Project Customer Presentations

Purpose

Customer presentations provide opportunities to share the latest insights about a project with the customer. They are often used to sell the project or its progress to the customer and to engender greater levels of customer support for the project delivery organization. They are designed to persuade.

Application

Presentations are used in the sales environment, as well as the project environment. They can be used to communicate the intent or actions of a project “up” the organization to higher echelons of management. They can be used to provide current project information to peer levels within the organization or to provide training and/or direction to customers who are the ultimate users of the project processes or deliverables.

Content

Customer presentations may incorporate data about projects which are proposed, in process, or nearing completion. The content and the tone of the content should be respectful, acknowledging the level of authority of the customer and their commitment of time to the presentation. If data are presented using presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint or Freelance), the information should be kept to a reasonable level on each slide. The rule of no more than six lines of text per slide and six words of text per line affords a reasonable guideline. If graphics are presented, they should be legible, clear, and not overburdened with text. For example, if a detailed process diagram is to be included, it should be included as an appendix to the content, rather than presented as a whole in the presentation. Specific elements of the diagram can be called out in the presentation, but most detailed processes are too ornate to effectively fit in a single presentation slide.

Approaches

The approach should be clear and direct, following an outline that tells the customer precisely the intent of the presentation and delineating how that intent will be achieved. An outline for a customer presentation should identify purpose, means, and detail, as discussed in the following subsections.

This should include detail on what the outcome of the presentation will be. In a sales presentation, it would be the ultimate changes to the organization as a result of the project management “buy.” In a status presentation, it would be a call for affirmation that the project is headed in the right direction.

2.1 Delivery Organization Role(s) This should delineate how the delivery organization will contribute or achieve the goal or objective.

2.2 Customer Role(s) This should provide details about the role of the customer and her organization’s role in contributing to or achieving the objective.

2.3 Shared Role(s) This should outline how the parties will work in concert to achieve the goals or objectives described

Supporting information will make the case for the objective and the means, providing sufficient background to identify why the customer should concur with the objective and the approach to achieving that objective.

In classic sales parlance, this is where the presenter should “go for the close,” reasserting what the project customer is expected to do and how, when, or why they are supposed to do it. It may be as simple as getting an affirmation of support or as complex as setting up a renegotiation of a contract. The affirmation should mirror the objective as stated at the beginning of the presentation.

Considerations

Presenters may be tempted to incorporate all of the background or supporting documentation for a presentation in the actual presentation software. This can lead to information overload and to presentations that are misconstrued. If large volumes of data are to be presented, they should be broken down into manageable pieces to afford clarity and time for review.

From a visual perspective, the presentation should have a consistent look and feel in terms of the layout, fonts, graphic styles, and language use. Mingling different styles in a single presentation can be distracting.

From a presentation perspective, the presenter should be extremely careful not to simply read the slides verbatim. Although the slides may provide guidance and direction for the project presentation, they should augment the verbal presentation, rather than mirror it.