A few weeks ago I received in the mail a review copy of The Art of The Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business by Peter Coughter.
Since I’m getting back on the conference circuit this year after taking a year off, I thought reading this book could help me get my inner presenter back into the groove.
While I know my marketing and communication classics, I have to admit that I don’t have a good knowledge of the advertising industry. As a result, I had never heard about the author, Peter Coughter, before I receive the review copy of his book. But, YOU might already know that is actually a well-know veteran of the ad agency world as well as a Professor at the VCU Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Here’s is my 1-1-1 Express Book Review of The Art of The Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills that Win Business by Peter Coughter.
- 1 thing I liked
Professor Coughter is a fantastic storyteller. Reading this book often felt like listening to great presentation stories sitting at the coffee shop. Without you even noticing it, through this series of stories, you end up understanding a lot about the kind of preparation work that goes into great presentations. And, even though, Professor Coughter focuses on presentations to win business, the principles he walks his reader through can be used with great success for conference presentations.
- 1 thing I didn’t like too much
As I mentioned above, I don’t know anything about the inner circles of the advertising world. That’s why some of the talk about advertising insiders didn’t do anything for me. From time to time, it felt like reading the adventures of the members of a big family… the family of a total stranger. Nothing huge, just not my favorite part of the book.
- 1 big take-away from the book
I love how Professor Coughter defines a presentation in the first pages of the book: “It’s a conversation. Only you’re doing most of the talking.”
However, it’s crucial to remember that this conversation has to be about the audience. When you research, design, prepare and rehearse for a presentation, it’s easy to focus exclusively on the topic, on what YOU want to say. That’s why you should never forget that YOUR presentation is not about YOU, but about the audience. As a result, any tactics you would use in a personal conversation, helping the other perceive you as one of his/her own, will also work well for your conference presentations. Focus on what you have in common with your session attendees, what makes you one of them, and you will win them over more easily. Professor Coughter has used that to sell (or help others) sell advertising campaigns, but this will work for ANY ideas you want to pitch.