It never seems to fail that the larger and more important the demo, the more your nerves work against you. This is especially for those new Presales and Solution Engineering. Here’s another 90 seconds of Presales Panic that has been passed on to me.
“What could possibly go wrong?” I thought. Everything was set-up and ready to go. Laptop connected, first slide on presentation loaded and projecting, power-point clicker and wireless mouse tested out okay. The presentation was well-practiced.
Lots of decision makers in the room. All going well, except maybe my heart-rate was somewhere around 150 bpm. Following sage advice for calming down, I decided to go stand by the door to greet and welcome people coming to the room. I stood at the entrance of the room saying hi and introducing myself for maybe 10 minutes while the room was filling up. But, the closer we got to start-time the higher my heart-rate would get.
It was just about time to start, so I turn around and started walking through the room. It was packed with every chair taken. As I get closer I see that my presentation is now at page 15 (or something like that). While greeting people at the door, I had my hands on my back, the power-point clicker in my hands. And nervous as I was, I must have clicked back and forth on the slides for a good 10 minutes as I was greeting people.
I was devastated when I noticed what happened, but said something like “uhm, since you have all already seen the presentation, maybe we should go straight to the questions and answer section?”. That brought down a mighty laugh from the room, it was clear they were feeling sorry for me. The smiles somehow my nerves got in order. The heart-rate went back to maybe 120 bmp, where it would stay for the 45-minute presentation.
Morale of story, don’t be nervous, but if you can’t help it, then make sure to leave all technology at the desk and not in your hands. And, be careful when you ask, “What could possibly go wrong?”
Have a recent Presales Panic attack? Let’s connect and I’d love to share with you.
Like to read more? Check out more articles about Presales best practices & techniques at https://www.desylvia.com and our book at https://3dpresales.com.
