This is lesson number 11 of our 12-lesson series on how to win group sales presentations.

So far, we've covered a lot of the foundational concepts of group selling skills and ways to get buying committees to buy from your team after you get shortlisted. Just as a 30,000-foot recap, we started by covering many of the myths about shortlist presentations.

One of those myths is that the slideshow is the presentation so you should start by designing your shortlist slideshow. That one mistake can cause teams to lose the high-level sales presentation more than any other mistake.

Instead, you want to design the presentation -- design what your team will say -- first. Then, after you have a clear presentation designed, create your slideshow to enhance what is being said in the presentation.

We also covered the power of case studies and success stories in a shortlist presentation. The best evidence that you can help this buying committee is past experience on similar projects. When you get really good add adding specific case studies as evidence that you can help this committee, they will trust your team more. These success stories also build rapport with the audience and reduce the nervousness of your presentation team.

We also covered how important it is to research the buying committee. The more you know about what they want, the easier it is to design a targeted shortlist presentation.

Then, finally, last week, we covered how to create a succinct presentation outline. This is your blueprint for a successful shortlist presentation.

Now that we have a great presentation outline, in this episode, we're going to help you help your SMEs (your Subject Matter Experts) design their component parts of the presentation.

In this process, you have to be a great coach. You have to help them design a very concise presentation-within-the-presentation. And the backbone of each of those mini-presentation will be... wait for it... Fantastic case studies.

So, we are going to help your presentation team members create a mini-presentation within the big presentation. And we'll follow the same strategy that we used last week to help them create a compelling speech-within-a-speech, so to speak.

We'll also show you how to help them turn that outline -- that blueprint -- into a compelling presentation by adding in case studies.

Then, next week, in the final episode, we'll show you how to help them jazz up the entire presentation with what we call our "Impact Ideas." These are ways to enhance the presentation to an even higher level.

I know that, counting these last two lessons, we will have covered 12 different steps in this process. And, at this point, you may be thinking, "This sounds very complicated." The exact opposite is true, though.

This process will save you so much time. It will also drop the stress level of your presenters a lot. The first time going through the whole process, it can be time-consuming.

You have to get each presenter really good at determining what the absolute-most-critical, most-important things are to the audience. You also have to get your entire team to get really, really good at telling captivating success stories.

But once you get your team skilled in these areas, the actual designing of a new shortlist presentation is very, very fast. For instance, I've been able to get experienced teams (meaning teams that have already done at least one shortlist presentation with me before) ready to present in a single three-hour morning.

The process is very fast once you get the basics down. And hopefully, by the end of this episode, you'll be able to see that very easily.

This is episode 10 of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations.

So far in the first 9 episodes, we've covered a lot of the foundational concepts of group selling skills. And we've spent a lot of time on how valuable case studies or success stories are in winning a committee over to hiring your team.

In the last episode, I showed you how to pick the best presentation team. Then, we covered how to research the buying committee so that we can create a presentation based on specifically what they want us to cover. If you haven't listened to the last episode, make sure to do that before you listen to this one and what we cover next week.

In these two episodes, we are going to pull together all of the foundation information from the first nine episodes and show you how to design a compelling shortlist presentation. This process will likely be totally different from the way you have designed these presentations in the past.

This week, I'm going to help you design a comprehensive presentation outline. Then, next week, I'll show you how to coach and help your presentation team design each component part of the speech so that everything they create is focused on the overall presentation outline. Basically, we will help you determine what you will say -- first. Then, after you have a fantastic presentation that is compelling and makes the buying committee want to choose you, then -- and only then -- will we create the slideshow.

Most presentation teams have their marketing people jump in right away and start by designing the slideshow -- the visual aids. That is the absolute biggest mistake you can ever make when creating a high-level sales presentation. So, today, I'm going to give you a better alternative.

We'll cover how to create a great outline -- a roadmap for the presentation. Then, next week, we'll cover how to get your SME (your Subject Matter Experts) to wow the committee with their experience and expertise. Most likely, we will also cover session 12 next week. That will be the final part, where we put the entire process together into a Wow-worthy shortlist presentation.

This is episode eight and nine of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. So far, we've covered a lot of the foundational concepts of group selling skills. And we've spent a lot of time on how valuable case studies or success stories are in winning a committee over to hiring your team.

Today's episode will be split into to parts. First, I'll give you some tips on how to pick your presentation team and how to divvy up roles for each speaker. I'll also cover the absolute biggest mistakes that presentation teams make. Just a hint... The biggest one is putting a qualified SME (subject matter expert) in front of a buying committee without any basic presentation or sales training.

Then, in part two, I give you some tips on how to research the buying committee. Next week, we'll cover how to design a custom presentation based on what the committee wants or needs to hear from you. The better research you do beforehand, the better the committee is going to like what you say and how you present. But you can't wing it. You have to do some research.

In the last part of this episode, we'll show you how.

This is episode seven of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. Before the Christmas and New Years break, the last couple of sessions were about inserting case studies into your presentation as evidence that your potential clients can get what they want if they do what you want. I introduced a concept that I call an action/benefit statement.

Just as a review, you'd tell a compelling case study. Then, add a call to action at the end. This call-to-action is another one of those breadcrumbs I've talked about in past sessions. You're leading the committee down a path. Finally, you tell the audience how they will benefit if they take this action.

For instance, an action/benefit statement might sound like...

When you hire our team, you’ll have fewer change orders which will lower the overall cost of the project.

Or, by having me as your project manager, you’ll have fewer delays in the project.

Today, I walk you through how to perform well during the Q&A session of the interview. This is the part of the presentation where you can really set yourself apart from the competition in a positive way. The good news is that the backbone of answering a question is to respond with a shortened version of a case study followed by the call to action and benefit that we talked about before the holiday.

This response is very, very easy to master. And when you and your shortlist team use this technique, the committee will see you as a team of experts who really know there stuff.

This is episode six of our 12-episode series on how to win group sales presentations. For the last couple of weeks, we talked about how a case study is a story or example of how you've helped other clients solve similar problems to what this client has. And we showed how these stories help you show your experience to the buying committee throughout your presentation. We also showed how these stories capture attention, make your data memorable, build rapport, build credibility, build more of a team atmosphere, and help your presenting team reduce nervousness.

So, you want to make the case studies the backbone of your shortlist presentation. Today, I show you how to take one of these case studies and show you how to make short persuasive messages out of them. This technique will be important when we get to the question and answer sessions -- by the way, we'll cover that next week.

But this simple addition to the stories allows you to sprinkle calls to action throughout your presentation so that you are throwing breadcrumbs out to the committee. The goal is to get the committee members to follow these persuasive breadcrumbs until they come to the natural conclusion to hire you and your team.

This is 2nd half of episode five of our 12-episode series on how to win shortlist presentations or other types of group sales presentations. Last week, we talked about how a case study is a story or example of how you've helped other clients solve problems similar to those of this client. They are also fantastic ways to make details in your presentation memorable and a great way to build rapport with the selection committee.

In fact, the only thing that makes you different from your competition is your experience. So, getting really good at delivering fantastic case studies during your presentation is the most important thing you can do to increase your closing ratio on these high-level sales presentations.

In part two of this episode, we'll show you how these case studies help you build credibility with the committee. They also build more of a team atmosphere. And then, finally, I'll show you how these additions to your shortlist presentation or interview presentation are a fantastic way to reduce public speaking fear. Your presentation team is going to be nervous. So, as the leader of the presentation, you want to give your team members ways to feel more comfortable when they are presenting in a high-stakes presentation.

Having them tell about past experiences in a story format will help dramatically.

This is episode five of our 12-week series on how to win shortlist presentations or other types of group sales presentations. Last week, we talked about how you can change the way that you introduce each team member when you present so that you edify each other and build their confidence.

This week, we're going to cover how to get really, really good at delivering case studies. If you remember back in the very first episode, I talked about how most presentation teams create a bullet point called "our experience." In this session, I show you how to make the entire presentation about your experience. However, this way, you'll show how your team's experience can help the buying committee solve problems.

Basically, what we are calling a case study is a story or example of how you've helped other clients solve similar problems to what this client has. They are also fantastic ways to build rapport, build credibility, and make your presentation more memorable. So these stories have a fantastic selling power for you.

In fact, the only thing that makes you different from your competition is your experience. So, getting really good at delivering fantastic case studies during your presentation is the most important thing you can do to increase your closing ratio on these high-level sales presentations.

This is episode four of our 12-week series on how to win shortlist presentations or other types of group sales presentations. Last week, I gave you ten things you can do when preparing or delivering these presentations that will help you keep calm and poised.

I also talked about how, in shortlist presentations, it is important to "dig your well before you're thirsty," so to speak. High-level sales presentations have a tremendous amount of pressure, which causes a tremendous amount of nervousness and anxiety.

If you throw an unseasoned presenter into a pressure cooker without any help, you can really hurt that presenter (and your team.)

But that is one of the biggest mistakes that I see over and over again.

This week, we will cover how to do the team introductions. I cover a few ways to introduce your team so that you actually look like a cohesive team.

The main thing that is important to understand about shortlist presentations is that they are sales presentations. The technical presenters often forget this. They will want to score points in their introductions by just giving a laundry list of each team member's accomplishments.

However, your shortlist presentation should focus on how you can solve problems for the committee. So, your introductions should be focused on how your experience can help the committee.

And, if you want to really elevate your presentation, you can have your team members introduce each other. This was a technique that we discovered accidentally. But, once we tried it, we have used it in every single presentation since because it works so well.