Presenting tax to people who don’t do tax

You know the material better than anyone in the room. That is exactly what makes these presentations go wrong.

Why strong technicians lose the room

The most common failure we see is not nerves or slides. It is that a tax professional presents the work when the executive wanted the decision. You walk the effective tax rate line by line. The CFO wanted to know whether the number moves, what could go wrong, and what you need from them. Twenty minutes in, they have stopped listening and you have not asked for anything.

The second failure is hedging. Tax trains you to qualify everything, because in tax the qualifications are the substance. In an executive meeting, a technically perfect answer wrapped in four caveats reads as “this person is not sure.”

What we do in the ninety minutes

  • Cut it to the decision. We find what you are actually asking them to do, or know, and rebuild the presentation from there.
  • Rehearse the opening ninety seconds. That is where these meetings are won or lost. We will run it until it is clean.
  • The hostile question. Every one of these has a question you are hoping nobody asks. We find it and we build the answer.
  • Numbers that land. How to present an ETR walk, a cash tax forecast, or a controversy update so a non-tax executive knows what to think about it.

What to bring

Send the deck, even if it is rough, a day before we talk, plus who is in the room and what you need out of it. We will have read it. We spend the session working, not catching us up.

$475 · 90 minutes

By phone or Microsoft Teams. Many employers will reimburse this, ask us for an invoice.

Common questions

I present to our CFO monthly and it goes fine. Is this for me?

Probably not, and we will tell you so. This is for the presentation that carries weight, a new CFO, a first appearance in front of the executive team, a number that moved in the wrong direction, or a recommendation you need approved.

Can you help with the slides themselves?

Yes. Send the deck ahead and we will mark it up. Most tax decks we see have three times too many slides and bury the ask on the last one.

Will my employer pay for this?

Often, yes. Presentation and communication coaching sits in most professional development budgets, and this is far cheaper than a general executive coach. We can invoice the company directly.

What if the presentation is in two days?

Then book the soonest slot and send the deck now. Short notice is normal for this one.

Other coaching services

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Coaching fees are for preparation, confidence and intentional execution. They do not put you in front of our clients or move you up any shortlist. If we are actively representing you for a role with one of our clients, we will not charge you coaching fees related to that search, and we will not advise an employer on a shortlist that includes a coaching client. Full policy here.

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