A Great Management Presentation is Worth Millions

You’ve invested in accretive acquisitions, streamlined your supply chain, and expanded your channels.  You’ve cut waste and ratcheted up workflow efficiencies.  Your financial models have been refined, back-tested, and stress-tested.  You’ve spent years building your business and months building your CIM.  The investment bank, the management team, everyone is on-board.  It all comes down to this…

But ‘this’ isn’t the moment of sale.  This is the management presentation.

While much of your business’ market value is dependent on facts, there is one significant component in the process that is subject to interpretation, evaluation, and personal judgement.  There’s one component in the process where you can make or lose millions.  Despite its significance, this component of the process is often overlooked.  Welcome to the management presentation. 

“A well-executed management presentation can make millions of dollars of difference.”

Bill Hanneman, Co-Founder, Zachery Scott

The management presentation is your opportunity to showcase your team’s expertise, understanding, and authenticity.  It’s the opportunity to tell your story beyond the numbers, to draw attention to favorable facts and features while contextualizing potentially disturbing data.  The management presentation is your chance to demonstrate how all departments and executives work synergistically for the company’s greater good.  It’s your opportunity to instill confidence in potential buyers that you and your team can positively respond to market turbulence.  Finally, it’s your opportunity to prove that you are even more valuable than just the story coming out of the data room.

Given the importance of management presentations, what are you doing to capitalize on the opportunity? 

According to 9 in 10 buy-side investors, “the most influential intangible is quality of management and the confidence it instills,” and “investors consider their personal interactions with the C-suite to be critical in making investment decisions.”

  Weber Shandwick & KRC Research

Investing in professional presentation consulting is likely a rounding error to the other expenses involved in selling a business, but it is also the one step that can realistically reap returns that are orders of magnitude above the cost of this professional service.

Professional presentation coaching ensures that your team: 

·      Engages the audience with personality and authenticity;

·      Tells a memorable story compatible with, but not exclusive to the data;

·      Isn’t redundant, disorganized, or fragmented;

·      Demonstrates deep understanding and a multi-dimensional game plan to achieve future growth;

·      Presents with an appropriate blend of expertise, confidence, and humility;

·      Can predict and confidently respond to challenging questions;

·      Avoids off-putting mannerisms and distracting habits;

·      Comes across as trusted partners and genuine people worthy of investment.

Whether the management team consists of seasoned executives who have deep experience in mergers and acquisitions or are first-time founder/builder/operators, there is much value in receiving the feedback of professional presentation consultants.