In the beginning, you tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em.

How you begin your presentation is critical. In fact, the introduction is the most important part of your presentation (it beats the conclusion out by a hair). Why? Because it’s your only chance to make a first impression. You can show the client you are enthusiastic and excited about the project, or you can show that this is just another dreaded part of the job (like writing proposals). You can lay out compelling reasons why your team is the right choice, or you can show the listeners that you are nothing more than one face in the crowd of presenters they’ll be seeing stream through their conference room in the next few hours.

In other words, the first words out of your mouth lays the foundation for how the audience will perceive you–and your pitch–for the rest of the presentation.

With this in mind, here are a few tips for developing a powerful introduction:

Be bold, authoritative and confident. What you say shapes the rest of the pitch. If you make bold statements (“Our job during this next 30 minutes is hard-we’re going to have to get you to agree to change the way you do things.”) the listeners will sit up and take notice. If you are tentative (“We believe we are well-suited to conduct this work.”), the listeners will fall into complacency.

Think hard about the tone you want to achieve, then figure out the best way to go about it. Make sure everyone on the team is on board; when the time comes for them to speak, they must play their role in controlling the tone of the presentation. If they don’t, things can unravel very quickly.

Lead with your theme. You should clearly articulate your theme right up front. Don’t be hesitant; don’t nibble around the edges and hope the panel gets it. This is not a mystery novel; the listeners don’t want the secret of why they should pick you to be revealed at the end. If you wait until then, you will lose.

Make your introductory remarks compelling. You have only one chance to make a first impression. Once you’ve made it, you can’t change it. And part of the impression you want to make is that you have a compelling story to tell. You need to say what you’re going to say in a way that makes the listener think, Well, that’s certainly interesting. I wonder what other interesting things they have to say.

If you start off flat, you will stay flat, at least from the listener’s point of view.

Let them know what you’ll talk about. Make sure you give the listeners a brief summary of the highlights of your presentation. They need to know where you’re going so they will be interested enough to follow along. It can be as easy as saying, “In the next thirty minutes, we’ll tell you how we can increase the flow capacity at your facility by integrating the outfall pump station with the Rockhill pumping system. We’ll tell you how we will use automation to regulate the flow. And we’ll outline our plan for doing all the work necessary within your expedited schedule.”

Simple.

You can even tell them which member of the team will say what, and give the panel a heads-up about who sitting up there with you will address what topic.