There’s something really special about group presentations.
I spent years and years (the better part of a decade, really) studying everything I could about presentation skills and how to deliver powerful speeches. Years later, that studying led me to becoming a presentation coach. I had been coaching speakers for a few years before, but one random day, I got an interesting call from a prospective client.
“We have a group of five presenters who are competing for a $300 million project. This contract is vital to the growth of our company. Can you make sure they are delivering the best possible group presentation for us?” That single request started me down a road that has been a fantastic accomplishment for hundreds of presentation teams over the last couple of decades.
Just to be clear, the group that I coached in that first session didn’t get the big contract. However, from that experience, we learned and adapted. Over the next three years, the group closed over 80% of the contracts that they competed for. Whether you are presenting group sales presentations, or a group presentation in school, the following tips can be absolutely vital to your succeeding both as an individual and as a unit.
In this short guide, I’ll give you seven quick tips you can apply to your next team presentation to ensure everything goes just as swimmingly as your solo speeches.
How to Prepare for a Group Presentation in 7 Easy Steps
1) Make All the Content in Your Group Presentation about the Audience, Not Your Team.
The biggest mistake group presentation teams make is starting with themselves. I once saw a group presentation from a team I was about to start coaching, and the very first slide in their presentation had one of the most dreadful introductions a presentation could possibly begin with, Our Experience.
Big mistake. But, Doug, you don’t understand… Our potential clients need to know that the team is skilled and has the experience to do the job. Well, that is half true. Yes, the audience wants to know that you are qualified.
A construction company I coached learned this lesson while competing to remodel a high school. When I asked what problems the school board faced, the first answer was “price.” But I pressed further: “Who will be around the construction site every day?” The realization hit the group, students and teachers. Their safety would have be a top concern.
I asked, “What do we know about the school year?” They answered, “Summer break.” So I suggested presenting a plan to complete construction during that break. Suddenly, their value to the board was crystal clear.
We built their presentation around three bullet points:
- The school would be completely remodeled by September 1st.
- Students and teachers would not be inconvenienced or endangered.
- Costs would stay within budget.
Then, they supported each promise with specific examples. They showed how they had completed similar schools before fall deadlines. They described safety measures from past projects that protected staff and students. The team even cited cases where they made adjustments after contracts were signed, saving school districts significant money.
Notice, they still shared plenty of experience, but framed it in terms of solving the client’s problems. That shift made their presentation far more persuasive.
2) Make Sure the Whole Team is Involved in the Creation of the Group Presentation.
The hardest presentation to deliver is one where the boss throws a slideshow at you and says, “Here, deliver this.” When a speaker designs their own presentation, you have a better chance of the speaker being fluid and poised. When someone else designs the presentation, though, it is much tougher. It’s kind of like letting someone else pack your parachute. Just before you pull that ripcord, you will be very nervous.
I remember in college having to give a group presentation for a grade. My group met a number of times, but three of the five of us did most of the design and preparation. The three of us did okay, but the other two who were less involved did much worse. It was just harder for them because they were trying to catch up with the rest of the group.
For additional details, see Create a Persuasive Speech Outline.
3) Someone Has to be in Charge, but the Person in Charge Should Talk the Least.
That very first time that I coached a group of presenters, the vice president of the company was in charge. He did almost all of the talking. The rest of the group gave short anecdotal pieces of the presentation (by the way, the VP was a great speaker, and he presented the content very well); however, the feedback that we got was that the audience already knew enough about the VP. They were way more interested in hearing from the team that they would actually be working with for the next three years.
As a result of that feedback, we change the role of the lead presenter to be more of an emcee than an expert. In the second presentation, the lead presenter introduced the team and summed up the content of the presentation at the end, and that was it. Interestingly, the audience saw him as a better leader in the second presentation, because he had so many skilled experts on his team. (He didn’t have to boast. They could see it.)
4) Only Add Presenters to the Group Who Can Add Value to the Presentation Purpose (End Goal).
One of the biggest learning curves that we had to experience was to not try to force every team member into doing SOMETHING in the presentation. If you recall, I mentioned that we got the feedback early on that the audience wanted to hear from the entirety of the team. Well, we took that to the extreme, and we started having every team member give part of the presentation.
We did this even if that particular team member had nothing to add to the end goal. For instance, the project manager gave a very compelling deliver of the schedule and how the team would adhere to the timeline. Then, because the group hadn’t heard from one of the engineers, he gave a presentation on change orders. That wasn’t really his area of expertise, but he didn’t have a speaking part, so the group gave him that part.
It was mediocre at best. It would have been better to just have him there for the Q&A session at the end in case some engineering questions were asked.
My family went on a cruise last year on New Years Eve. It was great, but they had a New Years party where they had the head of every department on the ship get recognition before they distributed the free champagne. It took forever. And, from my perspective, most of the people who were introduced were of no importance to my trip. So, don’t insert more presenters than you absolutely need to. Get your audience to the free champagne as fast as you can.
5) Assign Roles in the Presentation Based on the Expertise of Each Presenter.
Just as in the prior tip, don’t try to force presenters to speak about topics outside of their expertise just to give them face-time with the audience. In the movie Inglorious Bastards, after having most of their team killed in a bar shoot-out, the Americans re-group to assign undercover roles. They are going to play Italian movie makers, and they assign the roles based on the amount of Italian that each person knows.
“Since you speak the third best Italian, you’ll be the stuntman.”
“I don’t speak Italian.”
“Like I said, third best.”
It didn’t turn out well for the Bastards either. It won’t work for you. assign speaking roles based on the expertise of the people on your team.
6) Have Each Speaker Introduce the Next Speaker.
We figured this one out by accident and trial and error, but it works wonderfully. If you want to present as a cohesive group, have each speaker in the presentation introduce the next speaker.
A common practice is for the lead presenter to introduce each speaker, but everyone does that.
If you want to be a little different, coach your team members to introduce each other. You’ll have to plan a short transition sentence, but these are easy to create. For instance, if you delivering a presentation about a new product, at the conclusion of the Director of Marketing’s portion of the presentation, she might introduce the next speaker by saying, “…and of course, the implementation of these fantastic marketing ideas with the store managers will be led by our Sales Director…”
Just a short transition from one speaker to the next will work, however, if you really want to create a positive impact, try…
7) Edifying the Other Speakers Lets Them Start Their Speech on the Right Foot.
During that introduction, if the prior speaker builds up the credibility of the next speaker, you can double the impact. For instance, we can re-write the last introduction by saying something like…
“…and of course, the implementation of these fantastic marketing ideas with each of the store managers will be a team of experts led by our Sales Director, Joe. Joe has 20 years of experience implementing sales plans just like this. In fact, last year, Joe’s team conducted a similar roll-out where they were able to get a brand new item on the shelves of over 100,000 stores in less than 12 months. You are in great hands, please help me welcome Joe.”
You don’t have to make the introductions syrupy — just true. Instead of the next speaker having to build his/her own credibility, each prior speaker is building up the credibility and expertise of the next speaker.
For Group Presentations, Just Make Sure to Work Together Versus Individually.
Obviously, we are just scratching the surface of the surface of how to deliver fantastic group presentations. If you somehow take nothing else away from this guide though, the biggest tip of all is to treat group presentations as group presentations.
With this format, it’s incredibly easy to slip into the comfort of solo speeches. To treat group presentations like multiple people giving their own presentation, just in succession.
But group presentations are a whole different beast. Don’t think because you’re great alone you’ll naturally succeed with others. Study the skill, learn from the guide, and soon you’ll be leading team presentations like you always have been.