Customer Reviews

Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of us get so caught up in what we want to say, or believe important, we leave those we are presenting to behind. This book is excellent in coaching one to understand how to be far more effective with presentations. After 30-years of presenting, I still found the information in this book to be priceless.

This book really amazed me... especially because I though I knew something about presentations (one thinks that presentation is just about the simple advices that teachers always tell us in college), but I was completely wrong... if you have never taken a very serious course on presentations (like me), I'm really sure you'll learn many things you never knew you would... Though I am hardly starting to put it in practice, I know it is very useful, especially for business plan presentations, which is the main focus of the author... I recommend it!

There are two parts to presenting: content creation and content delivery. This book is the best one I have found to discuss the content creation. It does so not from the ridiculous "Here's how to make a PPT slide," but rather from the perspective of how to create an organized, impactful and effective message.

This is a must read book and I forced upon my entire sales organization.

One of my coaching clients directed my attention to Mr. Weissman's book saying, "You could have written this book." He is only right in that the basic ideas of always talking to the audience, starting with their concerns or agenda is the way to go for any interview, email or pitch. I teach executives how to answer all questions with a story; an example with an outcome and to understand the objective of the question and the answer. Now I can direct their attention to "Presenting to Win" to add credibility to my point.

Hurray for Jerry Weissman because his advice is good for sales, internal sell, authors who need to make a pitch and certainly job seekers. Even if you get standing ovations (and job offers), you can still benefit from reading the book because it is an easy to read reminder to include your audience in your presentation.
Rita Ashley, Career and Job Search Coach
Author: Job Search Debugged (PDF download [...]

I work in technical marketing. This book is on my "must read" list, and I have recommended it many times. It is short, easy to ready, to the point, and packed with useful information. Note that for engineers (like me), much of the information at first may seem couter-intuitive; however, after "correcting" and creating several successful presentations based on the precepts of this book, I am a complete fan.

I finished this easy-to-read book within two weeks and I'm already applying the principles in my work presentations. Although I already was applying most of the principles, I really was missing the "What's In It For You" part in my presentations. Since applying this WIIFY I'm getting a much better response from my team. I also liked the layout/transition tips - the left to right tip I would never have known in a lifetime of presenting. I recommend this book to everyone, from students to businesspeople.

This book was surprisingly engaging and kept me reading, wanting to read further. It gives simple steps for success that can easily be applied to improve ALL communication, not only presentations.

Jennie

This book is overhyped. I have a great passion toward delivering powerful presentations and I found this book disappointing. While it will certainly be helpful to the absolute amateur, a lot of Weissman's techniques are mediocre at best. The best sections of the book had to do with the verbal and organizational aspects of giving a presentation - how to brainstorm, how to think of a presentation, how to construct a storyboard, and how the audience's mind works. The worst parts of this book were about the actual craft of creating a presentation - bad Powerpoint advice, bad graphics advice and especially bad advice on how to use bullet-points. Weissman conveys the key point correctly - keep visuals simple, including simple typography, simple use of text, simple use of graphs and images. But the examples he provides are not at all impressive.

If you are a complete beginner to delivering presentations, you may want to browse through this book for some decent advice. If you've been doing this type of work for a while, avoid this book and pick up something by Nancy Duarte or Garr Reynolds. They're both brilliant writers on this topic.

I give many presentations each year, generally to clients or conferences. They tend to be focused on explaining concepts, not financial presentations. The feedback I get is usually extremely strong, even using anonymous feedback mechanisms. Even so, I was able to pick up a few things from this book, especially some of the subliminal cues Jerry highlights (hockey stick, dashes as bullet points,etc.).

Still, I cannot give this five stars. Almost all of the examples relate to financial presentations, and especially those surrounding IPOs. These are certainly important but presenting to a client you've gotten to know over many months or a conference trade group where you don't know anyone are completely different. Many of Jerry's principles don't apply as written in these kinds of diverse venues.

a great book what will help your presentations skills. I am good with presenting and powerpoint but still there is a lot to learn. The author explains and make it easier to get better. A must read book for manager presenter teacher and everybody else.