Consulting Presentations: Deliver Clear Recommendations

Structure your evidence, compare options and handle questions so decision-makers can evaluate and use your advice.

Created byDr. Law Payne

Last updated 11/2026

English

What you'll learn

Identify what the audience must decide and what evidence it needs.
Structure a recommendation around the decision, supporting evidence, and business implications.
Present trade-offs clearly and handle questions about uncertainty.
Build a recommendation deck and define the implementation handoff.

Course content

2 sections • 10 lectures • 1h 49m total length

The Decision and the First Useful Result10:31
Prepare for an Oakwell sponsor meeting with ten minutes to make a decision. Identify who can approve the pilot and rollout, who owns site execution, and who reviews the numbers. Use the worksheet to calculate the first-fill change, additional stock, and annual holding cost.
Audience in Practice11:22
Tailor Oakwell’s pilot recommendation to the sponsor, Finance, the site manager, and the rollout committee. Specify what each person can decide or verify. Reproduce the first-fill and illustrative carrying-cost calculations so each audience gets the evidence it needs.
Message and the Evidence Behind It11:22
Lead with the decision you want Oakwell to make. Write a 30-second opening that states the scope, evidence, and launch condition. Use the worksheet to compare the aggregate first-fill result with the result after accounting for the item mix.
Evidence Without Hidden Assumptions11:11
Make Oakwell’s evidence defensible by reconciling the raw rows and calculating verified, resolved-only, and conditional results. Identify the evidence needed for four substitutions and show which result would reach the decision threshold.
The Foundation Case and Your First Deliverable10:44
Rehearse a ten-minute recommendation for the North site pilot. Allocate the meeting, present the cost and capital checks to Finance before minute four, and explain the two first-fill results and stock measures. Use the workshop worksheet to check your arithmetic.

Options Through a Worked Case10:31
Compare the current rule, two North pilot options, and a later rollout on the same questions. Calculate follow-up work and budget totals, then show how one additional line changes the result in a smaller group.
Objection Handling and Practical Constraints10:56
Practice short answers to objections about price, stock, first-fill, and rollout authority. Reproduce both pilot budgets and the stock calculations, then connect each answer back to the decision Oakwell can make in the meeting.
Action and Progress Checks10:37
Turn a pilot review into a recommendation. Reconcile Oakwell’s outcome counts and calculate the observed rate, possible ceiling, and decision threshold. Compare stock measures and forecasts with and without optional work before recommending the next action.
A Second Case With a Different Constraint11:01
Present Ridgeway’s callback decision under incomplete evidence. Calculate verified rates and conditional ceilings, count what is needed to reach the threshold, and test whether the backup schedule can work under both readiness scenarios.
The Complete Application Workshop10:56
Prepare two ten-minute recommendations for Oakwell and Ridgeway. Allocate the time, write both openings, and reproduce the evidence, stock, and staffing comparisons. Use the worksheet to show how each proposal leads to a decision the audience can make.

Requirements

Bring a business recommendation or an example project and a way to use the downloadable exercises.

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

You have ten minutes with the sponsor. What do you want them to decide?

If the answer takes twelve slides to find, the discussion can turn into a tour of your research. A good consulting presentation makes it easy to see the choice on the table, which evidence supports it, and what the sponsor takes on by saying yes. This course gives you a way to build that presentation and handle the questions that come with it.

What you’ll build

A decision statement that makes the purpose of your presentation clear from the opening.
A recommendation deck that connects evidence to realistic options and trade-offs.
Responses to questions about cost, capacity, risk, and gaps in the evidence.
An implementation handoff with named owners and a plan for checking progress.

Who I designed this for

This course is for consultants, analysts, project leads, and managers who present recommendations to clients or executives. It’s useful whether you’re building a new deck or preparing for a meeting where you expect your assumptions to be challenged.

How you’ll practice

I’m Dr. Law Payne. I drew on my graduate training in business to design the worksheets and worked examples. You’ll use the materials to compare alternatives, rehearse objections, and make the decision you’re asking for easy to understand.

Enroll and bring one recommendation you need to present. Leave with a clearer opening and a handoff the sponsor can act on.

Who this course is for:

Consultants, analysts, and project leads who present recommendations to decision-makers.

Consulting Presentations: Deliver Clear Recommendations

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Foundations and First Decisions5 lectures • 55min

Applied Practice and Case Workshop5 lectures • 54min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: