GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Wilder Creates a Unifying Theme for the Executive Team

The Situation The presentation was on Tuesday, and it was already Friday morning. A large general contracting corporation had little time to design a presentation as part of its bid for a major building contract. Even though this company intended to make every effort for the bid, it believed another larger, more established contractor would be the final winner. In fact, this company thought the competition had at least a 70 percent chance of getting the contract!
At most, the company hoped to position itself for a future contract. The president realized that he needed help with both visuals and the delivery skills of his engineers. More importantly, he needed something to tilt the balance in his favor. With virtually one day to prepare, Wilder was called in.
The Wilder Process It immediately became obvious that the contractor needed a strong story line to weave through and unite the discussion of the proposed project, from inception to completion. Wilder Presentations helped pinpoint the theme "We can change on a dime" for the major story line. "We work as a team" became the secondary theme. Each team member's presentation was organized around those two story lines.
Presenters had to follow the same format, choosing examples and photos to emphasize how quickly they could change plans and how well they worked as team players. The talks flowed seamlessly from one to another. Their consistent organization and targeted stories demonstrated teamwork right in front of the potential customer. Wilder also made sure that the values of the potential client were incorporated into slides and used as examples from the beginning of the talk to the end.
The Results

• The contractor got the job, even though the team believed it had no more than a 30 percent chance of winning. The client told them that the quality of the presentation sold everyone on the quality of the company. The seamless set-up and delivery by the six presenters demonstrated their teamwork, which the client knew to be indispensable to the success of the construction project.
• The team now uses this process to create presentations for other bids.
• Team members speak with more enthusiasm, energy, and commitment than ever before as they have a focus for their presentations. They realize they have to convince their audience that they have the knowledge, experience, and leadership to get the job done. And they have the confidence to do it.