Those of us in market insights, research and analytics fields are often considered subject matter experts. We are naturally curious and love mining rich data to discover something insightful. Yet, after we uncover something truly valuable, we often struggle to drive organizational change. But why? If the methodology was solid and the findings are clear, the action should follow, right?
The answer often lies in how we present our findings to the C-suite. Following are four tips that will help you make a compelling case.
1. Simplify, simplify, simplify
Sure, we’re all familiar with the K.I.S.S. principle, but never is it more important than when speaking to the C-suite.
It’s always critical to know your audience. In the case of executives remember:
a. Their time is extremely limited.
b. Their focus is constantly shifting
This first point is self-explanatory, but the second is often overlooked. The CEO makes decisions that impact everything from product to marketing to supply chain to human resources. We support their decision-making by sharply focusing on only the most critical information.
One trick I’ve used with my team: after preparing an analysis, have a brief discussion with a colleague —without charts, slides, or notes— to discuss what you learned. Ask the colleague to take notes and identify common themes. These notes can typically be boiled down to 3-5 key points which becomes the structure of your presentation.
Next, review everything in your presentation. Anything that does not directly serve one of those 3-5 points becomes “appendix material.” Cut ruthlessly! It is often better to provide a follow-up response to a nuanced question than to bore your audience with superfluous detail.
2. Memorable messages move management
Because analysts like to dive deep on issues, our findings are often nuanced. While it’s critical to never mislead your audience, there is a certain amount of poetic license we can use. Remember, an executive’s attention is frequently shifting, and alliteration, metaphors, rhymes, etc., can go a long way in helping ensure they remember critical points.
By way of example, my team gave a powerful presentation where a key take-away was that we were behind competitors in our social media strategy. But rather than “increase resources for social media marketing” we hammered the point, “double-down on digital!”
At the end of the meeting, one of the executives recapped the meeting. “It’s clear we need to double-down on digital,” he said. A few weeks later a significant investment was made in the digital marketing team.
3. Facilitate decision-making.
This sounds obvious, but a common mistake with many insights presentations is that they don’t directly answer a business question. Sure they may present interesting findings, but findings don’t directly lead to actions unless you make the connections.
The most straightforward way to address this is to literally pose the question and then answer it up front. I’ve found that directly quoting an executive’s “ask” followed by a straightforward answer sets the stage for a productive discussion. Then, you can explain how you arrived at the conclusion.
One common mistake, however, is to simply answer the “what?” Although that’s certainly important, as subject matter experts we need to go further and make the link to “so what?”
I had a professor in business school who would constantly ask, “so what?” after a student made a point. After the answer, he would ask, “so what?” again. This would continue until the student eventually hit on the core truth, which was often phrased into an action that needed to be taken.
Continuously ask yourself “so what?” as you simplify your presentation. This should be accompanied with an answer to “now what?”
4. Quit while you’re ahead
A good salesperson knows when to close the deal. Inexperienced analysts often overstay their welcome. It’s easy to understand why: we’ve done all this great work and we’re proud of every interesting finding. The problem is that by continuing after you’ve convinced your audience, you run the risk of undermining everything as new questions arise.
It’s a good idea to memorize the flow of your presentation so you can skip over areas if you’ve already convinced your audience. Pro tip: embed hidden hyperlinks in your deck so you can skip to the next section if things are moving more quickly than anticipated.
What’s your favorite tip for creating compelling C-suite presentations? Send me a message or leave feedback in the comments.