How to nail your team's next presentation

Advisers typically have lots of experience presenting to clients and groups, but with advisers increasingly forming teams to stay competitive, their presentation styles need to adapt a new approach that gives up some of the spotlight. Different rules apply when advisers are presenting as a team, according to experts. One of the most important things that presenters can do when talking as a team is to get along well with each other. “We hear in our research that how the team members interact with each other can be a make or break,” said Maura Scherer, an executive director and campaign consultant with Invesco Consulting last Friday at the Raymond James Women's Conference in St. Petersburg, Fla. There should be a “team captain,” with certain roles during the presentation. However, no single person should ever dominate the discourse and everyone needs to have a function, she said. “Don't bring people into the conference room just to have them sit there,” she advised. (See also: The ultimate payoff of advisers striking strategic partnerships) The team captain should open the meeting, set the agenda for the meeting, introduce the other team members and be the person who handles any objections that come up during the meeting. Part of showing clients their team is cohesive includes having team members pay attention to each other while they are speaking, never interrupting each other or busying themselves with a mobile device or other distractions, she said. Even the way a team sits is important. There should be open sight line between all the presenters and each member of the audience, Ms. Scherer said. Don't sit or stand at the end of a conference table because some of the audience at the other end won't have a direct view of the speakers. Sit in the middle along one side, she said. When a presentation involves a team, preparing for the meeting is especially key. (What happens when a team breaks up?) Preparation should include deciding who will speak about which topics, in what order, and how the floor will be formally passed from one to the other. During the prep phase, the captain also should share with the team who the key decision makers are in the group that the team is addressing and tell them a little about their personalities if possible, Ms. Scherer said. “In the end, it should seem like it wasn't rehearsed,” she said.