It’s a Wednesday and I’ve just hung up the phone after a conversation with my 12-year-old daughter, Brooke. She told me that she and her friend, Noelle, are having a contest to see who can chew a single piece of gum for the longest amount of time. No prize for the winner except the pride of being the best.

I then move on to a meeting with a successful agency. There are eight producers in the room, including principals of the agency. These eight have produced over $5 million of the agency’s $10 million in revenue. They are paid 40% com­mission on new business and 30% on renewal.

So I ask, “Which of you have taken a class on public speaking or presentation techniques?” Not one raises his or her hand. That’s over 150 years of insurance sales experience, over $6 million in revenue, and no one has ever invested in one of the most important professional skills—the ability to effectively communicate and command a room full of people.

If a 12-year old can take some pride in chewing a piece of gum forever, could you handle a little improvement in your ability to chew on someone’s ear?

The average successful producer still has not come close to maximizing his or her potential as a public speaker. One of the reasons is that he or she has accomplished enough that the pressure to improve is reduced, muted, or non-existent.

Furthermore, most people are flat out afraid or nervous when they speak in public.

Let me connect the dots for you: The insurance industry is putting pressure on producers to sell more new business each year; to grow their total book, significantly, each year; and to work on larger and larger accounts. That means you are going to be presenting to more and more buyers—more sophisticated buyers—and you’ll have less time than ever to prepare for renewal meetings.

You need to take your ability to communicate effectively to the next level and show greater confidence and control of the entire process of delivering a presentation; or you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. Ever lose to a bigger, national broker and the buyer told you they “brought their whole team and did an impressive presentation”? You just got out-presented. At a minimum that other team assigned responsibilities, rehearsed a little, and practiced how they would handle key questions or subjects.

The author of Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell, has received a lot of attention for his analysis of how people become “expert” at any skill. The most repeated element is his observation that it seems to take 10,000 hours for someone to master a sophisticated skill (e.g., music, sports, public speaking). Let me add that doing something the wrong way for several thousand hours just reinforces bad habits; it doesn’t get you any closer to actually doing it the right way. Exhibit “A” is my golf swing.

You can, and must, begin a process of improving your public speaking skills. Here’s your plan:

You need to examine your deepest fears about being called upon to “say a few words” or, more formally, to make a presentation. The number one phobia cited in most polls is the fear of public speaking. Honestly—do you look forward to these opportunities or dread them? Even if you think you’re excited to do it—are you preparing the right way and practicing?

The deeper your fear the more you will benefit from practicing. I’ve seen individuals who fall apart—stammering, looking down, apolo­gizing—in front of an insurance buyer but later, at lunch, they are the most charming person at the table when thy are talking about something they love—or at least a subject they believe they have mastered. The difference? Well, in part, its feeling that you know the topic.

You must practice your presentation or suffer the consequences of conveying a lack of confidence in your topic, yourself, or, in the ears of the buyer, your product. Seriously, why would the buyer accept the points you are making about why your program is superior when you convey in nonverbal mannerisms a lack of comfort and confidence?

Start with your elevator speech about why any prospect should be interested in doing business with your agency. While you are driving in your car, or alone at home or in the office, give your response out loud. Repeat it over and over, building your intensity and energy. Now practice it with a different cadence, starting soft and building. Hit particular words with more enthusiasm. Something like:

“I believe that the characteristic of our agency that makes us the best choice for your company is that NO ONE will work harder at understanding every exposure—every characteristic—of your company. We focus COMPLETELY on understanding how you make EVERY dollar—so we can help you protect your stream of revenue. Some brokers sell insurance; we PARTNER with you to think about your whole company, well beyond just insurance.”

Imagine that you’re speaking to one company and practice out loud exactly what you will say.

Now develop and practice two or three sentences regarding your role in leading the team you are presenting. Don’t read your résumé; rather, talk about the most important value you will bring and what it will mean to the buyer.

Structure everything you are going to say in terms of the value the buyer will realize. It’s rather like a dance. Most of what you would say in any presentation is what you will say in every presentation. If you have practiced one or two variations of your core statements about the fundamentals every buyer wants to know, then you are well on your way to presenting them with confidence and energy.

You don’t practice because you don’t have the presentation ready until the last minute and then, well, there’s no time. Really? You didn’t know a single topic you were going to address in an upcoming presentation until you received the quotes, at the last minute, from the underwriters?

Now you know why many broker presentations are, essentially, a reading of a proposal that, in some ways, the broker is reading himself for the first time. Its why PowerPoint presentations have become full of text and very few graphics—they have become the broker’s notes about her presentation. In the process, the structure of the slides has lost the intent of their original design—to convey and control the emotions and experience of the audience by using graphics and multimedia elements.

In the next article I will address how to structure your slides to support your effort to make the best presentation you are capable of making.

You know, or should know, the 10-15 common questions every buyer asks—or should ask. Write them down, maybe in a group exercise with your fellow producers, and develop your responses, with no more than three sentences in each response. Now practice how you will say them, preferably in front of your peers. You are building your comfort level with the key building blocks of each presentation and mastering the oral delivery.

Stand tall. Move away from the podium and into the audience. Practice what you do with your hands and do it consistently until it’s natural for you. Seriously, really think about your posture and how you use your hands to emphasize key points and maintain the buyer’s attention.

Practice changing the inflection in your voice. Cut everything you say to the bare minimum; if you are explaining a concept three different ways you need to stop and develop the one best way. That will cut down the length of your presentation and your audience will thank you.

Gather your peers who typically join you on presentations and go over in detail the response they will use to address each typical point in a presentation. Assign as much of the presentation as possible to them and save yourself for the opening and closing during which you will summarize the three to five most important points of your value, and begin the discussion with the buyer on the next steps.

When the last-minute quotes come in, quickly assess the most important issues and, if there’s truly no time left to rehearse, take them with you and explain each succinctly. Don’t read the carrier’s quotes to the buyer; instead, summarize what each issue means to the buyer and ask him or her for affirmation that he or she understands and agrees (or doesn’t).

Write out every word you will say in a 10-minute presentation, one time, and practice it over and over, out loud. Then do it in front of an audience and ask them to critique each element (after you’ve finished). Give them a checklist with the areas you want them to address (posture, energy, use of hands and motions, pace, inflection, etc.) Or e-mail me at john@cazadorassociates.com and I’ll send you a sample presentation and the checklist for your audience.

I’m passionate about honoring the audience with my best effort as a speaker. I hope you will be too.

John Edward Love, CPCU, is president and executive director of TechAssure, an association of insurance agents and underwriters who specialize in managing risks for technology and life sciences companies. TechAssure members serve more than 4,000 technology companies worldwide. For 18 years he was a leading producer at Armfield, Harrison & Thomas (AH&T) in Leesburg, Virginia, and a founder of AH&T Technology Brokers.