Over the past year, I have run workshops for diverse internal agency teams within global brands. They want to sharpen their presentation capability together, understand how to be more resilient in the face of criticism from decision-making colleagues, and how to get more guided online rehearsal time. I thought a summary overview of those workshops would be helpful to others.

Internal and external agencies share many of the same processes, roles and vocabulary.  Pitching ideas in-house, however, is its own beast.

Being aware of these differences can help internal presentation teams stay as sharp as their external counterparts who stay focused by constant pitching competitively.

Generally, in-house presentations do not have winners and losers.  A successful presentation is one that progresses to completion or launch.  Prevailing with internal decision-makers is a process, not the moment in time it is for external agencies.

As with any pitch, internal or external, empathy for your audience’s objectives is key.  Understanding their process, values, priorities and office politics is the first step to “winning”.  

By definition, the leader of an external pitch won’t know well the mind of the audience.  They have to make an educated guess (based on research and the brief), be resilient as a team and prove their expertise over a period of an hour or so.

Leading an internal presentation is less “pitch” and more “campaign”, less Don Draper, more politician. Internally, a consequential presentation may well be the culmination of several prior “mini-pitches” to the decision-maker’s leadership team, to get buy-in and shared ownership.  So that by the time a big presentation is made, it is more likely to be endorsed, rather than second-guessed or defeated outright.

Any consequential presentation to decision-makers, internal or external, is about the expertise, empathy, trustworthiness and chemistry, projected by the presenting team to decision-makers.  That is all accomplished with a high level of presentation skills and rehearsal.  Yet, the close proximity and familiarity of internal teams and decision-makers can work to dull those skills.  That is especially true for people working remotely. 

In addition to developing a framework of presentation skills training and rehearsals, there are a number of habits internal teams can use to stay sharp in presentations:

• Be the expert in your role.

• Always know the business case for the ideas you are presenting.

• Solicit the advice of the top decision-maker’s leadership team.

• When still developing ideas with others, present them as you would in a pitch.

• When hearing other ideas, be presented to - evaluate them as your audience would.

• Take notes on paper in every meeting – it is a signal to your audience they matter.