CRITICAL FACTORS FOR HIGH-SCORING ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Winning a federal, state or local government contract requires more than great Orals—but you won’t win without it. This special report, based on ten+ years of Orals consulting and coaching, shows you how to invest your resources for Orals that boosts your likelihood of winning the contract.

There is no such thing as a “winning Orals.”

Senior executives with top line responsibility, capture executives, business development

experts and proposal managers bandy this phrase about as if there is a direct correlation between an Orals presentation and signing on the contract line. The Orals is only one piece of the extensive bidding process for a federal, state or local government contract. You can’t win a contract with an Orals, no matter how polished and well-delivered, unless your solution exceeds the needs of the customer; your bid personnel can’t be beat; and your price represents exceptional value.

A great Orals will highlight these advantages, but can’t make up for deficiencies.

You cannot win by Orals alone—yet you can easily lose with a low-scoring Orals.

What are “Orals”?

This word is used to connote the live presentation given by a team from a bidding company to the selection board of a government agency as part of the procurement process. Orals requirements are spelled out in Sections L and M of federal government RFPs and are usually found under the heading “Evaluation Factors” in RFPs issued by state and local entities. Orals may include a straightforward presentation of technical and management approaches, key personnel and past performance. Other Orals are primarily demonstrations of the solution or they require the team to solve problems/sample tasks.

There are as many variations of Orals as there are contracting offices to think them up.

Key components of Orals include:

Compliance is critical—if you are non-compliant you cannot win.

Compliance is not enough, however. You must show the selection board a polished team that is deeply knowledgeable about the topics being presented.

Presenters must be people who are being bid on the contract—individuals who will work on the contract once it is in place.

What’s different about Orals from other presentations

Orals, whether delivered as part of a bid for a federal, state or local contract, will contribute to a decision on spending public money. Do not underestimate the pressure on the selection board and contracting office to be perceived as totally neutral and unbiased. The public, through the persona of the contractors themselves or through public interest groups, does not hesitate to protest any decision that may be seen as biased or unfair.
All other business presentations are totally up to you in terms of content and delivery, the speakers and even the physical set up. You decide on the call-to-action, build your speech or presentation to reach that destination, and craft your content in the way that most effectively showcases your ideas and goals. You can choose to invite questions during the presentation or hold them until the end; ask the audience to participate through exercises and activities; think of the presentation as a ‘town hall’ meeting, or as a formal address.
Orals force you to meet the audience’s requirements in terms of content, speakers, set up, time and questions. The audience—the selection board—sets all the parameters in an effort to be neutral and even-handed.

While the desired outcome is the selection of a company that will do the best work, they are equally focused on avoiding protests based on any perceived bias in favor of one bidder over another.

Compliance PLUS

The issue of compliance makes Orals different from all other presentations: sales, marketing, technical, management. A compliant Orals is one that clearly meets all the requirements spelled out in the RFP.

Many companies feel stifled by these requirements. They believe they could “tell their story” more effectively in another way. They believe a different order of topics, using their own unique language and substituting their recommendations instead of responding to some of the requirements would show them more advantageously. Do not fall into these traps.
One client I consulted for was adamant that they had a solution far superior to what was asked for in the RFP. They knew it was non-compliant. They invested a lot of resources in making their case. They were summarily rejected by the customer and the reason was “non-compliance.” If you have special recommendations you can try to make them, but only after you are fully and clearly compliant.

Compliance doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be routine or boring. Selection boards are groups of human beings and they will be strongly interested and favorably impressed by innovative and imaginative approaches to the requirements. An Orals consultant and coach who is an expert on audience responsiveness as well as meeting requirements will give you the right guidance on how to stand out from the competition while being compliant.A client of mine was required to show images of the two dozen or more components of their system, along with the specs of each component. The first draft of their deck included slide after slide of these images (essentially all black boxes with technology inside) and lists of the specs in tiny font.

When they told me they would be installing this system on military vehicles, I suggested that the speaker—the chief engineer--work with the graphics department to ‘install’ the system on a humvee using a series of slides. By the time he had the system installed you could feel the heat of the engine and hear the sound of the siren in the system. There wasn’t a bored person in the room. Then he showed several slides with the black boxes and specs and the selection board paid attention—because they had been so attracted by the installation. The speaker was compliant and innovative and earned a winning score.

The requirement that bid personnel do the Orals presentation is another chief difference between Orals and other presentations.

You can maximize the value of this requirement by fully appreciating the talents, accomplishments and future contributions of your technical and management staff. When people speak from their inner knowledge, with passion and authenticity, the selection board will see their value. An excellent speaking coach will help these presenters show off their best qualities. Senior management and others who disparage the engineers, technical experts and those who work in the trenches seriously undermine the likelihood of a win.

One client was bidding on a contract for submarine maintenance and repair. The Orals focused on very technical topics and the customer required the ‘wrench-turners’—the people who actual do the maintenance and repair—speak on the day of the Orals.
I’ve rarely been as impressed with a group of people as I was with these highly skilled men who were passionate about their work. They knew in their guts that what they did was not about hammers and screws, or refrigeration or sealants. What they did was save lives.
Unfortunately the senior managers overseeing the proposal did not appreciate the customer’s desire to meet these all-important people nor the deep level of passion these men have for their work. They wanted polished executive-type people to talk loftily about submarine maintenance and repair.

The in-house rehearsal was greeted with derision and criticism such that one of the submariners walked out and others threatened to follow him.

When senior management stopped trying to put their own spin on the Orals, and I continued to work with the submariners to be their authentic selves, the Orals was extremely well-received by the selection board and the client won the contract.

Winning a contract requires more than great Orals—but you won’t win without great Orals.

The RFP for a contract spells out the various components that bidders must submit. These may include past performance citations, capabilities, an executive summary, technical and management approaches, resumes of key personnel, and price. All of these components must meet the customer’s evaluation criteria and fall into their competitive range. Without them, your company or team will probably not be invited to deliver Orals.

While Orals may be very important, without a competitive price, highly attractive bid personnel and a solid solution, you will not win.
On the other hand, without great Orals, you won’t win either. Both the written submissions and the Orals carry great importance for the eventual outcome.

Key ingredients for Orals that help you win the contract

Over my ten+ years of consulting and coaching bid teams I’ve developed a list of must-haves and key ingredients. Without the must-haves your investment of bid and proposal dollars is at significant risk. Adding the key ingredients to your proposal effort will make the proposal/Orals investment far more likely to result in a high score.

The Four Must Haves:

Early personal, direct participation by the highest level of executives in the discussions and planning of the proposal and Orals.

If the person who has ultimate authority as well as accountability for the bid is not involved at the beginning, the whole effort is at risk for waste and losing. The proposal and orals process covers many weeks and much iteration. With early substantive involvement by executives, the team gets solid direction, knows that its work is valued and gains confidence that it is moving towards clear, agreed upon goals.

The right people: subject matter experts, experienced managers, and those who know the customer and their environment. Do not bid personnel based on their speaking ability, their position within the company or any other “beauty contest” criteria.

Recognize that the Orals is a job interview that helps the selection board answer the question “do I like and trust these people, and would I like to work with them daily for 5 (or more) years?” The right people are the ones the selection board will like and trust and want to work with for years to come. An experienced speaking coach will help the right people deliver the content of the Orals most effectively. But the best Orals coach cannot make the wrong people come across as subject matter experts who will bring authenticity and deep inner knowledge to the customer.

Internal resources: These are the subject matter experts, solutions architects, management, transition and other key personnel who know the customer and deeply understand the requirements.

These internal resources must be committed full time and relieved of other responsibilities and duties. Individuals who are serving current customers by day and working on Orals by night will under-deliver to both. Executives responsible for the current customer must have the courage and determination to negotiate on behalf of the people needed for the new bid. If executives cannot do this, how can they expect the contract personnel to do it themselves? If you can’t get internal resources fully committed to the new bid, don’t bid.

External resources: The outside consultant/coach brings a fresh perspective that helps insiders understand the Orals from the selection board’s perspective. While it seems as if the Orals is an invitation to tell the selection board what your team can do, it is not. It is actually an invitation to show the selection board how your team will ease their pain, resolve their problems and meet their challenges. This is no small difference but I have yet to work with a company that deeply understands the difference and how it sounds.

The money you spend on an expert, outside Orals consultant and coach will be money well spent. Orals coaches who work with teams 10 or more times per year have a huge reservoir of experience. This cannot be duplicated by an internal person who works with one or two teams a year.

Committing enough B&P funds to bring in your Orals consultant/coach at the beginning of the Orals preparation is an investment. All the subsequent work done by the team will be focused on the customer, will reduce re-work and lead to an Orals that is compliant and outstanding.

Excellent and dedicated proposal management and support plus dedicated graphics support.

An experienced proposal manager works with the team to create a workable schedule, acquires and applies graphics support and provides all other incidentals, such as hard copies of slides, projectors, and even lunches and snacks. The proposal manager should communicate on behalf of the team with executives and those participating in the color reviews. The more support the team gets easily, the more time they have to work on the proposal and the orals.

Graphics support is critical, yet the need is often uneven as the team produces new slides on some days, and none on other days. A proposal manager should serve as the liaison between the Orals team and graphics team for configuration management as well as timeliness.

Proposal management and support duties should include making travel arrangements as needed, getting information about the location and set up for the Orals, and all other administrative support. A strong proposal manager serves the needs of the Orals team without imposing his or her own beliefs.

I have worked with teams whose executives didn’t get involved until the pink team—that is, until a lot of work had been done on the win themes, discriminators, and solution or approaches. More often than not, these executives had other ideas and forced the team to start nearly from scratch. If you’ve got a 4-6 week proposal/Orals schedule and you have to start over at the end of week 3, your likelihood of a quality (i.e. winning) proposal has decreased dramatically. The personal, dedicated involvement by executives at the beginning is critical.

One client waited until the pink review to bring me in. They thought I could do better work for them if I came with a fresh perspective.

Fifteen executives gathered to observe and critique the pink review. By the second slide, various people were calling for extensive changes, ridiculing outdated and clichéd graphics, challenging the organization of the content and criticizing the halting delivery of the speakers. I was also appalled at the state of the Orals that day.

The pink review ended with a mandate from the executive that I begin immediately working with the team for another pink review a week later.

When we did the pink review again a week later, the executives were quite relieved—we had a far more meaningful flow of content, the graphics were well-received and the speakers were so much better. So much anxiety as well as resources would have been reduced had I started with the team before the first pink review.

Other Key Ingredients:

The more of these key ingredients you allocate to your proposal effort, the more likely your team is to craft and deliver an Orals that scores high and contributes to your likelihood of winning the contract.

Comfortable proposal room. The team will be working hard and under pressure for many weeks. Dedicate one of your best work spaces to the proposal/Orals team.

Highest level of technology for use by the proposal/Orals team. Wireless access in the proposal space makes it easy to do research, share files, and collaborate.

Collaborative online workspace. Get the latest version of your application of choice. A 30-45 minute live tutorial for all participants in the proposal/Orals will ensure that it gets used.

Realistic schedule that everyone can stick to. Don’t impose the schedule from above—ask for input from the proposal/Orals team and get final agreement before distributing it. Those who have had a hand in creating it will work to it.

Communicate, communicate, communicate. Every proposal/Orals team has people with a variety of communication styles, different comfort levels with collaboration, discussion and decision-making, and other unique personalities. The more freely and frequently all communication takes place, the easier it is to bring together this disparate group.

Accept that there will be changes in direction, re-work and even discarding work. This means that effort is always recognized and appreciated, even if the output of that effort is discarded. You get far more with a positive approach than a punitive one.

Respect each person. Negative comments always hurt and usually get back to the person they were about, even if that person wasn’t in the room. “He’s an engineer—he can’t think and talk at the same time” is not funny. Neither are comments such as “they (the selection board) don’t really count. They are just stand-ins for the real decision-maker.”

Simple, easy to “get” graphics. No matter how complicated an idea, make your graphics simple and then use your speaking time to explain the complexities.

Guarantee that the presenters have the most input into their slides. People will be much more effective speakers for content they crafted than for content someone else tells them to talk about.

Spend less time on the slides and more time on practices and rehearsals. It’s the people and their delivery that make Orals great.

Avoid planning for “dry runs.” No one is inspired by the idea of doing something dry and meaningless.

Allow sufficient time practices and take full advantage of the value of them. Practices are the times when the speakers work on themselves, getting their content installed in their minds, hearing themselves speak, making revisions and tweaks, and gaining confidence. Don’t jump on every mistake or fumble; give them space; don’t tell them what they should say.

Use rehearsals to get ready for the customer. Rehearsals are when the speakers take what they have learned through practices and focus on the audience. Prior to each rehearsal the speakers should visualize the audience, the room setting, and the actual day and time of the Orals. Rehearsals should be full out—with all the vocal variety, movement and gestures, eye contact and audience-centered components. You cannot peak too soon, never to peak again. Rehearsals help the speakers train for the audience, so when they are in front of the selection board, they know exactly how they are going to do.

A client company assigned a proposal support person to our effort. Among other duties, she ordered in lunch every day for 6 weeks; a variety of foods including many hot lunches. Each of the 25 people working on the Orals expressed their appreciation to her. Sure the lunches saved time by keeping people from leaving the building. However, in another, much more valuable way, they brought people together as they bantered and conversed personally over their meals. The final Orals reflected the congeniality and cohesiveness of the team.

No slide or slide deck will win you a contract. Only a great solution, delivered with passion and authenticity by knowledgeable people will earn a high score.

Susan Trivers

The successful proposals and Orals I’ve been privileged to work on have been those where each of the MUST HAVES were in place; and where most, if not all, of the Key Ingredients were also part of the proposal and Orals effort. There are no effective short-cuts and being penny-wise always lead to being pound foolish.

When your team is thoughtful about the customer’s needs, understands the underlying issues that drove them to write their requirements and respects the contributions of all participants, the presentation team walks confidently into the Orals and delivers at their peak.

Orals are not the only piece of the proposal effort that contributes to winning the contract. Yet it is an element that can augment a great solution and a favorable price. Invest in the Critical Factors and make your Orals the best it can be.

About the Author

Susan G. Trivers, MBA has consulted with and coached proposal teams that have collectively won over $9 billion in government contracts. Her clients include a full range of sizes from companies among the largest government contractors to 8As and minority-owned businesses. Target contracts include those from military services to civilian agencies; brief one hour SME presentations to multi-day demonstrations with dozens of participants; R&D to IT to O&M; for 1 year to 20 years; recompletes and competing against the incumbents; IDIQs to FFP. Susan Trivers is an expert on speaking and presenting and applies her expertise to her clients’ subject matter expertise and client knowledge. Susan is online at www.susantrivers.com and may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Susan Trivers’ business speaking expertise has been featured by the by the Washington Business Journal and Newsday. She is a contributing writer to Dancing Through Life with Guts, Grace and Gusto (Bowling, Hahn and Strauss) and Winning Presentation and Personal Presence Skills … Boost Your Presentation and Communication IQ (Arnold Sanow, CSP). She is a long-time member of the National Speakers Association and served as President of the Washington DC Chapter of NSA (NSA-DC) during 2009-2010.

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