Breaking the next barrier

Yesterday I had a great experience, and I want to share that with you all.

I’ve told you earlier that I work in a software product development company as a project manager. Yesterday we had to give a demo/sales presentation of our new product on Knowledge Management, to a leading private insurance company HQed in Gurgaon.

The team consisted of a sales guy, a marketing guy (the engagement manager for that client, an engineer and a subject matter expert). At that last moment the subject matter expert (SME) had to opt out of the demo and I had no choice but to go as a SME.

I’ve attended umpteen meeting with clients but never participated a sales presentation and here I have to lead the team. Anyways I decided to take it as a challenge and went ahead.

At the demo, there were three people from client side, headed by a VP, a rather good-looking female – making me even more nervous. The sales guy gave the presentation, and the marketing guy gave the demo. During the presentation and demo they had some questions which were mostly answered by the sales and marketing guys, I had to interrupt only a couple of times. But after the demo they had many questions and somehow their focus turned towards me, they were directing all their questions to me and I was replying.

It was enthralling. It’s not that I didn’t stutter; I stuttered but I never let it affect me. I wasn’t shy or ashamed of stuttering, and always finished what I wanted to say. And it reinforced my belief that if what I am speaking is important to people, they’ll listen to me no matter how much I stuttered.

After the meeting I felt on top of the world. This might be a small step for mankind, but was a giant leap for me :-)

Cheers

Nitin