An oral presentation with the government is like a job interview. Your goal is to present well and ultimately win the contract.
Oral presentations are becoming a more common requirement in government proposals, so it’s necessary to have a process that empowers both team chemistry and smooth performance.
The KSI Advantage™ Orals Process emphasizes rigorous planning as the pathway to success and breaks down orals into five manageable phases.
In this article, I will discuss the five phases of the KSI Advantage™ Orals Process and share what our KSI Advantage™ Capture & Proposal Guide can do to help you prepare your oral presentation for success!
First, you must establish a dedicated team to prepare and execute the Orals Process. You will need four key personnel:
These roles can be combined, but make sure somebody has these responsibilities assigned to them. The Slidemaster is responsible for making an Oral Proposal Development Schedule. This schedule should allocate adequate time for an Oral Proposal Kickoff Meeting, Slide Preparation, Slide Reviews, Team Building, and Mock Orals.
The Slidemaster should also make a Speaker/Slide Matrix to plan the presentation within the assigned presentation time. This matrix assigns presenters their sections, allocates their presentation time, and develops a speaking order.
Examples of a 30-day Oral Proposal Development Schedule (Exhibit 5-3) and a Speaker/Slide Allocation Matrix (Exhibit 5-4 and Appendix-41) are available in the Guide for your reference.
Each orals presenter is responsible for the final state of their PowerPoint slides and coordinates with the Slidemaster after the Orals Presentation Kickoff to revise and finalize their slides. The slides must be pithy and not dense and should include plenty of color, graphics, and diagrams.
The KSI Guide recommends using our Slide Master© process to develop slides that best present your data and themes. Our Slide Master© template allows you to organize any major points, transitions, graphics, action captions, or major marketing messages you might want to include. A blank template ready for editing is available in Exhibit 5-5 and Appendix-42 of the Guide!
The Orals Coach, aka the Training Manager, needs to coach their team to present themselves honestly and directly.
They should give group and one-on-one coaching to their team on public speaking skills and sales pitching, as well as conduct proposal-specific training on win strategy, themes, discriminators, etc. Depending on the proposal, the Training Manager may also need to provide special coaching for the Project Manager and other key personnel, who are sometimes asked to interview individually with the Source Evaluation Board (SEB).
During orals presentations, the government will often ask proposal-specific questions for the presenting team to answer. Q&As can be very stressful, so it’s part of the Training Manager’s job to train presenters on how to answer effectively.
The KSI Advantage™ Process uses the Straight Answer Model Method for Q&As, which entails:
It’s important that your team members feel connected to one another and motivated to collaborate. A solid Orals team is built upon three principles: a sense of purpose, respect for the customer, and a focus on the customer’s success and satisfaction.
To instill this, KSI recommends orals teams practice our Six-Step Team Building Process:
The review process when building an oral presentation is conducted by performing rehearsals. These Mock Orals are performed in front of a group of participants meant to represent the actual SEB members.
The feedback from this Mock SEB helps ensure the presentation meets the following goals:
Mock SEB members should be knowledgeable people but unfamiliar with the proposal. They will review the presentation for technical accuracy, compliance, and delivery.
The KSI Orals Process advises scheduling two days for Mock Orals, including time for the Mock SEB to review the RFP and written proposal beforehand. Following this review, the Mock Orals Leader should answer any questions the Mock SEB may have and share with everyone the protocol for the Mock Orals. We suggest a dress rehearsal to mimic the actual oral presentation.
A sample Mock SEB/Orals Schedule is available for reference (Exhibit 5-8) in the Guide, along with a Mock SEB Participant List template (Exhibit 5-7).
During the Mock Orals Presentation, the Mock SEB will evaluate the presentation using forms similar to what will be used by the real SEB. These forms include:
Templates for all of these forms, ready for you to use, can be found in Appendices 44-48 in the Guide!
*The Mock Orals Evaluation Forms graphic is from the KSI Advantage™ Capture & Proposal Guide.
Once every step has been made to prepare for the day of the presentation, the Orals Manager should remind everyone of all protocols and logistics. This includes dress code, schedule, transportation, post-mortem wrap-ups, and proper note-taking.
If you’ve followed each phase of the KSI Advantage™ Orals Process, learned your part well, practiced your speaking voice, and shined your shoes, you should be ready! Going through each of the five phases of the Orals Process will lead to a better team, a refined presentation, and a good result.
There are three reasons why the government asks for oral presentations. They want to see how well you know the work of the RFP, how well your team works together, and how easily their agency could work with you. Consciously or unconsciously, these three criteria will be in the SEB’s mind as you talk about your solution and strategy. You must deliver a well-crafted and eloquent presentation.
Solid orals preparation and following the Orals Process of the KSI Advantage™ Capture & Proposal Guide, can lead to a difference-making presentation. Our Guide contains over 35 years of Key Solution’s best practices and discusses the Orals Process in far better detail than I have here. It’s chock full of useful tips, templates, and time-tested processes that can help anybody in a proposal role, whether you’re a Capture Manager, Proposal Manager, Technical Writer, or Orals Coach. Happy presenting!