Be Confident: Three Tips to Project Strength in Your Oral Presentations

It happens all too often to those on business reality television. It might be the bright lights, the star power across from them, or the gravity of the moment. But no matter the cause, the loss of confidence during a pitch has doomed many people on Dragons’ Den or Shark Tank.

In contrast, those who project confidence and business acumen are often successful. Many times, investors can overlook a business with holes if they believe in the founder; if the person is a great entrepreneur the experts are often open to taking a chance and work on perfecting the concept.

For example, on AMC’s show The Pitch, two advertising firms compete for the business of a potential new client. In season 2, lifestyle brand Tommy Bahama chose to go with California-based firm Neuron Syndicate not because of their actual idea (which the client did not like) but because they thought they better understood the brand. That came from the team’s confidence, as demonstrated through the presentation and approach led by their CEO, Ryan Cramer, and VP Sean Alatorre.

The same holds true for proposal efforts. We need to project strength and confidence in our written and oral presentations in order to be taken seriously and have a chance to win.  Weak language and being non-committal can eliminate a bid from consideration. Here are three tips for making sure your oral proposals remain in the running and demonstrate your confidence.

tip 1: use active voice

This may seem like a strange confidence tip and seem more appropriate for a writing seminar. However, speaking in active voice is a key way to portray strength in your bid. When you write in active voice, you project confidence and minimize confusion. You are the one taking action.

On the other hand, using the passive voice does not take responsibility or ownership. It intentionally is vague and does not have a clear actor. When you use this language you can confuse the client, which is never good for your proposal. There may be some times where passive voice is appropriate. However, when in doubt, use the active voice.

tip 2: practice practice practice

Oral presentations are part of many high-value proposal efforts. Given their importance to firms, they cannot be done by the seat of one’s pants. If a presenter is not well prepared, he/she can easily drop the ball and become flustered. Therefore, presenters need to know their content backwards and forwards.

This is not to say teams should memorize a script and repeat it verbatim. In fact, this approach is the opposite of what I coach my teams to do. It seems inauthentic when the purpose of orals is for the client to know if they can work with and trust the individuals in front of them. Instead, I instruct my teams to jot down bullets on index cards on the three key takeaways from any slide they have. This provides the necessary prompting for the presenter in case he/she needs it.

A second critical part of practicing is developing a team dynamic for the presentation. Clients not only want to make sure the individual team members are a good fit for them, they want to see how the team interacts and works with each other. Therefore, practice is critical to ensure the team can mention each other and have a natural dynamic and chemistry with one other.

tip 3: body language is key

Positive body language is critical for any business interaction. It becomes more important when you are presenting to a potential client. Standing up tall, projecting one’s voice, and demonstrating confidence goes a long way to making the client feel at ease with, and trust, the presenter.

However, it is not just the presenter who needs to maintain positive body language. The rest of the presentation team needs to remain engaged throughout the presentation. Crossing one’s arms, leaning back in one’s chair, or appearing distracted destroys any team dynamic and reflects extremely poorly on the team as a whole and the participant in particular. Conversely, leaning forward, smiling, and remaining engaged creates a positive impression and builds a rapport with the client.

conclusion

Clients buy from people they know and trust. A way to begin building that relationship is through a confident, honest presentation. Take a lesson from the successful pitches on business reality television and show your clients you are the right fit for them.