AuditNet Resource List
Audit Programs
AuditNet Virtual Library
AuditNet Newsletter
Ask the Auditor
AuditNet Mailing Lists
Audit Jobs
Travel
Career Links
Partner Discounts
Search
Sign Guestbook
AuditNet Sponsors
Advertising Opportunities
About AuditNet
About Jim Kaplan
AuditNet Seminars
AuditNet Home Page

Tender Presentations

By

Kastuv Ray

Introduction

Outsourced providers are frequently asked to attend tender presentations after they have submitted their tender for internal audit services. The tender is just like an oral examination after you have submitted your thesis where the examiners just question you about your submission. In the examination, if you answer to the adequate standard you pass, in the tender presentation, it is slightly trickier, if you answer to the adequate standard, you will be compared to the other presenters and the best and most economical bid is usually chosen. The presentation normally helps.

Preparation

Once you have found out that you have been short-listed for your presentation, you have to prepare some kind of presentation material in the form of slides. It is no point just rewriting “word for word”, the information you have submitted in your tender, because when you speak at the presentation, the audience will most probably go to sleep.

I would advise no more than 10 slides. Keep it to the point. Do not put the following headings on your slides:

• Who am I?

• Who are you?

• What do I think of you?

• What do you think of me?

Aside from thinking that you suffer from amnesia, the presentation panel will not be impressed.

I would suggest that the slides cover the following:

• Introduction (this should include details about your organisation i.e. the internal audit provider)

• How you (the internal audit provider) aims to meet the requirements of the clients (empathise your strengths)

• What are the client’s issues?

• Your approach (this could cover Audit Needs Assessment etc)

• How you aim to meet the client’s needs

• Critical success factors with respect to an outsourced internal audit contract

• Summary

This presentation should be divided amongst the staff attending the presentations where someone talks about the organisation and its strategy, someone talks about managing the contract, delivery of a systems based audit and possibly IT issues.

It is no point asking a Senior Auditor to come along just to say their name and what audits they have done. This doesn’t help their professional development.

The Presentation Panel

If you know the names of the presentation panel, do some research on them.

Getting There

Make sure you know where you are going and get to the venue on time.

The Presentation

Some clients normally stipulate that they do not want to see more than 4 individuals from the presentation team of the provider. A presentation, let’s say for example can be compared to a tag-team wrestling match. It can be an eight-man tag match or possibly a handicap match with 6 on 4.

Mental preparation is essential and when the presentation team enter the room, they have to be perceived to function as a unit. Suppose the presentation team consists of the Partner, Senior Manager, Manager and a Senior Auditor. The Partner is the ring general, the Senior Manager is the veteran, the Manager is the enforcer and the Senior Auditor is the rookie. They have to focus on one goal that is to win.

I would be seriously worried if the Senior Manager turned around to the Manager and stated the following about an hour before the presentation:

“Do we have to an audit needs assessment?”

This is like saying to someone in the tag team, do I have to pin the opponent to win the match.

When you enter the room, you may come across someone who stares at you a lot. You could, like they do in wrestling, approach them and stand up to them eyeball-to-eyeball but this is probably not a good idea. They may only be trying to psyche you out. Ignore it.

You are auditors. You know you can do the job and delivery a quality product. All you have to do is go out there and show the presentation panel what you can do.

Convince them that you are the best people for the job. We have to convince people in our audit reports so we should be able to do it in our presentations. Look at wrestler like Chris Benoit and Bret Hart. These are/were excellent mat technicians and let their actions do the talking. If you don’t know who they are, match some old videotapes of their matches. Watch and visualise and learn. Then get ready for your presentation. Remember your experience and knowledge are your wrestling skills.

Ensure that the presentations are well timed and each individual knows what they have to say and when to say it. Your tags have to be correct. Say what you want to say with confidence and add some lines into the presentation, which are “cool” but professional. Your movements should be timed. When say a wrestler like Bret “The Hitman” Hart used to do a piledriver or an atomic drop, it looked magnificent. Try and do the same at the presentations. Of course, some of us cannot compete with the likes of some presenters who are like window salesmen and are purported to have the ability to charm the monkeys out of the trees. Go in and do your best and if you don’t win, consider it as an experience. Sooner or later, you will get through and win a presentation.

Conclusion

Preparation and planning is essential. You need to read through your lines and sit down and go through your lines with the rest of the tem. Those of you reading this article may say it’s easy for you to say Kastuv. I am not an expert at presentations. I have been through the experience and go through it whenever I am called to a presentation. I still get butterflies in my stomach.