How to Present an Executive Summary

I recently explained how to write an executive summary so now I'll explain how to present that same material to a group of top executives. By the way, at the end of the post, I'm going to give you the true and secret key to making these presentations effective; but that secret won't make sense unless you understand the basic that come first.

First, presentations aren't the same as written documents, so the structure that worked for the written executive summary isn't going to work for the presentation, even if the material is going to be largely similar. Here's the correct structure:

Slides 1-3. Describe the problem/opportunity. This is a research-based summary of the business, strategy, challenges and opportunities of the decision maker's firm. This summary should be couched in the language that's used inside the customer's firm and feature the customer's logo.

Slide 4. Summarize briefly who you are and why you can help. This is a quick overview about your company, couched primarily in the form of brief anecdotes of how you've helped other companies with similar problems. Where you were previously humble, here's the time to show some pride and confidence. Top executives set a lot of store on their "sense" of what a person and a company is all about, so quickly and firmly establish credibility.

Slide 5-8. Explain your solution and why now is the time. This is the business case for how your two firms can work together and how your firm and its offering can solve the customer's problems or achieve the customer's goals. Be sure to put the solution in the context of timing, so that it's clear that the top executives must make a decision. IMPORTANT: there's a big difference between line managers and top executives. Line managers want a solution to their problem but are often willing to think about the details, like features, functions and price. Top executives are interested in broad business issues such as corporate strategy, revenue and profitability. So this is not the time to get into detail. Focus on the big picture and the big impact.

Slide 9. Ask for the next step. In most cases, this means asking for the business, but if the sale cycle is very long or the customer has a byzantine decision-making processing, the next step might be another meeting or another presentation. (Perhaps to the Board of Directors?)

The most important part of the presentation is the first segment, because defining the problem (and getting buy-in to that definition), lays the groundwork for the solution that you're proposing. It also starts the presentation on a positive note because in most cases, the top execs will be amazed and pleased that you've taken the time to understand the real issues and to learn so much about their firm. However (AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART) during the first segment, you need to communicate with an attitude of humility rather than confidence. That's rough for sales pros who are used to always being high energy and aggressively upbeat. Use "wiggle words" like "perhaps" and "approximately" so that it's clear that you did research, but that you're well aware that the decision maker knows far more about his or her company than you. This all-important humility serves three purposes:

1. It keeps you from coming off like some "know-it-all" management consultant who's going to tell them how to run their own business. Execs hate that.
2. If the top execs have a different wrinkle on the problem, you won't look like an idiot when they tell you that you're off base.
3. Adding the wiggle room makes it easy to tweak the rest of the presentation to address whatever new wrinkle the execs surfaced.