No matter how attractive your business may be, you’ve still got to sell the dream to others, especially if you want them to invest in it.

Public speaking doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Nerves, glitches in the slide-show and a brick wall for an audience can all lead to an FD wanting to avoid the podium or the PowerPoint. But the chances are that at some stage you’ll have to get up and speak.

Anna Cook works with FDs and chief execs on their presentations to banks, analysts and investors. She says no matter what your competency level or instinct for public speaking, you can be taught the rights and wrongs of presenting.

“The fallacy is that you can’t make people who are quite good any better,” she says. “You can. Even ‘naturals’ often don’t know what they’re doing well and they can have off days the same as anyone else.”

Cook believes the FD has a more tricky job than the chief exec in these situations. “By definition if you’re trained as an accountant you tend to want to speak in a more dispassionate, third-party style,” she says.

“You want to sound objective and removed. But the more you sound like that, the more you sound like you don’t know what the hell’s going on. And you also sound stilted and un-conversational.”

On the upside, the chances are that your job title will immediately command a certain level of respect and confidence.

But the corollary is that you’ve got the tricky job of holding people’s attention while talking about sales forecasts and regulatory impacts.

You have to look like someone who’s not only got a great business model and market opportunity, but who can deliver good returns.

So your personality has to come through strongly and not be hidden by interminable PowerPoint slides.

Roadshows

Richard Cooper took over as FD at online gambling firm Trident Betting earlier this year. During the course of his career he has presented to analysts, backers and, of course, board colleagues.

But his most recent experience has been on roadshows to sound out investors and analysts ahead of a planned flotation. “I’ve actually done this for three or four companies so I’m a bit of an old hand at it now,” he says.

His first point is obvious: be prepared – very prepared. “You never know what you’re going to be asked, so try to cover every possible angle beforehand,” he says.

It might sound silly, but remember the little things like checking with the secretary whether they’ve got the right sockets and leads for your laptop. “You don’t want to find yourself running down to PC World to buy a USB cable at the last minute,” Cooper warns.

Next, think of yourself as a double act with the chief executive. “You’ve always got to back him up,” says Cooper.

“And if you’re doing a presentation without the CEO, take a colleague along with you. As well as giving back-up and a different face for the audience, it also provides you with a witness to what you say in case anything comes back on you.”

When you’re presenting to analysts, you’re dealing with an intelligent, finance-savvy audience. Make sure you discuss the key figures they’re looking for. But also remember that they meet a lot of company FDs.

So you need to communicate key facts briefly and coherently. “You need to provide a straightforward illustration of your business model,” says Cooper.

“Keep it simple so they can all understand your message. Use phrases like, ‘We have this number of offices, this many staff, we hold these licences,’ and so on.”

Technology is always a factor with these presentations. But PowerPoint is easy to abuse. And if you give people a handout, they will read it straight away – meaning you lose their attention.

Instead, Cooper says, offer to send through the presentation on email afterwards. That gives the audience a chance to come back to you with any questions they might have. And it helps build up a relationship with them.

“In terms of analyst feedback, we try and get as much as possible,” he says. “We follow up over email in case they want further info on the company.”

Remember that a roadshow is regulated. You need to know what’s public domain and what’s not. “You might want the analyst to buy your stock, but if you reveal too much then that’s them out of the equation,” says Cooper.

“Common sense should prevail. Think of the one analyst in front of you as 40 people. That should keep you focused on what you’re allowed to say.”

If you’re inexperienced in the public markets, Cooper advises that you get your advisers to talk you through what exactly to expect and what you cannot say.

Lawyers usually include this information in the directors’ packs they send out. And use your lawyer as a test audience. “They’ll be well versed in this stuff so they can point you in the right direction,” he says.

“If you can, use a friendly one at first to build up your confidence, then let them grill you more aggressively.”

Another good skill: the ability to adapt. You’ll need to judge the audience’s level of knowledge as soon as you walk in the room, and then adjust your presentation accordingly.

“For example, we went from an incredibly serious and sober presentation to a much more relaxed and jovial atmosphere five minutes later,” Cooper says. “Roadshows teach you to be a bit of a chameleon with different people.”

Then there’s the ever-present danger of becoming jaded, having done the same presentation over and over. To keep things fresh, tie current events into the content of the presentation.

“For example, if a competitor’s issued some news that day, then you can bring it in to keep the presentation contemporary,” Cooper says.

Private fundraising

Dr Bill Love is MD and FD of Destiny Pharma. He’s spent the last few months presenting the business to potential backers.

Like Cooper, he’s done all kinds of presentations, from one-on-one talks to large corporate and technical groups. Recently, he’s been raising investment for the next development stage of Pharma’s key drug.

So he’s been speaking to a lot of VCs and business angels.

“We needed to excite people, so we had to know the audience,” says Love. “How technical are they? How much do they know? You need to gauge that kind of thing as soon as you walk in. You have to pitch it at the right level. Keep it clear and keep it to time. That’s key.”

Love’s number one rule: be enthusiastic. “You need to believe in what you’re doing, otherwise no-one else will,” he says. “And you need to practice enough so that you know it backwards. If you do that, you shouldn’t be nervous.”

Gauging the audience is crucial. Sometimes they won’t care anything about the technical aspects of your business, and they will just be interested in the financial rewards available.

Others will want to know in detail about the technical offering. And what if you’re caught off guard? “If someone asks you a question you can’t answer, for goodness’ sake don’t bluff,” Love says.

“Tell them you don’t know and you’ll get back to them.” You never know: even if they decline to invest, their question might give you food for thought.

It’s also important to keep the presentation fresh, Love says. “I do that by getting a dialogue and interaction going with the audience. Ask for questions – it keeps you on your toes and always thinking.”

A visual aid can also keep the audience engaged. “I often take along a vial of our drug – it gives people something to focus on and shows you’re serious.”

Above all, be yourself – don’t try to change your natural style just because you’re faced with an important pitch. “Stay relaxed – do what comes naturally, sit on the desk, walk around a little,” says Love.

“And don’t read your presentation off the slides. People can read for themselves. Just put up a list of the key points in note form and talk around them.”

You also need to be adaptable, so you can talk for ten minutes or an hour, depending on the audience’s demands. You can start off with a short, pithy statement and go from there.

Finally, Love says, “Practise enough so you can go ‘hands free’ in case the technology fails.”

Internal presenting

Russell Cullens is the FD at GEAC. He has to communicate strategy and numbers both inside and outside the finance function.

On a recent trip to Australia, he had the task of presenting to the local finance team. “I’m not a natural presenter, but I do enjoy it when I get into it,” he says.

“You’ve just got to get stuck into it. If you’re comfortable with it then it does show.”

An inherent problem with internal presentations is that financials tend not to be the sexiest subject matter around. And you may well have to present to employees outside the finance function with little interest in or aptitude for numbers.

“The FD does have a challenge in that the material he’s asked to present is often dry and not of much interest to a non-finance audience,” Cullens says.

“I had to do a SarbOx presentation to the staff and both they and I knew it was boring and dry. But I had to do it. I wasn’t even interested in it myself. But there’s no way round it.”

So, Cullens says, do everything you can to keep your audience’s attention. “You’ve got to try doubly hard to make it interesting. My main thing is to not use too many numbers. I use graphs and charts instead as I find people respond much better to visuals than tables of numbers.”

Once again, no matter how much you want to project an air of all-knowing authority, resist the temptation to bluff. “I front up and say I don’t know and promise to get them an answer,” Cullens says.

“But you can pre-empt and prevent a lot of those moments by analysing your audience beforehand. Check their expectations. When I was presenting to our visiting CEO I knew that he was interested in particular KPIs, so I made sure to include them in the presentation.”

Finally, Cullens says, be careful with the jokes. “There’s certainly a place for humour in an FD’s presentation. But weak jokes that fall flat can be a disaster. I certainly wouldn’t kick off with a one-liner. But once you build up a rapport with the audience, then you can bring humour in.”

A VC’s view

Andrew Mitchell is the head of Nstar, a Newcastle-based venture capital firm. His do’s and don’ts for finance directors when pitching to VCs.

Don’t just read the business plan out to us. Talk around it and focus on the areas that need explanation.

If we’ve asked you in, then in principle we’re already interested. So it’s less about the business plan and more the personal elements. As a VC, I’m interested in the personality and character of the management. You need to project an aura of confidence and capability.

Don’t overdo the funky graphics. Use them, make them professional, but don’t go overboard.

You need to demonstrate you understand the key issues – market dynamics, who the competition is, your USP, what the key figures are and what the exit strategy is.

The worst thing is presentations that run too long. It’s really annoying. FDs sometimes go into too much detail and I get irritated. I’ll ask for detail if I want it.

The FD has an important role to play in terms of adding an aura of credibility, experience and security to what might be a young team. I want to know you’re going to keep an eye on the figures, so get that across.

The worst of the worst is when someone puts up the PowerPoint slide and it says “number one of 120”. You just know it’s going to be too long and largely dull.

It’s also not a good sign when one person dominates the presentation – it shows that the others don’t have confidence in the business.

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