World-renowned presentation coach Jerry Weissman has spent 20 years helping top executives succeed in the most important business presentations of their lives, and he’s learned the best way to get his message across is to show his techniques in action. Weissman does just that in Presentations in Action: 80 Memorable Presentation Lessons from the Masters. He teaches how to make spectacularly successful presentations by showing exactly how great presenters have done it. Weissman dives into his library of outstanding presentations, sharing examples from current events, politics, science, art, music, literature, cinema, media, sports, and even the military. His compelling examples don’t just demonstrate what’s universal about effective human communication: they also reveal powerful ways to solve the specific challenges presenters encounter most often.
This book’s five sections focus on each element of the outstanding contemporary presentation: Content: Mastering the art of telling your story; Graphics: Designing PowerPoint slides that work brilliantly; Delivery skills: How to make actions speak louder than words; Q&A: How to handle tough questions; Integration: How to put it all together.
From clarifying “What’s in it for you?” to crafting better elevator pitches, improving flow to using anecdotes, Presentation in Action is packed with solutions–and packed with inspiration, too!
Jerry Weissman is the world’s number one corporate presentations coach. His private client list reads like a who’s who of the world’s best companies, including the top brass at Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Intel, Intuit, Netflix, Dolby Labs and many others. Mr. Weissman founded Power Presentations, Ltd. in 1988. One of his earliest efforts was the Cisco Systems IPO road show. Following its successful launch, Don Valentine, of Sequoia Capital, and then chairman of Cisco’s Board of Directors, attributed “at least two to three dollars” of the offering price to Mr. Weissman’s coaching. That endorsement led to more than 500 other IPO road show presentations that have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in the stock market.
Mr. Weissman’s focus widened from coaching IPOs to include public and privately held companies. His techniques have helped another 500 plus firms develop and deliver their mission-critical business presentations.
Mr. Weissman is also the author of three books, the bestselling Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, named by Fortune magazine as one of eight must-reads; The Power Presenter: Technique, Style, and Strategy from America’s Top Speaking Coach; and In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions...When it Counts.