How to Enhance Your Top Talent with Presentation Skills Training

Presentations are a critical aspect of company life. They’re how we learn about new developments in technology and business, how we’re introduced to departments outside of our own, discover the value of their work, and realise the potential of a product or person. Presentation skills training is integral to crafting a message that people want to listen to and invest in—something which keeps them thinking after they’ve left the room. Many organisations offer presentation skills courses and presentation training, but it’s important that business leaders have the knowledge to empower their workforce and identify the areas that need improvement.

Public speaking and presentations cause anxiety in many professionals across all levels of seniority. Unfortunately, this anxiety can cause them to miss their mark by talking too quickly, driving them to waffle or lack focus, or even to close up entirely. Of course, this needn’t be the case, but it’s important to realise that to improve your employee’s presentation skills, they will need guidance and nurturing. A presentation skills course can help, but what else can business leaders do to improve their employees’ approach to consultative sales presentations?

This article will explore how presentation skills training and presentation skills courses can positively impact your industry experts. Moreover, we’ll discuss what makes a good presentation, how employees can develop enticing and consultative presentation ideas, how to improve presentation skills and the importance of presentation training in the modern business environment.

If you’re interested in learning more about the positive impact that nurturing your employees’ skills can have on productivity and profitability after this article, read our guide on how you can realise the potential of your emerging talent.

What makes a good presentation

Across history, public speakers have captivated audiences. Compelling presentations are unique and authentic, achieving some outcome—from fostering a social movement to creating and amplifying a worldwide buzz around the latest advancement in mobile computing. But these individuals weren’t born with this expertise. They developed their skills by taking the time to commit to presentation training.

Strong presentation skills empower consultative sales teams to effectively convey their ideas, products, and services in a compelling manner. Well-executed presentations captivate audiences, establish credibility, and build trust with clients. 

First, what can help your team to make a good presentation? Whilst you can see immediate returns from presentation skills courses, it’s important that you contextualise this training. Enhancing your employees’ presentation skills will require them to think about the public speakers they’ve seen before that have enthralled them—what was it about the topic and the presenter that grabbed their attention? They’ll likely have had some things in common:

If a slideshow accompanied the presentation, it was likely as carefully considered as the presenter's words. They would have utilised the 10-20-30 rule—devised by Apple’s Guy Kawasaki—wherein the presenter used no more than ten slides, the slideshow lasted for 20 minutes or less, with a font size no smaller than 30pt. Following this rule meant that their slideshow was not stuffed with text, with a legible hierarchy of information, and was graphically enticing.

The critical aspect of encouraging your employees to create a good presentation is that you ensure they reflect on presentations that have inspired, empowered and motivated them to make a change, to work or live or think differently, and to care about something they might not have thought about as thoroughly previously. These can then be employed in other areas of their professional development, such as telesales skills training, pitch training, or B2B sales training.

So the first step to crafting a powerful and consultative presentation on a product or service is to think about these aspects of the good presentations you’ve witnessed, explore what made them so effective, and communicate these with your employees to make certain that they’re aware of the skills they need to present effectively.

Effective presentation training can enable sales professionals to showcase their expertise, address client needs, and highlight the unique value of their offerings. Powerful presentations lead to increased client engagement, higher conversion rates, and stronger business relationships. Adaptability and concise messaging ensure resonance with diverse audiences, setting consultative sales teams apart from competitors and driving sales success.

Developing presentation ideas

Once you’ve encouraged your employees to think about the consultative sales or tech sales process, it becomes crucial to allocate sufficient time for them to develop their presentation ideas. Crafting impactful and successful presentations requires careful planning and thorough research. Professionals must delve into the topics and themes they wish to present, aiming to create an immersive experience that instils confidence in their audience.

The first step in this process is to respectfully consider the audience. Any presentation skills course that your employees take part in will first focus on identifying the demographic or market segment they will be presenting to. Recognising the consultative value of the information to be delivered and understanding the audience's seniority level and sales expertise are essential. By taking these factors into account, employees can determine the amount of information required and identify the relevant aspects of their ideas while filtering out the irrelevant ones.

Once the presenter has consciously pondered their audience, they should adopt the KISS principle—Keep It Super Simple. Even when addressing industry experts or qualified leads, it remains crucial to focus on a core message and avoid overwhelming the audience with excessive information. Presenters have limited time to engage prospects and effectively convey their information, making simplicity and clarity a paramount aspect of the presentation training process.

As a result, a public speaker must show their passion for a topic. A strong presentation idea might get people to pay attention, but getting them to connect and care about a product or service will take enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is infectious—when someone is excited to talk about something, it’s hard not to want to hear more. 

However, a presenter needs to be cautious so their enthusiasm doesn’t lead them off-topic as they’re developing their sales presentation idea. Presentation skills courses will, of course, focus on keeping your staff on-topic, but they should always keep in mind that they need to be focused, since they can easily lose a prospect by meandering.

One final thing that your employees can consider when they’re in the planning and development stages of thinking about their sales presentation is to concentrate on telling a story. Humans naturally want to pay attention to stories—as long as they aren’t too long-winded, of course—so think about how your presentation ideas can include an account of some sort. 

There are two aspects that a presenter should consider when doing this:

• A focus on 'characters' is central to any good story - Focusing on who was impacted by innovation in a product or service—such as a customer, a team, or the presenter themselves—is an excellent way to help people connect with a sales presentation.
• Stories are dynamic and rhythmic - A story must have a rhythm and dynamism that changes throughout its retelling. Good stories don’t just stick in the same gear: they speed up and slow down as the content and delivery dictate.

Encouraging your employees to keep these concepts in mind when developing an idea during presentation training or in their presentation courses will allow them to craft engaging, consultative, and thought-provoking presentations which enhance the audience’s knowledge, excite them and motivate them to do something with the information that’s been imparted.

How to improve presentation skills

Now that we’ve explored how to develop impactful presentation ideas, it’s crucial to think about how to improve your employees’ presentation skills. Employees can, of course, empower themselves through presentation skills training or a presentation skills course. Still, they will also need to invest time into improving their existing skills to successfully integrate what they learn from their training into their public speaking.

1. Research

As we discussed in the presentation ideas section, research is essential. Before beginning to write a presentation, your employees must think carefully about their topic and audience. By understanding what an audience wants to gain from attending their talk, a presenter can organise themselves and their ideas before crafting a compelling and consultative. 

Doing this preliminary research will also aid in clarity—since they’ll be able to ensure everything they talk about relates to their reason for doing the presentation. Presentation courses will always encourage your employees to begin their process with research.

2. Practice

Once their presentation has been written, employees must practice their public speaking. Saying it out loud to themselves and a test audience over multiple occasions reduces anxiety during the event, allowing them to ask for feedback and refine their work. In addition, they should take any opportunity they can get to engage in public speaking to get as much experience in presenting as possible.

This practice shouldn’t just cover the presentation topic, what will be said and any materials or slideshows accompanying it but also extend to the body language a presenter uses. They should be open and have friendly body language, using gestures and movements to emphasise their passion for the topic. Standing up straight, occasionally walking across the stage and looking around the audience can all increase a presenter’s confidence and make a presentation seem dynamic.

3. Audience engagement

Finally, getting the audience involved can give the presenter valuable thinking time and create a personal connection between them, the presenter and the topic at hand. Asking the audience to relate to a subject by eliciting responses such as raising hands and nodding in agreement can change the tone of a presentation from a lecture to a conversation, giving people a reason to care.

The importance of presentation skills

Presentation skills training is integral to success in the modern workplace. Investing in your employees and making them aware of the importance of presentation skills means they will gain confidence in addressing colleagues and their seniors, craft a compelling message, manage discussions and utilise storytelling to help people remember them and their expertise. 

Training your employees in presentation skills can strengthen workplace relationships and culture by making people aware of the presenting employee and their areas of expertise and forming a strong, positive connection between audience members and that employee. 

Presenting naturally helps to improve an employee’s communication skills—not just in terms of verbal communication, but also their non-verbal skills such as signposting, stance, eye contact and movement to emphasise a point. In addition, by communicating their beliefs, employees can feel empowered to influence business decisions that might have initially seemed obfuscated or out of reach. 

Presentation training such as this can improve an employee’s chances of internal career progression or future employability. Moreover, concisely communicating complex topics and making oneself known as a subject expert can help in an interview setting. 

As a form of sales—since a presentation involves selling an idea—learning how to present means that employees can begin to market themselves and their skills effectively. Knowing how to persuade, inform and explain is integral to long-term career success, regardless of the professional sector or industry an employee is in.

Discover Pareto’s presentation skills training

Pareto can provide organisations with presentation skills training and bespoke presentation skills courses, which help them realise their workforce's public speaking potential. Face-to-face support and a comprehensive virtual learning platform allow trainees to reference course materials continually, and our expert B2B sales training providers will support learners. Contact us to discuss your business requirements, how you believe presentation skills training could help your workforce and our courses' entry requirements. We provide in-person presentation skills training in London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Leeds, as well as remotely, through our e-learning environment.