays unfold, the committee members picture themselves right in the middle of the story. It’s as though they see it with their own eye.
When you are able to create this atmosphere in the room, the committee becomes a part of your team as well.
The Absolute MOST IMPORTANT Thing that Stories Do, Though, Is Reduce Nervousness in Your Presentation Team
So, psychologically and scientifically, stories are a great idea. They capture attention, make your team memorable, build rapport, build credibility, and build a team atmosphere.
But there is an even bigger reason why you want to include lots of stories into your team presentation.
The folks on your presentation team, your SMEs, are experts at their role in the business. They, most likely, though, are NOT experts at delivering multimillion dollar presentations. That is a tremendous amount of pressure to put on anyone.
Well, stories are the fastest and easiest ways to reduce nervousness in a presenter.
When your team just relays details from an experience they had, they are in total control. The audience has no idea the circumstances of the experience – they weren’t there.
This is where that “immersion” concept we covered earlier comes into play.
When a presenter plays that mental movie and just describes what they see, during that part of the presentation, the speaker is mentally reliving that experience. The room disappears. The stoic audience disappears. And then, when the speaker mentally comes back to the meeting room, they are likely to look around the room and see nodding heads and approval from the committee.
The speaker’s confidence will soar!