Editorial Review:
In Presenting to Win: Persuading Your Audience Every Time, the world's #1 presentation consultant shows how to connect with even the toughest, most high-level audiences--and move them to action. Jerry Weissman shows presenters of all kinds how to dump tho
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
You will never present the same way again...and your audiece will thank you 2008-05-25
Jerry Weissman is one of those rare people who has written an authoritative sounding book about how to present and has the real experience and background to justify every claim he makes.
The book starts with the premise that the presenter must focus on the audience and that he must make them focus on him. He must understand the mental point they are at (Point A) and moves them to Point B. He must understand what is in it for them (WIIFY) and constantly use it as he constructs every slide to walk them to Point B. He must also understand the setting of the audience, and his main points of argument. Finally, he must tie those points together with a flow structure that fits his argument.
That's the first half of the book and as someone who has through some awful presentations, I can only wish reading this book were the equivalent of a driver's license for public speakers.
The back half of the book draws on his background in television and employs standard cinematic techniques to improve the appearance of PowerPoint. It's easy to overlook this part, but it makes a huge difference as well.
I've now had a chance to see people who have used these techniques for years present, and it makes a huge difference. I have also seen someone present in a tough situation using these techniques for the first time. This person is level-headed and not given to fads. His comment? "I wish I had run to Jerry's book ten years earlier."
If you speak in public, this is the one book you have to read, and re-read. It is common sensical, based in fact, and surprisingly intuitive.
How to take your listeners where you need them to go. 2008-05-25
We've all sat through presentations that dragged on forever, but led nowhere. What's worse, we've probably even given a few. As the author puts it, "The problem is that no one knows how to tell a story...and no one knows that they don't know how to tell a story."
Author Jerry Weissman boils it down to telling a compelling story. That's easy to say, but hard to do. With this book's guidance, you can become an effective communicator--whether convincing employees of the need to change, persuading prospects that you have the best solution or leading skeptical community groups to support your cause.
Presenting to Win overflows with practical advice on how to engage an audience by telling your story with a focus on what's important to them. You become an `audience advocate' whose concern for your listeners' needs puts them at the heart of your presentation. As Weissman describes it:
"Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A, a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal...navigating them through an unbroken series of Aha!s...to Point B, a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates, ready to march to your drum."
By following Weissman's detailed roadmap, we can learn how to tell stories that move and motivate our listeners by keeping them engaged from a compelling start to a big finish.
Silicon Valley Presentation Guru
Weissmann's first career was as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter. His friendship with venture capitalist, Ben Rosen, led him to his second career as a presentation guru. In 1988, he launched a business that taught high tech executives to move from feature-laden, techno-speak dissertations to engaging, listener-centric presentations. Yahoo, Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel all benefited from his teachings.
The Opening Gambit is Just the Beginning
Weissman offers plenty of real world anecdotes, how-tos, and helpful graphics that convey how to grab and keep your audience. His opening gambit concept typifies his approach. He first offers the rationale, supports it with multiple success stories, and describes a broad range of opening gambits.
To engage an audience, an opening gambit pulls them out of a state of disinterest or suspicion about you and your presentation. Asking questions is one of seven such gambits discussed. In 1993, Scott Cook founder of Intuit (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks) faced a jaded audience of investment bankers. Rather than launch into a feature packed discussion of his new product, he asked two questions:
* How many of you balance your own checkbooks?
* How many enjoy doing it?
After a round of chuckles, he continued, "You're not alone. Millions of people around the world hate balancing their checkbooks. We at Intuit have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive home finance tool named, Quicken." With this `Aha' moment, Cook was off and running.
Beyond the Opening Gambit--Components of Successful Presentations
Equally insightful chapters on presentation essentials provide a level of detail and clarity that leaves nothing to chance. They include:
* Story development
* Graphic design
* Delivery skills
* Tools
* Q & A techniques
In each case, Weissman
Presenting to Win: A Blueprint Worth Following
Weissman demonstrates that even those of us who aren't naturals can present to win. Learning what he teaches requires significant effort because his approach contains such a broad range of interrelated elements--and includes variations that differ depending on purpose, topic, and audience. Making it easy for our audience is hard for us. But, as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Intuit, and Yahoo learned, the effort is well worth it.
A winner! 2008-01-28
Presenting to Win is a terrific book. I got a clear, structured, sensible system to create presentations that will skyrocket the level of mine. I will keep this handy every time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Jerry.
Precise, accurate and inspiring 2008-01-11
I have read through numerous books with similar titles on the topic and this one was by far and away the best. He does a great job at organizing his arguments into a logical and intuitive flow. The result is an easy to read and motivational book that will definitely help you tell a story.
After 1 year, this book is already in its 7th printing! 2007-10-27
My boss gave me this book as I had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for a major client. I thought "oh great, just what I need, another book telling me how to make PowerPoints. Whatever!"
So I started paging through the book and decided maybe that this is a little different after all. And next thing I knew, I went through the first two chapters devouring every word!
Conclusion? This book is not just about PowerPoints, far from it. This book is about presenting and selling: whether you are presenting a product or presenting yourself. For example, most people don't know how to go about asking for a raise. Why? Because they walk into their boss's office saying "I want a raise or I'll quit" or "I want a raise because I'm expecting a child soon" or "I want a raise because Herbert is making more money that I do and we do the same job!"
And of course, this leads to confrontation, and you end up getting either a little or no raise.
But the book points out that whatever you do in life, you are constantly making presentations. Whether the presentation is for your customer, your boss, your wife, or your colleagues, you need to convince them to do something for you. And the simplest way to get them to act on your presentation is to tell them how they will benefit from doing what you want them to do.
For example, you are going to make a presentation on some new electronic widgets and gizmos your company makes. You spend hours telling your customer the features of the widgets and gizmos but in the end the customer walks away without ever intending to buy your product. WHY? Because you neglected to tell them the benefits. If you had told them how the widgets and gizmos would make their job easier, used less electricity, etc., then they may have made the move to buy the product. SELL THE BENEFITS NOT THE FEATURES!
So, the book tells you how to make your presentation into a story that will move the audience (e.g. customer, boss, spouse, etc.) rather than having a presentation that drolls on giving the audience fact after fact, feature after feature, with no clear beginning and no clear ending.
I finished this book in a weekend and radically altered the presentation I had to give to my client. My presentation was well received and my company ended up with the contract we were seeking.
To put this in Ebay's terms, I give this book an A++++++++++
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