JK's Diary

• The WOW factor – Find that one thing that will create the wow factor for your client and consider half the engagement done. Unfortunately this at times strikes a day before the final presentation, but trust me the one night left in your hand is more than sufficient to do wonders.

• See through your clients’ eye – The key things required to find this wow factor is the ability to see the vision of your client. Feel their problem. Understand their priorities and decrypt what they are not able to explain in words.

• Power of Analogy – Use a simple analogy to restate the clients’ true problem. Use the same or another simple analogy to explain the solution. I normally take the example of food (if I am hungry) or a completely different industry or topic like cars or gadgets depending on the circumstance.

• Let the numbers speak – When you know you are with a tough client, it’s always safe to let the numbers speak. Quantify everything in the simplest and most logical way possible. Include as many stakeholders as required into the equation to remove anomalies and there you have a nice little shield to defend yourself.

• The animated story – The term ‘animation’ here stands for the visualizations. We all know the attention span and time from a CxO is highly limited. Everyone is looking for innovation and simplicity. With prescriptive and cognitive analytics gaining popularity, it is necessary to let the charts and pictures form the core of your presentation, while having a nice story crafted around this core. Some consultants would call this gift wrapping. Also make sure your presentation can tell the story you intended all by itself, as that is the cherry on the cake.

• Know not just thy client but also their industry – If your client is a consulting firm, the amount of content you stuff in a slide does not matter, attention to detail does. Get all your facts triple checked! It will only take 6 seconds for them to process the entire slide and rip you apart. The first question is most likely, “what do you mean by that statement” or “where did you get that number from?”

  If it is a financial client, make sure you are careful with the usage of red color. And do have a lot of charts backed by numbers. It only takes a few seconds to process this kind of content for them. On the other hand, if your client is in the Consumer Goods or Retail segment, use icons, cartoons and animations. It keeps them glued to your presentation and helps them digest the content faster and better.

  I still have not figured out if region has an impact but culture definitely has. This is from my experience talking to a client in Thailand, Jakarta and Malaysia.

• Sell the solution to your team first – the best way to test the solution you have built is to try selling it to your own team. No matter how much time and effort you put in, give an ear to your team members (especially the junior most staff as the most abstract and raw thinking comes from them). No consensus with your team is as good as you are a dead man even before the battle starts.

Finally,

• Be a Strategic Thinker (for yourself)
• Be a Trusted Advisor (for your client)
• Be an agent of change (Innovator)
• Build a relationship (Trust)