Acing the art of presentation

Crisp and pertinent, The Golden Book Of Business Presentation Skills gives new-age readers a tangible and observable approach to presentation skills. Eschewing vague generic ideas, it instead focuses on providing inputs based on a step-by-step scorecard for presentation skills. Each chapter of the book explains a ‘Golden Rule’, such as understanding the listener’s perspective, setting the presentation context, establishing personal credibility, using verbal and non-verbal tools and more. In an interview with Corporate Citizen, Principal Consultant and author, Prajeet Budhale discusses his motivation to pen the book, common errors, and the USPs of the book. Excerpts from the interview

Presentation, according to Prajeet Budhale, principal consultant and author of the book-The Golden Book of Business Presentation Skills, is by far, the most important soft skill for professional success. “Most professionals realise its true value after it is too late-where they either have lost good opportunities or are being unsuccessful at creating visibility for self beyond domain skills.” He shares that the book is based on years of research, work with clients through coaching and training, the study of best practices and helping client organisations implement systems to enhance presentation abilities at various levels in their organisations. Published by Bloomsbury, ‘The Golden Book of Business Presentation Skills’ is author’s second literary work. Budhale also has his debut national bestselling book ‘INFIN-EIGHT’ to his credit, which focuses on helping people successfully accomplish their career goals without compromising on self-care.

Corporate Citizen: When did the idea of penning The Golden Book of Business Presentation Skills, strike you? What inspired you to write this book?

Prajeet Budhale: There are three key reasons I penned down this book:

(1). The stupendous success we have seen with clients in creating results through the process of making skills observable and measurable in a scorecard format

(2). The fact that more than 66% of the Indian population is less than 30-years-old and skills can make a difference

(3). Realisation that we can make a difference to point two with our expertise from point one

I started with a simple objective. We have steps to tie a pair of shoelace. What if we make presentation skills that simple for professionals? The end outcome was the book.

CC: In your experience, what are the common errors that most people make while making business presentations?

I think there are three again:

(1). Most people build the presentation based on what they want to say, instead of what people want to hear

(2). Business presentations are different from information sharing. People miss the power and impact of following a proven scientific structure for presentations

(3). It is not just ‘What’ you want to say. It is ‘How’ you say it that makes all the difference. People mistake presentations to be verbal exercise and miss the non-verbal toolkit completely.

The book takes care of addressing all the three common errors that people make while presenting.

CC: Do you recall some particularly good business presentations you have witnessed in the course of your professional life?

There are many. A specific one that I will never forget is when a CEO was addressing the sales frontline of a company. He started the presentation with an incident when he (CEO) was a frontline salesperson. He described the challenge he faced, what he did about it and the result he achieved. For the next 45 minutes, the audience was accepting many ideas that the CEO shared. I learnt never to underestimate the power of audience connect and the acceptability it can create.

CC: Who would benefit from the book, and in what way?

We think a presentation is only when someone stands up and speaks to a room full of audience. This is not true. A presentation can be someone speaking to each other over a coffee, it can be a virtual interaction with stakeholders or a discussion over an important issue. The key point is how you present your thoughts in a professional context.

The book is about business presentations and the scope is wide. A CEO presenting to investors/board members is a business presentation, a manager sharing an idea with his team for project launch is a business presentation, a consultant presenting an idea to a customer is a business presentation, a student explaining why he should be allowed to give an exam with 2% less attendance in her record is a business presentation. The book will benefit every professional who has a business and professional objective to achieve-let it be graduate/postgraduate students, early professionals, managers or leaders, there is something for everyone in the book.

CC: How did you personally shore up knowledge about the dos and don’ts of making a business presentation?

I have been an avid learner all my life. Reading books, listening to audiotapes, watching self-development videos. I think this shaped me to be a strong communicator in my early years in sales, sales management and leadership. My PGCMB from XLRI Jamshedpur, post-graduation in Psychology and PCC with International Coaching Federation gave me a strong grounding in business skills. I have worked with nearly 200 client organisations through consulting, coaching and training over the past decade. This gave me an opportunity to convert the knowledge to application and application to results for clients. These are well-tested principles with client organisations, that yield them premium results.

CC: What makes ‘The Golden Book of Business Presentation Skills’ different from the various books available that offer broader, generic suggestions?

When I first thought of authoring a book on business presentations, I went back to what existed. What I realised was that there were some credible books in the business presentations space. Most of these books offered ideas and concepts. The authors trusted the readers with the responsibility to comprehend the information and come up with action items for themselves. This is a big ask. Look at today’s readers. They are smart, aware and are rearing to do anything that would get them success. So, I decided to author the book in a format that suits today’s readers. My key criteria were as follows:

(1) Write something that is simple to understand

(2) Write it in the crispest way so that we don’t test the reader’s patience

(3) At the end, leave the readers with a complete toolkit that they can apply, monitor and improve their skills

These are the three unique things about the book.

CC: What would you rate as the USPs of the book?

I used the three points in the earlier question to author this book. Parallel to writing the book, I was also testing these concepts in our consulting and coaching engagements for finalisation. The outcome is the USP. The USP of the book is that the book provides a presentation score card right at the start and walks you through each of the steps as chapters in the book. Each chapter is divided into ‘Know’ and ‘How’ sections. Know is the section that helps the reader understand the concepts and the ‘How’ section is like a workbook, that enables the readers to plan and apply the concept in real-time presentations.

IN A NUTSHELL

Each chapter of the book is dedicated to explaining a ‘Golden Rule’, such as understanding the listener’s perspective, setting the presentation context through headlines and agendas, establishing personal credibility, setting the presentation context, building a core presentation and summary, using verbal and non-verbal tools appropriately to better advantage, handling questions with confidence and giving relevant responses, and the like. Every chapter is also divided into a ‘Know’ section that explains the concept, and a ‘How’ section that summarises effective application techniques outlined using real-time situations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With a Post Graduate Certification from XLRI, Master’s in Psychology and PCC from International Coaching Federation, Prajeet Budhale (www.prajeetbudhale.com) has 35 years of experience in Sales, Sales Management, Customer Service, Operations and Consulting. Prajeet has catered to varied people development and process consulting initiatives across sectors. Prajeet is also the author of National Bestseller professional success book ‘INFIN-EIGHT’ and now the author of ‘The Golden Book of Business Presentation Skills’. Prajeet founded Fourth Quadrant (www.fourthquadrant.in) which serves more than 200 client organisations from different sectors. In his current capacity, Prajeet works with organisations to create ROI in people development through consulting, coaching and training. Prior to founding this enterprise, Prajeet played critical roles with organisations like Dale Carnegie Training Idia, Standard Chartered Bank, MetLife and Tata Donnelley Limited.