How to make a great presentation: Screw up.

I was making the worst presentation I have ever made to a client I had never met on a piece of business that was vital to the agency that was in trouble with it.

And I was blowing the presentation. Badly.

I turned to my art director partner and said, “Do mind giving me a hand with this?” hoping he would get up on his feet and start talking.

He straightened the presentation boards that were sitting on the ledge behind me. He didn’t get it.

I started to continue but things only got worse.

Then I stopped.

I didn’t say a word. I looked around the room, let out a heavy sigh and said, “Can you believe this? You are one of the most important clients to our agency and I am really blowing this presentation. Would you mind if I started over again?’

The room erupted in laughter; I’m sure mostly nervous laughter, and I proceeded to give a clear and compelling presentation and my recommendation was approved right then and there.

What was the magic ingredient?

Simple.

I turned a presentation into a conversation. I had humanized myself. More importantly, I humanized the clients. I talked to them, not at them. Not in boardroom talk. Human talk.

I think the most important thing that happened was that I came across as honest. When clients asked questions, I didn’t respond with canned agency-talk. I would stop for a second, seriously consider the question, think and then give an honest answer.

That’s how you build trust.

Some of you reading this might think, “Oh, this guy just kisses ass.”

No. I simply try to harness the power of honesty and humanity.

Am I perfect? No. Are you?

So let me tell you about a different client presentation that went somewhat differently.

This was at a different agency. Actually, it was the one where I worked before I joined the agency above.

We were a rocket. The business community saw us as a strategic shop and the advertising community saw us as a creative shop. We drove businesses. And we won a ton of awards.

We were in the middle of preproduction for a TV spot. Approved strategy. Approved script. Pre-production. You know; casting and wardrobe and all that good stuff.

Somehow the meeting morphed into the script which ultimately morphed into the strategy and then one of the clients said, “Maybe we should use a celebrity.”

According to my art director, I leaned halfway across the boardroom table as I delivered my response: “Jesus Christ would need something to say.”

When we went back to agency, I met with the president and told him, if I were the client, I would get the TV spot produced and then fire the agency.

We were a rocket. No one fired us. I suggested we fire the client right then.

And we did.

Bill Bernbach had a great line: “A principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money.”

Obviously, I have not spent my career discussing strategies through theological metaphors.

But throughout my career, I was in the new business presentations for clients ranging from Taco Bell (we won) to IBM (we won half of it) and I always loved a foil. A page in the wrong order in the deck. Or bulb burning out in the projector. Something. Because then I got to be human and turn presentations into conversations.

There are many courses and training on making presentations. I have seen many online videos presented by people who have possibly taken these courses. Hand gestures. Arm movements. The mechanics of persuasion.

But I’ll throw another one at you: Just be yourself. You can’t be anybody else. Find the way to turn a presentation into a conversation. That’s a fast lane to trust.

Trust me.