PowerPoint Presentations Are Not "Real Work"

Part of our marketing process for clients involves an initial phase that we call “Discovery.” It’s a posh way of saying that, before we start working on the marketing stuff, we need to get a clearer understanding of how the business operates and how it's seen by stakeholders. That means going to the coal face - speaking with the client’s customers, partners, and/or resellers to get a feel for what’s really going on at point of purchase.

I went to visit a client recently and - as usual - spent the first day visiting some of their customers and retailers. The second day was scheduled to be meetings with the management team at the company's HQ. 

When I arrived at the boardroom the CEO was already there, along with her C-suite and senior executives. The first thing she said to me was “I hope you had a good time yesterday. Now is where the REAL works starts!” and then proceeded to bring up some PowerPoint slides about sales figures.

“Wow,” I said. “What a message to give to your board. So seeing customers and resellers isn’t ‘real’ work?”

“Ha-ha! No, not at all,” she said with a slight waver in her voice. “It was just a joke.”

“Hmm, I not so sure it was,” I replied. “You’ve just sent a powerful message to your board and senior management that, in your eyes, I’ve just wasted a day. You’re implying ‘real work’ is sitting in a darkened room, with no customers around, looking at PowerPoint slides.”

I’m not saying the PowerPoint stuff isn’t important. Of course it is. I’m saying that we’re losing focus if we think the goal is making the numbers look better, rather than serving customers better.