Presentation for a new job - the first 90 days.

[heisthegaffer]

Dear all

I have a second interview coming up for a Business Development/Account Manager role and I have to come up with a 5 - 10 minute presentation covering the the following:-

- what the candidate would do in his first 90 days on the job, should he be successful in his application. his should focus on both customer and internal/team matters.

I am not concerned about delivering the presentation, in fact as I really want the role I am excited about this but I am a bit stumped about the format of the presentation.

Do I split it into weekly or monthly sections? My initial thoughts would be that I would spend the first month focusing internally so meeting my immediate colleagues plus those in claims, accounts and head office as well as learning all about the company. This would be followed in month two by understanding my accounts as much as I can. Finally month three would be spend out on the road meeting my customers and making sure I see a number of them by the end of the third month.

Has anyone got anything useful to add, am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Note, I do a similar role at another company but this was via a promotion so didn't need to do this before.

Thanks very much.

[Moominho]

I would do monthly/30 days. You can always split it up into more chunks when you go through it, but a week by week breakdown could be a bit tedious. 3 sections would work well, almost like it's an introductory period, a make changes period and a results period.

[bga]

It's a different context but I often have to do this when pitching for work where clients need help to recover/firefight projects or situations. I usually arrange it 1st week, 1st month, 2nd month, 3rd month. 1st week to establish contacts, facts, situation etc & the rest of it is at a high level activities and milestones with the caveat that it may change depending on what is discovered in week 1. I think maybe that last part may be a bit too bum-covering for an interview.

Good luck!

[rog007]

The First 100 days is a well used guide for new senior hires. It's about meeting key stakeholders, getting to know your staff and learning about the culture of the organisation. You need to know from your new LM and your subordinates: what they want you to change quickly; what not to tamper with at all; what are the medium term goals; and what your success at 100 days will look like. Good luck!

Edited by rog007 on Wednesday 9th April 20:48

[Ranger 6]

rog007 said:

The First 100 days is a well used guide for new senior hires....

yup - any presentation from our senior people always concentrates on the 30/60/90 approach. Broken down that way it's easily seen as an assessment/plan/implement direction.

[heisthegaffer]

Thanks very much all, really appreciate the advice and the good lucks!

[10 Pence Short]

If you're using the magic of powerpoint, keep the slide count to a minimum. Bullet points in size 24 typeface which you pad out verbally.

[ChasW]

It's a standard and, IMO, unimaginative question. In addition to the good advice given I'd be tempted to present without any slides or aides. It shows confidence and the ability to speak to the audience in a more communicative conversational style. I have seen so many people end up as slaves to their slides when they should have been engaging the audience.

[BoRED S2upid]

heisthegaffer said:

Dear all..

Business Development/Account Manager role ...

Finally month three would be spend out on the road meeting my customers and making sure I see a number of them by the end of the third month.

So playing devils advocate they aren't going to get any significant work out of you until the end of the third month when you will have met a number of customers.

How many accounts are you likely to be managing? how feasible would it be to have an initial meeting / telephone conversation with them all in the first few weeks just to introduce yourself?

[heisthegaffer]

Thanks for all the input, the early contact via telephone is an excellent shout...

[stevenjhepburn]

Slide 1: Big Bold Statement

By the end of my first 90 days as Acme Inc's Business Development Manager, I will have:

• Made initial contact with every account
• Reviewed the history of every account
• Created a strategy for Key Accounts
• Integrated into the company & team
• etc...

This is how I will do it:

Slide 2, Slide 3, Slide n

[22s]

stevenjhepburn said:

Slide 1: Big Bold Statement

By the end of my first 90 days as Acme Inc's Business Development Manager, I will have:

• Made initial contact with every account
• Reviewed the history of every account
• Created a strategy for Key Accounts
• Integrated into the company & team
• etc...

This is how I will do it:

Slide 2, Slide 3, Slide n

Agree.

[ChasW]

Try it without the slides though. One attribute the interviewers will be looking for is confidence and ability to communicate. If you use visual aids it gives them the opportunity not to make eye contact with you and not fully take in what you are saying. If you have to explain how a combustion engine works then it may help to have some visuals but otherwise just speak to people and prove that you can hold their attention.

[stevenjhepburn]

ChasW said:

Try it without the slides though. One attribute the interviewers will be looking for is confidence and ability to communicate. If you use visual aids it gives them the opportunity not to make eye contact with you and not fully take in what you are saying. If you have to explain how a combustion engine works then it may help to have some visuals but otherwise just speak to people and prove that you can hold their attention.

Wharton School of Business and other presentation tips disagree with you (4th page, first section)

OP - use slides but avoid Death by Powerpoint

[mr_spock]

I had to do something like this for my last 3 jobs. I found this very helpful:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-First-90-Days-Strategi...

It's very clear, gives some great ideas.

[V8Ford]

1) Pool table & arcade machines to be fitted in my office.
2) Sack everyone except all the tidy women.
3) Profit.

Etc

[S798]

My gf just had this in a management role. She did a 30/60/90 day plan with objectives and 'Smart' targets and how she/they would tell if the objectives are being met. She got the job, so it can't have been bad!

[ChasW]

stevenjhepburn said:

ChasW said:

Try it without the slides though. One attribute the interviewers will be looking for is confidence and ability to communicate. If you use visual aids it gives them the opportunity not to make eye contact with you and not fully take in what you are saying. If you have to explain how a combustion engine works then it may help to have some visuals but otherwise just speak to people and prove that you can hold their attention.

Wharton School of Business and other presentation tips disagree with you (4th page, first section)

OP - use slides but avoid Death by Powerpoint

From over a decade ago. In my last company we taught customer facing staff to present unaided unless visuals were necessary. This meant effectively doing away with bullet point slides; not included in the Wharton article's guidelines on visuals by the way! They say "a picture is worth a thousand words". This does not apply to text that effectively serves as a summary of what is being said by the presenter. The logic here being that "presenting" is an unnatural method of communication for both the deliverer and the audience. Conversation though is normal to both. When we introduced the program we ran experiments with staff presenting conventionally and then measuring how much the audience had taken in. It was alarming how little of the presentation content was remembered. After the training we found that audiences were taking in most of the messages. It's a tough concept to accept when Microsoft have invested billions convincing people otherwise.

[stevenjhepburn]

ChasW said:

From over a decade ago. In my last company we taught customer facing staff to present unaided unless visuals were necessary. This meant effectively doing away with bullet point slides; not included in the Wharton article's guidelines on visuals by the way! They say "a picture is worth a thousand words". This does not apply to text that effectively serves as a summary of what is being said by the presenter. The logic here being that "presenting" is an unnatural method of communication for both the deliverer and the audience. Conversation though is normal to both. When we introduced the program we ran experiments with staff presenting conventionally and then measuring how much the audience had taken in. It was alarming how little of the presentation content was remembered. After the training we found that audiences were taking in most of the messages. It's a tough concept to accept when Microsoft have invested billions convincing people otherwise.

I'm sure your change in presenting strategy was very successful. I'm not convinced the success was due solely to removing the slides though; rather the presenting skills that would have been taught alongside.

The Wharton research does actually say "Each slide should contain no more than one simple graph or chart, or five short lines of text". However my advocation of using slides as an aid does not mean that I'm suggesting using "text that effectively serves as a summary of what is being said by the presenter". If the OP is as skilled as presenting as the customer facing staff in your last company, then even one slide containing his single takeaway message would suffice.

I agree with you that a good presentation with no slides is better than a bad presentation with good slides, but a good presentation with good slides are much better than both.