Making Great Architectural Presentations

Setting Yourself Apart from the Competition

By Todd Rose, Todd Rose Decorative Concrete

I was recently asked what our company has done to set ourselves apart from the competition. One of the biggest things we do is to give architectural presentations – not so much to talk about our company, but to share information about the basics of decorative installations and the many options available. Even after 10 years of doing decorative concrete work, I still meet designers, architects and builders who say they had no idea of all you could do with concrete. Giving presentations about decorative concrete has been one of our best marketing tools and has made us a resource to the design community.

Fortunately, I am one of those people who loves to speak in public, so it comes easily to me. But if you are uncomfortable speaking to a group, I have some tips for boosting your confidence and using visual aids to help convey your message.

Along with good delivery, you also have to develop good content for your presentation. There is so much information and so many products in the decorative concrete field that it's difficult even for an experienced contractor to keep it all straight. You can use this to your advantage by focusing on the type of work you are really good at. That will make it easier to stick with the basics in your presentations and to avoid overwhelming your audience with too much info.

Tips for Getting Started

Hone your speaking skills.
If you have anxiety about speaking in public, see if your local community college offers a class where you can get some experience. Or ask someone else within your company to give the presentations – someone who is comfortable talking in public and is knowledgeable about what you do.

Learn how to use computer presentation software.
Computer technology and presentation programs, such as PowerPoint, have made it easy to make professional-quality presentations to architectural firms. With PowerPoint, it's as easy as "point and click" to go from one slide with some text to other slides with pictures of installations. I can't emphasize enough how much designers, whether architects or engineers, love to see the actual process.

Prepare an outline.
I will often write a firm I want to do business with and ask if they are interested in a free lunch and a 30 to 45 minute PowerPoint presentation on decorative concrete. For these "Lunch and Learn" presentations, they will usually ask for an outline. Putting an outline together will help you organize your presentation and focus on the key topics you want to cover. As an example, here is the outline I use for my presentations. Of course, your outline will differ depending on the type of concrete work you specialize in:

Stenciled Concrete
Stained concrete
Stamped Concrete
Polymer Overlays and Repairs
Polished Concrete
Stained Retaining Walls
Troubleshooting
Do's and Don'ts
Writing Specs
Trends in Decorative Concrete

What to Include in Your Presentation

Cover the basics.
Whether you will speak about stenciling concrete, staining concrete, or overlays, be sure to answer all the basics. Tell your audience the who, what, when, where, how and why of each process.

Use pictures to show the details.
Engineers and architects love to see the details and know why you did things a certain way. I like to show this picture in my presentations because it shows a job that was done quite differently from what most contractors do in our area. We completed the whole project in one weekend, even though it involved different colors and textures. We did the tear-out on a Friday evening, poured all the concrete on the following Saturday morning, and finished on Sunday before the tenants came in on Monday morning. Using this one picture showing our crew at work, I can launch into explaining why certain admixtures allowed us to pour everything at one time, and show designers how you can have different colors and textures in one pour and save clients money and time by not having to form and pour separate sections.

This picture provides a perfect example to explain how we did this project in one pour.

Showcase your work.
Several manufacturers of decorative concrete products have "generic" presentations available for your use that show all the bells and whistles and include expensive professional photography. But local designers want to see your jobs, in your local area, and you installing them.

Todd Rose Decorative Concrete Lincoln, NE

This picture shows slate-stamped concrete bands
and fields of exposed aggregate, with all the work
done in one placement.

I use this picture, showing the application of
surface retarder, to explain how the exposed
aggregate process works.

Show real-world installations.
During my presentations, I show real-world situations, including problems we encountered and how we corrected them. For example, I will show photos of stained concrete with wide variations in color. I educate and inform the audience that these variations can be normal. You won't build a great reputation showing patios that look like pieces of art. You build a great reputation by knowing how to solve problems, and even more important, by demonstrating that you will follow through and handle those problems, whether they were caused by you or someone else.

Using Presentations to Build Relationships

A benefit from giving architectural presentations is that our firm has built a reputation on solving decorative concrete problems for others. Because we have been doing staining and stamping work for a long time (meaning we have messed up enough jobs and have had to learn to fix them), we often get called when a customer, builder or architect is at wits end to get the problem fixed. This has been a great reputation builder for us.

These presentations also give me an opportunity to build relationships. I tell the audience that I want to rid the world of plain gray concrete (they laugh) and part of that responsibility is to help ensure that all decorative concrete installations are done properly. Proper installations start with proper specifications and realistic expectations. A stained concrete crosswalk that isn't maintained regularly will fail, and that makes all of us decorative concrete contractors look bad. So whether our firm will do the job or not, doing my small part to promote successful installations and proper maintenance helps to promote decorative concrete for all of us.

Of course, one of the best things you can get out of doing presentations is new business and having your firm named as the contractor on a job. These presentations have allowed that for our company, and have helped us land some high-profile projects.