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Business Presentations: Stay Positive

What do you do when, as a product director,  your brand is losing share to a new competitor, your colleagues and bosses know that your formerly successful product is being knocked off the shelf by a new technology, and it’s time for you to present your annual marketing plan to senior executives?  What should you do?

Tweet: Stay positive! Acknowledge the challenges and the implications, but do so in a matter-of-fact manner, and move quickly to your proposed solution.

Even if you have a snowball’s chance in hell of recovering your market share, put together a plan that could work if everything were to break in your favor.

And demonstrate commitment in your choice of words, your posture, and your tone of voice. Don’t bring a hangdog look and feel into the room. Everyone knows it’s a bad situation before you begin, so you get points for demonstrating belief in the possibility–however small–of success.

We are not rewarded in business for dragging problems into the board room and dumping them on the table in front of senior people. We are rewarded for being crystal clear about the situation, and giving them the best option you and your team can devise.

You are the captain of your brand. There is no honor in leaving the ship while it sinks. Your job is to fight to the end. The brand may go down, but you will be remembered for your determination and optimism in the face of dire odds–and your courageous stand will position you well for your next assignment.

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