Consulting Journal: Techniques - Handing over reports

Techniques: Handing over reports

by David Blakey

When you hand over a report to a client, do they see it as important and valuable and desirable?

[Monday 23 September 2002]

When you present a report to a client, you should behave in a way that emphasizes the importance and quality of the report.

You can learn a lot about how to do this by studying the skill of product demonstration. You can see professional demonstrators at shows and exhibitions and in some television advertising. You can also go on courses to learn how to demonstrate products.

This is a serious suggestion. As a consultant, you can improve your performance by learning many different skills that are apparently unrelated to consulting. Product demonstration is one of these. I have attended a product demonstration course myself.

If you watch a professional demonstrator, you will see that they always handle their product with respect. Here are some of the things that they do.

Taking

They do not snatch up the product. Instead they lift it carefully. Sometimes they lift it so that it appears to very delicate and precious. This is often done with cosmetics. A demonstrator will lift a pot of moisturizer with their fingertips, very lightly, with their hand behind the pot. Sometimes they pick up a product so that it seems heavy and important. A demonstrator will lift a book with their fingers completely under it, and their hand mainly above it.
Offering

They do not push the product towards you. Instead, they may seem reluctant to part with it, which emphasizes how precious it is. Alternatively, they may hold it to convey the impression that they want to be sure that you have got a good grip on it, because it is too important to drop. Demonstrators offer the product so that you have to take it. They want to get the pot or the book into your hands. I shall explain why shortly.
Retrieving

Actually, demonstrators will not make it easy for you to hand the product back to them. They will drop their hands away from it after you have taken it, and they may even move slightly away from you so that you will have to make a move towards them in order to hand the product back. Some demonstrators will do something else with their hands, such as showing you a brochure or holding another product so it is difficult for you to hand back the product that they have given to you.

You should agree with me that there are real skills involved here. Product demonstrators learn these and many other techniques for getting the product into their customers' hands and keeping it there.

Demonstrators want to get the product into your hands and they want to keep it there for as long as possible. They know several things about human nature.

First, the act of holding a product may make you want to own it. This why car dealers encourage people to have a ‘test drive’. While a test drive is an opportunity for the customer to find out how the car performs, it also an opportunity for the dealer to have the customer imagine how they would feel if they owned the car. (This is not entirely true. If the customer really wanted to know if a car performed well, they would have it inspected by an engineer. The entire purpose of a test drive is to get the customer to imagine how they would feel if they owned the car.)

Second, the longer that you hold the product, the more obliged you will feel to buy it. There are several reasons for this, and I am not a psychologist, so I will not try to describe them here. Demonstrators will try to keep the product in your hands for as long as possible, to build the obligation to buy. Much the same is true of test driving a car. The customer is intended to feel an increased obligation to purchase.

As a consultant, you can use these techniques when you are presenting a product - such as a report - to a client.

Build a feeling a value by the way in which you handle the report. Do not take it from your briefcase and drop it onto the client's desk. Take it out, hold it, place it on the client's desk. Look at it while you do all this. The report is a valuable item; treat it as such. You may have spent much time and work on preparing the cover of the report. Just spend a little time and work on presenting it.
If you have placed the report on the client's desk, push it towards them. As you do so, look up from the report and at your client. You should begin smiling at the report and finish up smiling at your client. This will build an impression of how pleased you are with the report and then how pleased you are for them to have it.
Say something like ‘This is the report’. Saying ‘Here's the report’ can sound dismissive. Think of the difference between a woman introducing her husband to you by saying ‘This man is my husband’ or ‘Here's my husband’. It is probably not appropriate to say ‘I have much pleasure in presenting our report’, but there are occasions when this will work well. On occasion, ‘May I present my husband?’ will work.
Wait for the client to touch the report, and then move your hand from it. This works best if you are placing the report in their hands, but you can do it across a desk. The act of pushing it towards the client should encourage them to reach out for it. If they do not, then withdraw your hand slowly. If you time it right, you can continue to touch the report for up to two seconds after you have moved it towards them. If you think of the phrase ‘releasing a report’, then that is what should happen.
Once the client has touched the report, do not touch it again. Do not take it back to turn to a page that you want to draw to their attention. Do not even reach over to turn pages. Say ‘The executive summary is on page five’ and let them turn to it. This will reinforce their ownership of the report.

One of the most important things about these techniques is timing. You should not appear to hold on to a report for too long, as it may appear that you are reluctant to part with it. To your client, this can seem that you are not very happy with it. Your timing should give the impression that you think the report is excellent, and that you are confident that you are handing over something of high quality.

Another important thing is not to go ‘over the top’. You can see poor product demonstrators who hold the product so limply that you think it may fall and who gaze at it in apparent reverence. They may even coo as they talk about it.

And do not give the impression that you are doing the client a favour. They have paid for the report and the report gives them the value that they have paid for.

My final tip is to practise, so that your timing, your actions and your tone of voice are all appropriate. You can do this alone. Practising in a group is better.

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