Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
by Jerry Weissman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jerry WeissmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-09
ISBN: 0131875108
Number of pages: 292
Publisher: FT Press
Book Reviews of Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
Book Review: How to take your listeners where you need them to go.
Summary: 5 Stars
We've all sat through presentations that dragged on forever, but led nowhere. What's worse, we've probably even given a few. As the author puts it, "The problem is that no one knows how to tell a story...and no one knows that they don't know how to tell a story."
Author Jerry Weissman boils it down to telling a compelling story. That's easy to say, but hard to do. With this book's guidance, you can become an effective communicator--whether convincing employees of the need to change, persuading prospects that you have the best solution or leading skeptical community groups to support your cause.
Presenting to Win overflows with practical advice on how to engage an audience by telling your story with a focus on what's important to them. You become an `audience advocate' whose concern for your listeners' needs puts them at the heart of your presentation. As Weissman describes it:
"Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A, a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal...navigating them through an unbroken series of Aha!s...to Point B, a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates, ready to march to your drum."
By following Weissman's detailed roadmap, we can learn how to tell stories that move and motivate our listeners by keeping them engaged from a compelling start to a big finish.
Silicon Valley Presentation Guru
Weissmann's first career was as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter. His friendship with venture capitalist, Ben Rosen, led him to his second career as a presentation guru. In 1988, he launched a business that taught high tech executives to move from feature-laden, techno-speak dissertations to engaging, listener-centric presentations. Yahoo, Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel all benefited from his teachings.
The Opening Gambit is Just the Beginning
Weissman offers plenty of real world anecdotes, how-tos, and helpful graphics that convey how to grab and keep your audience. His opening gambit concept typifies his approach. He first offers the rationale, supports it with multiple success stories, and describes a broad range of opening gambits.
To engage an audience, an opening gambit pulls them out of a state of disinterest or suspicion about you and your presentation. Asking questions is one of seven such gambits discussed. In 1993, Scott Cook founder of Intuit (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks) faced a jaded audience of investment bankers. Rather than launch into a feature packed discussion of his new product, he asked two questions:
* How many of you balance your own checkbooks?
* How many enjoy doing it?
After a round of chuckles, he continued, "You're not alone. Millions of people around the world hate balancing their checkbooks. We at Intuit have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive home finance tool named, Quicken." With this `Aha' moment, Cook was off and running.
Beyond the Opening Gambit--Components of Successful Presentations
Equally insightful chapters on presentation essentials provide a level of detail and clarity that leaves nothing to chance. They include:
* Story development
* Graphic design
* Delivery skills
* Tools
* Q & A techniques
In each case, Weissman
Presenting to Win: A Blueprint Worth Following
Weissman demonstrates that even those of us who aren't naturals can present to win. Learning what he teaches requires significant effort because his approach contains such a broad range of interrelated elements--and includes variations that differ depending on purpose, topic, and audience. Making it easy for our audience is hard for us. But, as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Intuit, and Yahoo learned, the effort is well worth it.
Summary of Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story
In Presenting to Win: Persuading Your Audience Every Time, the world's #1 presentation consultant shows how to connect with even the toughest, most high-level audiences--and move them to action. Jerry Weissman shows presenters of all kinds how to dump those PowerPoint templates once and for all--and learn to tell compelling stories that focus on what's in it for their listeners. Drawing on dozens of practical examples and real case studies, Weissman shows presenters how to identify their real goals and messages before they even open PowerPoint; how to stay focused on what their listeners really care about; and how to capture their audiences in the first crucial 90 seconds. From bullets and graphics to the effective, sparing use of special effects, Weissman covers all the practical mechanics of effective presentation--and walks readers through every step of building a Power Presentation, from brainstorming through delivery. Unlike the techniques in other presentation books, this book's easy, step-by-step approach has been proven with billions of dollars on the line, in hundreds of IPO road shows before the world's most jaded investors.Foreword to the Paperback Edition xxiii Preface: What's Past Is Prologue xxvii Introduction: The Wizard of Aaaahs xxix Chapter One: You and Your Audience 3 Chapter Two: The Power of the WIIFY 15 Chapter Three: Getting Creative: The Expansive Art of Brainstorming 27 Chapter Four: Finding Your Flow 51 Chapter Five: Capturing Your AudienceImmediately 83 Chapter Six: Communicating Visually 109 Chapter Seven: Making the Text Talk 123 Chapter Eight: Making the Numbers Sing 143 Chapter Nine: Using Graphics to Help Your Story Flow 157 Chapter Ten: Bringing Your Story to Life 189 Chapter Eleven: Customizing Your Presentation 215 Chapter Twelve: Pitching in the Majors 231 Chapter Thirteen: Animating Your Graphics 237 Chapter Fourteen: The Virtual Presentation 257 Appendix A: Tools of the Trade 273 Appendix B: Presentation Checklists 277 Acknowledgments 283 Index 287Small Business & Entrepreneurship Books
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