Yesterday, I sat through 7 identical new-business presentations at a client site.  Each was 15 minutes long. Each was delivered by a team of three.  In addition to the 21 presenters, 20 people from the company were observing.

When the last team ended their pitch, I asked everyone to pick out a strong moment–a moment that caught their attention in a positive way.

Here is what they said, in no particular order of importance.

1.  When someone said, “I love my work.”
2.  Whenever an example was used to illustrate a point.
3.  When one person spoke in a very organized, logical way so it was easy to follow what they said.
4.  When presenters translated facts about the company and its services into benefits for the prospect.

There were others, too numerous to mention here.  But these few responses alone speak to the reliability of ancient wisdom.

Audiences like emotion and personalization. 
Audiences like concrete examples to illustrate broad, general statements.
People want the big idea up front, and the supporting ideas in marching order behind.
They want to hear what they get from the service and how it will make them feel.

It’s easy to ramble through your material, difficult to speak so people will listen, and harder still to speak to the audience, in the language of the audience, about what’s most important to the audience.

The latter is the skill we are all in pursuit of.

What do you do when your product is losing share to a new competitor and it’s time to present the annual marketing plan?

Stay positive! Acknowledge the challenges and the implication, but do so in a matter of fact manner, and move quickly to your proposed solution.

Even if you have a snowball’s chance in hell of recovering your market share, put together a plan that could work if everything were to break in your favor.

And demonstrate commitment in your choice of words, your posture, and your tone of voice. Everyone knows it’s a bad situation before you begin, so you must demonstrate belief in the possibility–however small–of success.

We are not rewarded in business for dragging problems into the board room and dumping them on the table in front of senior people. We are rewarded for being crystal clear about the situation, and giving them the best option you and your team can devise.

You are the captain of your brand. There is no honor in leaving the ship while it sinks. Your job is to fight to the end. The brand may go down, but you will be remembered for your determination and optimism in the face of dire odds.