Rivers Corbett is an award winning entrepreneur most notably involved with Relish Gourmet Burgers in the Fredericton area. A graduate of the UNB MBA program in 1989, he is also the founder and CEO of Corbett Ventures, responsible for the Chef Group which includes The culinary Adventure Company, Relish, and Trivnet Media Systems. He has received numerous awards for entrepreneurship and has taught courses at UNB. On October 21, Rivers taught our MBA class about how to give an effective business presentation.
He began by explaining that the business team is the centre of success and that it is not so much the individual work but the synergy of those individuals that make a difference in the long-run. Continuing on a somewhat humble path, Rivers went on to mention that presentations must be concise with a very specific strategy and that if certain guidelines are not followed, one can easily lose business. Presentations should be no longer than fifteen minutes with the average length being twelve minutes. He also stressed the importance of doing ample research before-hand in order to make the presentation simple. By doing this research you can show the company in question that you’ve taken an interest in them and their goals and that you care about their pain points, the points of business that cause them to lose sleep at night. Before explaining the presentation itself, Rivers also took the time to note that the communication of ideas is central to a business presentation and, to that end, the ideas must be communicated using a universal language.
The goals of a presentation can be simply stated as establishing the sale (also called the lead), establishing trust, and building confidence in the idea being presented and the person doing the presenting. The first step in the presentation is reminding the audience about how they got to this point. In other words, explaining why the presentation is happening and the background behind it. This enables the less-informed members of the group to feel included and enhances the overall clarity of the presentation. It is also important to take the time to learn about some of the people in the room to make them feel more comfortable. The second step is to talk about their company in relation to yours. It is this step that enables you to communicate that you understand their company and their goals and objectives. This is also a point where the aforementioned research is very valuable. It is also the step where the key initiatives are identified in terms of what actions the company has taken or are interested in taking. The next step is to identify the pain points of the company. This step gives an opportunity to deal with that pain by talking about a solution that will benefit the company. In this step, testimonials can be used, highlighting how you have dealt with other companies’ pain in the past. It is an opportunity to understand the problem at hand and to meet in the middle to reach a solution. The next step is to outline the budget and cost in relation to the return on investment (ROI) that the company can expect to see using the proposed solution. Rivers stresses here that it is important to ask for the sale and not for the next date, meaning that it is not enough to merely perpetuate the relationship and that we should be actively seeking to close a deal as soon as it is feasible. This is a stage at which it will be important to involve decision-makers and influencers in the room into the presentation. The final step is to review what was just discussed and to talk about the next steps in the process.
In addition to the actual presentation itself and the steps therein, Rivers mentions that many people lose the sale by not performing adequate follow-up afterwards. As important as the presentation itself is, it may be equally as important to physically call the person who was presented to within a twenty-four hour period to review the information once again. This places a sort of unspoken contract into effect between the two and is especially important in Atlantic Canada where people tend to be a bit more conservative and may be less willing to enact plans without being pushed a little.
The final part of Rivers’ seminar covered some odds and ends and unveiled some more information regarding some of the concepts discussed. One of the more important points during this section of the seminar involved ensuring that we come out with the business message immediately in the presentation and continuously support it. He stressed that it is not necessary to talk about your own company more than is necessary. What will be more effective to have most of the conversation relate to their company. He highlighted the importance of ROI in getting people in the room to sign off on a deal. Finally, he recommends asking, “Does that make sense?” on a periodic basis to ensure that no one in the room gets lost during the presentation.
This session was invaluable as it gave me an idea of how to conduct a business presentation from a successful entrepreneur in the Fredericton area. It is highly likely that I will be doing many presentations during my career and MBA degree. The skills and tips I have picked up from this session may be critical to my success in the business field.
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