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 287
Jerry Weissman, the world’s #1 corporate presentations coach, founded and leads Power Presentations, Ltd. in Foster City, CA. His private clients include executives at hundreds of the world’s top companies, including Yahoo!, Intel, Cisco Systems, Intuit, Dolby Laboratories, and Microsoft.
Weissman coached Cisco executives before their immensely successful IPO road show; afterward, the firm’s chairman attributed at least two to three dollars of Cisco’s offering price to Weissman’s work. Since then, he has prepared executives for nearly 500 IPO road shows, helping them raise hundreds of billions of dollars. His techniques have helped another 500 firms develop and deliver their mission-critical business presentations.
Weissman is author of the global bestseller Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003) and In the Line of Fire (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005) along with its companion DVD, In the Line of Fire: An Interactive Guide to Handling Tough Questions (www.powerltd.com).
