When your business presentation doesn’t go to plan

On Saturday August 3rd I took part in a coastal path running festival on the Roseland Peninsula in Cornwall.

The festival offered several options all finishing at race HQ near St Austell. I was in for the 32 miler. A single stretch from St Anthony’s Head.

I dropped out after 21 miles at the Gorran Haven checkpoint. 

So what went wrong and what lessons can be learnt from that with regard to presenting and pitching?

On reflection my preparation wasn’t good enough.

I simply hadn’t done enough training. I’d been doing 60-70 miles a month but that wasn’t enough and my long training runs weren’t long enough.

I also got my fuelling wrong. I carried loads of gels and food with me. I simply didn’t eat enough of it, in the right order at the right times. My fault because I knew how to do this. My fuelling plan a]was too lax.

I’ve reflected a lot of what happened. And I’ve listened to others.

My big goal is the Arc of Attrition 50 miler at the end of January 2025. As I started to really struggle at around mile 16 my thoughts were that the Arc 50 was a ridiculous idea with no chance of me doing it.

However I’ve changed my mind on that. But I do need a four month training plan and a better fuelling strategy. 

So how does this link to business presentations? 

Inevitably they don’t always go to plan.

Why do presentations go wrong?

Very much like my run it’s combination of preparation and practice. 

Generally speaking in my experience occasional business presenters underestimate how important to success preparation and practice are.

When you’re on a 32 mile run it’s obvious when you’ve under prepared

Maybe not so obvious when you deliver a business presentation 

Whenever you’ve delivered a business presentation take some time afterwards to reflect on what happened:

Did you achieve your Purpose? In other words the outcome you were seeking? 

Were your audience engaged throughout? 

Did you have slides that weren’t actually needed or contained too many words? 

How did you leave it with your audience - did you agree the next steps?

If there was a Q&A how did that go?

Did you run on time? If you didn’t why was that? 

What would you do differently next time?

Whether we are running 32 miles or delivering a business presentation we can always do better time - if that’s what you want - and why wouldn’t you want that?

You can keep in touch with how I’m getting on via my Arc of Attrition Training Diary and the Running 44@60 podcast. 

I can help you transform your business presentations, create and convert sales opportunities and win more sales pitches. Click on the links below to find out more and book a free 15-20 minute Zoom call with to discuss what you might need help with.

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