IIMB Management Communication 2: General Brief: Assignment 2 (Persuasive Presentation)

Making a Persuasive Business Presentation

Assignment Brief

In business, we are constantly making a pitch – of a product, a service, or an idea – with the
objective of swinging opinion our way. The pitches could be to customers, or to colleagues
and associates. And these pitches are often the products of teamwork.

In Managerial Communication Workshop MC2–S-10, you are required to make a Persuasive

Presentation to an audience that would be specified.

For this assignment you will work in teams of three (one team has 2 members). Specific topics
will be assigned to each team. The topic could be a product or a service.

Your task would be to persuade your target audience to buy into the product or service. Your
pitch would be driven by a presentation (with or without the use of presentation aids) of what
you are offering, its benefits, and its value proposition to the prospects. The focus would be
on your persuasive skills - in convincing and satisfying the prospects of your proposition.

Method

Each team will comprise three (3) members (one team will have two). All the members must
be present on stage and participate in the presentation and subsequent interactions. The
team must come across as a cohesive unit; plan roles accordingly.

The time allotted for each team is given below. Each member has to present for at least
three minutes. Sudden death” will not kick in!

Allotted time First warning Final warning

Teams with 3 members 10 minutes 9½ minutes 10½ minutes
Team with 2 members 7 minutes 6½ minutes 7½ minutes

Interaction time (Q & A will be after the presentation) is not included in this limit. The
duration of the Q & A session will be decided by the faculty, and will not be the team’s
responsibility. The interaction will be driven by the faculty and an external evaluator, with
participation by the rest present. You may use presentation aids of your choice, including
handouts/props.

Questions (during question time) can be directed to a specific member of the team, and then
only that member should answer. Hence, every member of the team should be prepared to
answer questions on all aspects of what’s presented.

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IIMB Management Communication 2: General Brief: Assignment 2 (Persuasive Presentation)

Specific briefs for each team will be given six (6) days in advance, as under:

Section Groups Presenting on Detailed brief on

1&2 29-Nov-2018 22-Nov-2017
B
3&4 30-Nov-2017 23-Nov-2017

The team will have to stay with the company, product and audience as specified in the brief.
Data (if used) on the company and the product (features, prices etc.) have to be realistic
and verifiable (the source has to be specified in the “hard” copy of the slide-ware which has
to be given to the evaluators at the start of the session. One hard copy will do. Two slides
per page, back-to-back). Sources for the data need not be a part of the slides shown in the
presentation.

The “target audiences” have been so selected to ensure that you are familiar with them - for
example, the IIMB community. You are free to pick any section of the community when the
audience is specified as “any or all of the IIMB community”. In case the target audience is not
one that you are familiar with, you could make the necessary (but realistic!) assumptions and
state them before the presentation. Your “pitch” should, therefore, be that much more
“focused”.

The faculty member along with an external evaluator will evaluate your “pitch”. Comments
made by the external evaluator will be part of the feedback. The entire evaluation will be
team based and all members will receive the same grade.

Schedule

The schedule for the presentations is as under:

Date Day Section Group Teams Start time

1 B 01 to B 06 1430 hours
29-Nov-2018 Thursday
2 B 07 to B 12 1645 hours
B
3 B 13 to B 18 1430 hours
30-Nov-2018 Friday
4 B 19 to B 24 1645 hours

It is compulsory for all the members of all the teams presenting in a session to attend the
entire duration of that session; optional to attend any other sessions.

Please make all the necessary arrangements (including the loading of your PPT into a common
folder in the classroom’s computer) before the session starts. Use your team number for the
file name e.g. B-06.

Check if the material (read “slideware”) you are using works! A “dress rehearsal” before the
day of your presentation would certainly help.

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IIMB Management Communication 2: General Brief: Assignment 2 (Persuasive Presentation)

Evaluation

Broadly, you will be evaluated on:

 Strength of the value proposition

 Persuasive ability
 Creativity and Innovation
 Team effort
 Handling interactions
 Audience appeal
 Overall effectiveness

The question at the end will be:

“How many of us are ready to say ‘Yes’ to it?”

Amarnath Krishnaswamy

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