Following up on last week’s Killer Keynote Speech Structure Post, is another speech structure, the Business Proposal Speech. Many of the same supporting structures (Story, Humor, Activity, Reference/Quote, Props/Photos) can be used in a business proposal as in a keynote, but a different structure can be more effective.
A typical business presentation might look like this, an expanded version of the problem/solution organization:
- Define objective (purpose)
- Describe current state (pain)
- Describe desired state (pleasure)
- Describe obstacles (preclusions)
- List possible solutions with pros and cons of each (pros and cons)
- Identify best solution, focusing on benefits (proposal)
- Close with action and/or agreement (path)
You can switch the order of the components. In fact, it can be extremely effective to share a vision of what could be (desired state/pleasure) before the current state (pain). That creates a pull toward the pleasure before the push away from the pain. I’ve show that revised order in the Business Proposal Presentation graphic.
An effective business proposal presentation structure takes your client from pain to pleasure on your proposed path.
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