Background:
- BT's Global Innovation and Development Centre - otherwise known as the "BT Labs" - is staffed by over 4,000 of the brightest brains in the business and, over the years, they've collectively come up with some of the greatest IT innovations in use worldwide
- The challenge was two-fold - business heads needed to communicate some key messages via multi-media presentations to both internal staff and potential customers
- All of this was crucial for the business - in particular, they were finding that they were sometimes losing out to slick pitches from international providers when competing for major projects, even though they knew their technology was better
- The Managing Director and Group Business Heads were earmarked to deliver this information but, whilst public speaking was a daily occurrence, found presenting to camera difficult. Their confidence was further knocked by a previous attempt that met with a lukewarm reception
Solution:
- After a group of senior managers attended one of our public courses, our services were recommended to the Board
- In a two-day workshop - split into half-day sessions for 3 participants at a time - we worked with the 12 faces set to appear in their on-screen presentations
- Whilst coaching, we also helped them overhaul their message as well as recommend more effective production techniques and styles
Results:
- The presentations were a huge success, with particular praise for the "warm and natural" presenting styles of the team - especially when delivering fairly complex technical information - attracting respect from all levels of staff in the business
- From a sales perspective, marketing reported an uplift in interest and the Group won their next multi-million international contract against stiff competition, with the effectiveness of their initial video pitch being cited as a contributory factor
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