Presentation Excellence

The Art of Becoming a Presentation Black Belt

Becoming a Black Belt in the martial arts requires hours upon hours of repetitive movement. A simple block, kick, or punch, is performed over and over again until it is entirely instinctive. When attacked, the martial artist is trained to respond without thinking. At this level of experience and achievement, there is simply no hesitation while the mind contemplates a response, everything is on automatic.

While training, students of the martial arts learn “katas” or “forms”, which, by definition are series of specific interconnected moves that resemble a sort of dance or ballet (minus the punching, kicking and blocking stuff of course). The purpose of practicing and executing forms is to tie together many individual techniques in a logical string of movements that is designed to train the student how to defend against multiple attackers coming from many directions.

Forms are used for training or exhibitions. In a true self-defense situation, the martial artist would not revert to a specific form they have learned to protect themselves. However, learning forms is of tremendous value to the development of martial arts expertise. What may happen in an actual self defense situation, is that the martial artist would draw from the mixture of techniques and forms he or she has learned and automatically link portions of each together into the perfect response to the threat— and it all happens unconsciously!

Much can be learned about presentation excellence from this martial arts analogy. What if you practiced not only what you needed to say, but how you delivered your sales presentation with the same degree of discipline as an accomplished martial artist? What would happen if your responses to customer comments and concerns during the presentation were handled automatically (because you were so well prepared), and yet perfectly crafted (so as not to come across as mechanical) to respond to each customer’s individual situation? What if you mastered the presentation, essentially becoming a Black Belt of sorts in your chosen profession— can you imagine how much more effective you would be?

Fortunately, when presenting the benefits of the products and services to customers, you will have no need to physically defend yourself. However, you are responsible for protecting “the message” so to speak, making sure that you’re delivering the information about your company’s products and services with the skill of a presentation expert.

The achievement of presentation excellence does not occur without effort, it requires personal discipline. In order to be fully prepared to handle whatever concerns a customer may throw our way, and to move fluidly through the presentation connecting one important point to another— to achieve presentation excellence— takes a “Martial Artist like” commitment.

Now Grasshopper, you know all you need to know to become a “Presentation Black Belt”. Practice your presentation daily, practice until it is reflexive, then; practice it some more!