Orals Coaching Individual Coaching for Oral Proposals
Technical experts — engineers, programmers, researchers, analysts, and the like — sometimes help their organizations prepare a proposal for large contracts. They may serve as advisors, providing background information and technical expertise. They may write parts of the written proposal. Or — and this usually terrifies them — they are chosen to be part of the orals team, the team sent in to make an oral proposal to the customer.
Contracts — large contracts — can be won or lost in the hour or two that they are speaking.
If you are such a person — a technical expert chosen to make an oral proposal — you may need help.
An oral proposal isn’t a typical technical presentation. It’s also a job interview. The customer want to know who you are — not just your cv, but but your character, personality, attitude — because they’re trying to decide if they want to work with you. And it’s a sales presentation. You and your team need to sell yourselves and your proposal.
Being able to make an effective oral proposal makes you more valuable to your organization. Being an ineffective presenter can hold your back professionally.
Chris Witt is a coach who specializes in working with technical experts. He is also an orals coach based in San Diego with experience working on over 200 oral proposals.
Depending on your needs and abilities, your resources and time, Chris Witt can help you learn how to:
- Gain confidence in front of an audience
- Explain complex ideas clearly and simply
- Understand and address your audience’s concerns
- Develop PowerPoint slides that clarify and explain your core concepts
- Answer questions in a way that satisfies the person asking the question
- Sell yourself and your team’s proposal without sounding salesy
“Because of Chris Witt’s training, I’m able to deliver professional briefings — to three- and four-star generals, Members of Congress, and leaders of foreign armed forces — in a manner that not only gets my message across but also keeps the listener’s attention. Despite my confidence now, I always work with Chris prior to any significant presentation. The investment returns remarkable dividends.”
-Matt McCarthy, Program Manager, Fort Lewis Mission Support Training Facility
If you’d like to learn how to present your ideas clearly, confidently, and in a way that best addresses the customer’s concerns… If you’d like to increase your value to your organization… And if you’d like the satisfaction of being able to make other people understand and care about your ideas, you may benefit from the coaching that Chris Witt provides.
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For more information about orals coaching, contact us.
See also How to Plan an Oral Proposal and The Three Myths of Technical Presentations.
