Presenting to C-level Executives: Avoid the 50,000 ft. View
What information should I include in a presentation to a C-Level or senior leadership team?
So after months of uncovering and addressing the needs and concerns expressed by technical or engineering contacts, you’ve been asked to make a presentation to the company’s leadership to sell your service, solution or product. Too often, I’ve heard such presentations start with, “We don’t have time and don’t want to bore you with all the details, so we are going to give you the 50,000 ft. view.” Granted, you’ve probably been given a very short time to recap everything that has taken months, or even years, to accomplish. So what’s wrong with this approach? Let’s assume that you have spent a small fortune on travel, spent uncountable hours meeting, introduced numerous subject matter experts and taken phone calls at all hours of the day and on weekends. You’ve done all this for mid-level engineers and managers and now you want to give the most influential decision makers in the company a stripped out, watered down summary of your exploits? Hogwash! The words, “fifty thousand foot view” will never come out of my mouth again!
So what do we need to have a positive influence on our high level audience? The answer lies in being respectful of how engineers digest and process information compared to high level executives. You have no doubt faced many questions from engineers about how something works, how do processes happen and what fundamental principles are in play. This in in their DNA. They want to understand processes and systems. A watered down and incomplete understanding of anything is useless, and frequently dangerous.
So what questions should high level executives have and how do they process information? These folks want to know in what ways the processes and systems are used. What can I accomplish with them? What is the benefit of adopting a particular process? What does the system contribute to efficiency, capacity, profitability and the bottom line? What advantage will I gain in the marketplace? What will my experience be with the new system in place? Note: the questions are “what”, rather than “how”.
If I were to preface a presentation to a senior leadership team of C-level execs, I would say that my company, in cooperation with your engineers, has developed a number of initiatives that will improve the way that a core system, or systems, functions. I would like to outline these initiatives and summarize the benefits to your company as validated by your engineers.
By gearing my presentation to the needs and desires of senior leaders entrusted with making the decisions, and by demonstrating a strong return on investment, I hope to leave them with an understanding that they want, that has a sense of completeness. I want to challenge them to challenge me with questions and objections that I can confidently address.
This will make you a welcome breath of fresh air that respects their intelligence and arms them with the information needed to decide in your favor.
by David Phillips
Connect to me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidlphillips
