When it comes to presentations and/or teaching, what is your favorite type or method? I’ve set through many a conference, client presentation, seminar, training session and other teaching experiences. Over the years, I’ve been the presenter/teacher lots of times; and one thing I have come to learn is that my least favorite of these experiences is sitting in room filled with people and listening to a monologue about the topic at hand.

So now, I often dread client presentations. Not because I don’t like being a presenter and feel that I am not good at it; on the contrary, I am quite comfortable standing in front of a crowd. What I dread about client presentations is that moment after you’ve presented everything and you’re awaiting their response. Did you nail it? Will the client be able to think as the customer, not as themselves? Do they agree that you know exactly how to take their product to the masses?

What I have come to realize is that I much prefer the discussion group atmosphere over the single presenter model. I have seen real fruit from the “two heads are better than one” cliche and actually think that five heads are better than two… as long as everyone is listening and checks their egos at the door. I’m not saying there isn’t a time or a place for the big splash presentation. But, what I am saying is that I have seen more fruit come from conversations than I have from presentations.

Which leads me to do a little horn tooting about how we manage our web process.

First, we believe that a defined process will consistently bare fruit. If you haven’t read about our Website development process, you should. Most Websites require a heavy investment of time and money for both the client and the agency. Our second belief is that anytime you are investing yourself into something you should be a participant of the process, and not simply an observer.

Keeping these beliefs in mind, it is exciting to me to see how excited our clients are getting during our process. We have moved from a one-presentation to a two-, three- and sometimes, four-way conversation with clients that engaged in the process. We have created an environment that brings the client into the creative process and allows us all to have a conversation about their Website throughout the project. By splitting the process into five milestones, we have ensured that we stop at least once during each phase and have a real conversation about the project and the expected goals and objectives. The workflow enables each team member the opportunity to have input along the way.

Clients should hire marketing partners who can lead them through a process that yields predictable results. Through these processes, clients see us interact with each other and most importantly, they get engaged with us. The end result is a Website that is built by us and our client but for their target customer.

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