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Presentation Skills: Your Passport to Promotion: “1, 2, 3…Poof!”
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I had an interesting session with a new client. Let’s call her Fiona. She came in from the field to take a position in marketing with a major pharma, and has discovered that, at her company, your career depends largely on how you present.
Amazingly, they don’t offer any developmental support for people coming into the job. But she pushed her boss for help, and he relented.
Here’s a rough summary of what I learned about her experience in pharma marketing. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have not heard this before, and I have been deep into pharma marketing for 20 years.
1. Everyone wants to get promoted. The easiest way to get promoted is to get visibility in front of senior people. And the easiest way to get visibility is to present to them.
2. If you’re not a good presenter, your boss will know it and will be reluctant to stand you up in front of the senior execs. She could be afraid it will hurt your career chances and her image as an up-and-coming executive who is the fire under a red-hot group of high achievers.
3. Presenting marketing information internally is essentially selling ideas, and if you can’t get listeners to understand and believe in your idea, they are unlikely to see you as a good marketer, even though your ideas may be strong.
4. Finally, everyone listening to your presentation is so busy that they don’t want presentations to go on for too long, and therefore they don’t ask questions. They’re afraid of being seen as the “problem” person, or the “know-it-all” who makes everyone else look bad. She said the preferred method of presenting is, “1, 2, 3…Poof!”
This means that you show your slide, say up to three things about it in a confident voice, and then move to the next slide (as in “Poof. It’s gone!”) Everyone will be pleased that you got through your material quickly, and displayed confidence and conviction as you spoke.
5. Finally, while every product and market is different, the process of marketing is the same across brands. This causes many presentations to look and sound the same, i.e., they’re boring. So listeners like it when you’re articulate, energetic, and concise because you save them from the embarrassment of falling asleep.
She says you’re especially valued if you have a highly expressive voice.
Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun in this big pharma. But if you want the rewards–the promotion and the fatter check– you gotta sing for your supper.
And the name of the song you have to sing? “1, 2, 3…Poof!”
Tags: communication skills, confident speaking, how to get promoted, pharmaceutical marketing, pharmaceutical presentations, pharmaceutical presentations nj, presentation skills, presentation skills nj, presentation skills training, presentation skills training nj, speech training, speech training nj, voice training