Selling the budget.

HOW YOU PRESENT FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE CRUCIAL TO "BUY-IN"-AND CAREER SUCCESS.

Presenting a budget successfully requires the eloquence of a salesperson and the organization skills of an accountant. If you haven't had a lot of practice giving financial presentations to a large

Based on real-life experiences, 10 general tips for any presentation, financial or Otherwise, are offered here. Then, focusing on our livelihood, 10 tips for a successful delivery of a new budget are presented - sharpened "tools" for your career toolbox.

MAKING YOUR PRESENTATION WORK

1 KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE - do your homework in advance, if possible. If not, ask some questions at the start of your presentation to get a feel for the group's background, knowledge level of your topic, and so on. This pre-flight exercise will help you feel more confident of your expertise compared to their expertise and will avoid "stage fright," which is common to us all. In addition, if you ask a couple of questions informally at the start of your presentation, it breaks the ice and makes everyone "more human." It is no longer you against the audience, but everyone together. Many times you'll find you really are the expert on the topic you're presenting, but you just need reinforcement of that information. If you weren't the expert, you probably wouldn't have been asked to give the presentation (assuming you were asked).

2 USE UNDERSTANDABLE LANGUAGE - if your audience isn't "accounting jargon literate" stay away from terms like ABM, FASB, GAAP. If you have to use technical terms, identify them as such and explain them in as simple concepts as possible. Never assume your audience understands all the "techno jargon." As the speaker, it's your duty to communicate concisely and clearly.

3 A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS - use graphs and graphics, but don't get carried away with too many charts and views. Just because your accounting software can "slice and dice" into 16 views doesn't mean you should show them all. Choose the view that's best for the message you're trying to convey. Use bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, scatter graphs, etc., for the purpose they were intended. Go ahead and use scanned photos or website screen-prints where appropriate. But just because you have them all doesn't mean you need to use them all in one presentation. Make the tools work for you. Remember, keep it simple.