Picture this: Your team just spent weeks preparing for a major shortlist interview.
You’ve got impressive credentials, deep expertise, and a slick PowerPoint deck. But halfway through your presentation, you can see the selection committee’s eyes glazing over. What went wrong?
More often than not, the culprit isn’t your team’s qualifications or even your delivery—it’s your presentation’s structure.
Too many teams make the fatal mistake of opening PowerPoint first and trying to retrofit their message afterward. The result? A disjointed presentation that fails to resonate with the people who matter most: your potential clients.
Today, we’re going to fix that. Below, we’ll go through a proven method for creating compelling presentation outlines that consistently win contracts. We’ll also cover some mistakes to avoid, how to make your outline persuasive so that it actually wins the contract, and some tips on how to rehearse it.
1. The Foundation: Start with Your Audience
Imagine a brilliant engineering team competing for a $100 million school construction contract.
On paper, they’re the obvious choice: their technical expertise is unmatched, their past projects are impressive, and their presentation is polished. But as they spend 45 minutes detailing their advanced engineering processes to a school board made up of parents and teachers, they’re missing what the committee really cares about:
- Will their kids have a safe place to learn?
- Will the construction disrupt classes?
- Will the project stay on budget?
Despite their qualifications, they’ve already lost the contract—they just don’t know it yet.
When you truly understand what keeps your selection committee up at night, you can structure your entire presentation around solving their specific problems. This builds instant credibility and shows you’re not just another vendor, but a partner who “gets it.”
Here are three steps to understanding who your audience is:
- Start with the official documents:
- Review the RFP criteria line by line
- Study any public meeting minutes or planning documents
- Analyze similar projects they’ve done before
- Dig deeper through your network:
- Talk to anyone who’s worked with this client before
- Connect with industry peers who know the organization
- Research the background of committee members
- Look for emotional triggers:
- What past projects have gone wrong?
- What pressures are they under from stakeholders?
- What’s changing in their industry?
Keep in mind that your selection committee isn’t scoring you on a purely objective basis. They’re human beings making a decision that could affect their careers. Therefore, structure your outline to address both their professional and personal concerns.
2. The Three-Step Framework for Your Outline
Now that you understand your audience’s true priorities, it’s time to structure your presentation to speak directly to those needs.
Imagine if two teams presented to a hospital board about a new surgical wing. The first team opens with “About Our Company” and walks through their org chart. The second team starts with “How We’ll Keep Your Hospital Fully Operational During Construction.”
Which team do you think has the board’s attention?
You see, most teams make the mistake of opening PowerPoint and creating a generic outline about their company’s history, experience, and capabilities. But what they actually should be doing is structuring the content to address what the committee actually cares about (and only after that will they care about the proof that you’re qualified to do the job).
By following this three-step framework, you’ll create an outline that turns your expertise into exactly what your selection committee needs to hear. Instead of hoping they connect the dots between your capabilities and their problems, you’ll make those connections explicit and compelling.
Here’s how to create a presentation outline that speaks to the committee’s actual needs:
- Create a Promise-Based Title
- Skip generic headings like “Company X Proposal for Project Y”
- Focus on the committee’s biggest concern
- Make a clear, specific promise you can deliver (E.g., “How Our Team Will Ensure Your New Science Building Opens On Schedule While Maintaining Campus Safety”)
- Choose 3-5 Main Points That Matter Most
- Fight the urge to cover everything
- Select points that directly address committee priorities
- Order them by importance to your audience
- Match Experts to Points
- Assign SMEs based on relevant experience, not speaking time
- Let your experts speak to their strengths
- Ensure each point has a credible voice behind it
3. Common Mistakes When Trying to Create Your Outline
When teams skip the outline process we’ve discussed, three things inevitably happen: their presentations become unfocused, their messages get muddled, and their chances of winning the contract plummet.
Let’s look at the three most devastating mistakes teams make when structuring their presentations.
1. Starting with slides instead of strategy
Diving straight into PowerPoint is like building a house without a blueprint. You end up with a bunch of disconnected rooms that don’t flow together. We’ve seen teams spend countless hours creating beautiful slides, only to realize their core message is lost in a sea of bullet points and stock photos. Instead, nail your outline first—your slides should support your message, not define it.
2. Trying to cover too many points
The temptation to tell the committee everything about your company is strong. But here’s the harsh truth: they’ll only remember about 10% of what you say. If you try to make 20 points, they’ll remember two random ones. If you make three strong points, they’ll remember the most important one. Focus on what matters most to them, and drill those points home with relevant examples and evidence.
3. Making your outline about you instead of them
Teams often structure their presentations around their own achievements: company history, past projects, impressive stats. But unless each of these elements directly addresses a committee concern, they’re just noise. Your outline should follow their priorities, not your resume. Every main point should answer a specific question or concern the committee has about their project.
4. Tips for Making Your Outline Persuasive
Now that you’ve built a solid outline and avoided common pitfalls, it’s time to sharpen its persuasive edge. A good outline organizes information, but a great one compels the committee to choose your team. Here’s are three tips to transform your outline from informative to persuasive.
Tip #1: Transform Bullet Points into Benefit Statements
Instead of listing topics like “Safety Procedures” or “Project Timeline,” frame each point as a specific benefit to the committee.
For example: “How Our Enhanced Safety Protocols Will Protect Your Students While Maintaining Project Speed”
Why it works: Benefit statements show you understand what’s at stake for the committee. When they see their exact concerns addressed in your outline, they’re more likely to view you as a solution provider rather than just another vendor.
Tip #2: Add Proof Points to Each Section
For every main point in your outline, include:
- A relevant case study
- Specific metrics or results
- Third-party validation when possible
Why it works: The committee isn’t just buying your promises, they’re buying proven results. When each section of your outline includes concrete evidence, you’re demonstrating your expertise instead of just claiming it.
Tip #3: Create Clear Connections Between Sections
Help your audience follow your logic by creating clear transitions between sections. Each point should build on the previous one, leading to an inescapable conclusion: your team is the right choice.
Why it works: When your outline flows logically from point to point, you’re doing the work of building a compelling argument. The committee will feel like they’re discovering the right choice rather than being sold to.
The Path to Success
A winning presentation starts with a strategic outline. By understanding your audience, structuring your message around their needs, avoiding common pitfalls, adding persuasive elements, and practicing as a team, you’ll create presentations that consistently win contracts.
Remember these key points:
- Start with your audience, not your slides
- Focus on their priorities, not your capabilities
- Make every point benefit-focused
- Practice until it flows naturally
Your outline isn’t just organizing information – it’s building a compelling case for why your team is the right choice. Get it right, and everything else falls into place.
