Coaching

ENHANCING SPECIFIC PRESENTATION SUCCESS
VIA SPEAKER-TEAM COACHING & TRAINING

When the stakes are high, we can help you get a winning presentation on time and within budget. Proposal “orals,” customer user conferences, presentations to the financial community, team presentations to public groups all demand that your team be well-prepared to deliver winning messages clearly, concisely and convincingly. Our hands-on coaching helps your team develop a sound strategy, clear organization, punchy graphics, Murphy-free staging, and cohesive delivery teamwork.

Federal RFPs (Requests for Proposal) in particular are reducing written proposal content while upgrading the importance of presentations. For many current procurements presentation graphics are submitted with the written proposal with face-to-face “orals” by key personnel required soon after that. RFPs often identify these presentations as significant evaluation factors.

These changes significantly affect the proposal development process. Bidders must now develop presentation graphics that strongly make the bidder’s case, and the proposed team must then be able to make a winning presentation under sometimes new and always high-pressure situations.

We’ve served as speaker coach for presentation teams pursuing $5 billion multi-year government contracts, small design-build contracts, week long customer user conferences, and teams pitching their case to Congress.

OBJECTIVES

• Help individuals or speaker team achieve a significantly improved presentation outcome.
• Improve speaker comfort, assurance and preparation readiness.
• Streamline the process of developing presentations to achieve success with wise resource use.

CLIENTS:

(Partial Listing) Alliant Techsystems (ATK), BAE SYSTEMS, Kratos, Sullivan Environmental, Tetra Tech, Siemens, Invitrogen, Cal-Nevada Indian Gaming Association, CSC, ECC, General Dynamics/Anteon, Raytheon, Sentek, Ram Labs, Maxwell, Orincon, Titan, Goodrich/Rohr Industries, Pacific Western Technologies, HNC Software, Lockheed Martin, MACTEC, Nereus Pharmaceutical, Ralph Parsons, PWT, Rockwell, Roel Construction, Barnhart Construction,   University of Chicago, URS…

TESTIMONIALS

“Thanks for helping us win one of the biggest contracts in our history. We were told in the debrief that our oral presentation was outstanding. Much of this success can be directly attributed to your support.”   Byron Dean, VP, BAE SYSTEMS-Synectics

“Due directly to your help and guidance with our orals presentation team, we (Team Kratos) have won the C4I Test and Evaluation IV&V, and SSA Support contract at SPAWAR San Diego. Thanks for everything.”  Ozzie Hunter, Director of Logistics Management, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions

“Tom Leech helped make us winners! His training and coaching for our orals presentation for the RAC2 EPA contract were key factors in bringing our team to its peak level for a one-chance-only command performance; and we nailed it!”  Jim Bush, RAC2 Program Manager, Pacific Western Technologies, Ltd.

“Tom’s cogent critiques led to improved confidence, better delivery and ultimately superb performance during final Oral Presentations to the government. Tom’s dedicated and principled hard work significantly contributed to contract award.”  Edward Moore, Jr., VP Integrated Systems, Maritime Systems Sector, GD-Anteon

“There is no way our team could have made such an excellent showing at face-to-face discussions on this $7 B program without Tom Leech’s powerful, effective teaching and coaching.” Paul Bacon, Program Dev. Mgr., Boeing Rockwell

“Tom Leech has proven again that he knows how to WIN and has written it down in his book. He provided us with this same expertise, in person, and it helped us to victory in the biggest competition in our history; against very formidable opponents. Believe what he says!” Bill Kincaid, VP Corp. Dev., Lockheed Martin Orincon

SERVICES: Presentations coaching services are agreed-upon based on discussions abut specific needs and guidelines. here are typical activities where our services have proven beneficial.

Kickoff Orals Workshop (Optional, more specifics below). Typically half-day (or streamlined) seminar with presenters and support team addressing how to achieve winning proposal presentations. Success tips and common mistakes. Getting the sell into presentation and graphics. Importance of planned discipline, achieving milestones, and working with colleagues. Good team-building tie-in.

Upfront Planning/Coordination – Review of your analysis and approach to developing the presentation. Provide suggestions about process, milestones, strategies, themes, organization, support materials, visuals, arrangements, distribution, etc. Advise as to support team, graphics, red teams makeup and process.

Operations – Getting It Done. Help management meet necessary milestones, steering the team through each of the steps all leading to the target — a winning presentation, achieved on time and within budget.

Develop Content/Graphics. Work hand-in-hand with support team and presenters to refine agenda, carry out win themes, focus on key issues and hot buttons, develop presentation graphics.

Review/Rehearsal Process. Help increase presenter performance and assurance through progressive coaching and informal dry runs, with video as a tool for review. Help develop guidelines for red teams, including suggested procedures, schedules, makeup, and preparation. Participate in and often manage rehearsals simulating all aspects of the actual event.

Final Team Polishing. Prepare for non-formal parts of presentation, such as likely audience questions, sample problems or demos. Continue coaching process as warranted, helping refine materials and further improve delivery skills, comfort and team cohesiveness.

WINNING PROPOSAL ORALS WORKSHOP

This can be either a stand-alone training program or tied in with speaker-team coaching for specific proposals. It’s tailored to help organizations get their winning messages into proposal presentations, starting from the draft or received RFP. It gets all players — speakers, presentation/proposal support, executive strategy and review team — headed down the winning road by addressing proven tips and common mistakes. Conducting the Workshop early (pre-RFP if workable) helps team productivity by getting the team working the winning path from the start. Specific format is adaptable — half-day standard, expanded to full or multiple-day training seminar, or compressed to two hours. Topics include:

• Interpreting and planning responses to all elements of RFP instructions
• Development process: organizing team, setting and sticking to milestones, managing stress and keeping team healthy.
• Getting clarity, responsiveness and sell into presentation organization, materials, graphics, delivery scripts.
• Considerations tied to presentation arrangements, room layouts, audio- visual options, etc.
• Achieving a productive review and rehearsal process.
• Tips for achieving a cohesive, well-honed presentation team, including being able to respond to customer Q&A and other on-the-spot requests.

Options:

• Have key personnel deliver sample presentations, providing an early look at current skills, comfort levels, and needs. Video-taping adds a personal reality check.

Combine workshop with team-building activities, getting more comfortable with all win elements, sharing customer/contract knowledge, getting to know each other, working out responsibilities, and starting to build a cohesive team.