Does your firm spend considerable time and money developing and delivering presentations to prospective clients— only to not get the jobs? ZweigWhite’s A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook provides a step-by-step guide to planning, preparing, and delivering winning presentations to prospective clients.

So, your firm has made the short list. Now it’s time to clinch the job by giving a presentation to your prospective client. Your presentation can make or break your firm’s chances of winning the project. However, most marketing presentations in the A/E/P and environmental consulting industries are the same— and boring. “This is our firm, here is or organizational chart, these are all the projects we’ve worked on, etc.”

With such fierce competition in the A/E/P and environmental consulting industries, it’s critical that your firm stand out from the crowd in the eyes of a prospective client. But how many hours and how much money does your firm spend developing presentations— only to not get the jobs with prospective clients?

Stop spinning your wheels with run-of-the-mill presentations that miss the mark. Wow your clients with what they want to see and hear by getting a copy of ZweigWhite’s A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook. This book provides a step-by-step guide to planning, preparing, and delivering winning presentations. Filled with best practices and case studies, this book won’t just show you how to create a presentation; you’ll learn how to create a winning presentation.

A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook will provide you with tools and techniques for improving the presentations your firm is making and help you win more of the plum jobs you want. This book will take you step-by-step through the process of creating and delivering winning presentations. Get best practices to enhance the content, organization, and design of your firm’s project interviews.

You’ll start at the beginning and learn how to decide whether to compete for a job and find out the key factors in making a go/no-go decision. Then, A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook will show you how to better understand your audience and differentiate yourself from the competition so that you can provide a unique selling point to your client.

You’ll get tips for choosing the members of the presentation team as well as insight on how to coach the presenters and rehearse the presentation. A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook also provides tactics for developing the outline and content for your presentation.

Client presentations are not all about content, however. “Stage presence” and appearance are important as well. A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook will show you how to prepare your graphic presentation, visual aids, and “leave behinds.” You’ll also get tips for improving the stage presence of presenters, capturing the audience, and planning for questions. There are also best practices for following up with clients after a project has been awarded and for presentations to government clients.

Have you ever wanted to know the secret to other firms’ successes in delivering winning presentations? A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook is filled with real-life case studies, so you can get an inside look at how other A/E firms have created and delivered presentations that have won projects. The case studies profile firms of all types and sizes in the design and environmental industry so you can see how firms just like yours are landing jobs. Get helpful advice from the people who’ve spearheaded presentations. Find out how they put their presentations together and how they have addressed the challenges in their presentations. They’ll also tell you what pitfalls to avoid. Why repeat problems that others have solved?

Learn what it takes to create better presentations. After all, you can’t work on challenging projects if you don’t win them first. With ZweigWhite’s A/E Winning Presentations Cookbook, you can make sure your firm’s presentations stand out from the competition and win more of the jobs you want.

Foreword

Chapter 1: Making the short list
Deciding whether to compete for a job
Key factors in go/no-go decisions
Doing your research
Planning your proposal around presentation requirements
Staffing a project

Chapter 2: Organizing the presentation team
Who should be on the presentation team?
Principal-in-charge and project manager
Technical professionals
Marketing staff
Subconsultants and teaming partners
Bringing the team together

Chapter 3: Analyzing the client
Gauging your audience
Gathering logistical information
Conducting unique research
Tailoring your presentation to the client

Chapter 4: Differentiating your firm from the competition
Why competitive intelligence is important
Tactics for gathering competitive intelligence
Explaining how your firm is different
Why selecting another firm is risky

Chapter 5: Developing a presentation outline
Elements of the outline
Stressing your firm’s strengths
Designing a strong finish

Chapter 6: Preparing your graphic presentation
Matching your graphic presentation to the audience
Walking the technology tightrope
ABCs of PowerPoint
Preparing visual aids and "leave behinds"
Advanced presentations
Outsourcing presentation production
Having a low-tech backup plan

Chapter 7: Getting ready for the interview
Rehearsing the presentation
Coaching the presenters
Using coaching consultants
Paying attention to time management
Last-minute preparations

Chapter 8: Under the spotlight
The importance of stage presence
Improving your stage presence
Anticipating and planning for questions

Chapter 9: Post-presentation follow-up
Finding out why you won (or lost)
Getting the most out of a debriefing

Chapter 10: Special considerations for federal projects
Understanding the rules
Characterizing the likely audience
Designing the presentation around evaluation criteria
Planning logistics with care

Chapter 11: A/E winning presentation case studies
Profiles of 11 real-life winning presentations by A/E firms of all types and sizes.

Appendix A: Resources