Are your employees well-trained to deliver important presentations for your company? Whether you’re pitching a new business, delivering a value proposition, or talking to investors at an annual conference, your business success depends on high-caliber presentations. So why do so many organizations fail when it comes to speaking with power and persuasion? The reason may be the lack of focus on high-level speech training. Or, if training is provided, it may be based solely on messaging, rather than focusing on effective performance.
Unsurprisingly, theater-based technology is the best for showing employees how to engage and impress audiences. Your clients, clients, and prospects respond best to speakers who use all communication tools to gain influence. Of course, one of those tools is your message. But the power of performance is at least as important to get the impact you’re looking for. Still, employees are trained in public speaking and presentations for many reasons, not just performance. Here are 10 such reasons. Together, they will go a long way towards making your company a more cohesive and effective unit, keeping all your important business presentations under the spotlight.
10 reasons to train your employees
Build morale
As that famous quote tells us, most men lead peaceful and hopeless lives, and many employees are dissatisfied with their level of presentation and presentation skills. Most of us have succeeded professionally by learning about our business, working hard and making useful connections. Often, public speaking training is not part of it. However, forward-thinking companies know to look to professionals for performance-based training. “I no longer shy away from presentations about my work…I’m looking for opportunities!” is usually a comment from someone who has had this type of training.
Improve retention
Professional development is no longer just a requirement for key employees to learn and grow; it is expected. Salespeople, leadership team members, marketing professionals, finance and healthcare executives, HR professionals, government workers, and all others at the management level and above want and need their organizations to invest in their growth. If the desire of these key people to improve their communication skills is not met, they will look elsewhere. A client pointed this out to me about my pitch and mentioned that I should include this in my ROI discussion. I took this advice!
Shared skill set
Even in highly collaborative work environments, employees often have to think and work on their own. Communicating with others on the team also does not mean that individuals learn and progress at the same level and focus on the same material. However, in group training on corporate presentation skills, they did. On-site company workshops are often carefully curated based on the company’s goals and objectives, as well as related issues and personalities. There is no substitute for all key employees being in the same room and learning the same skills at the same time. The result is indeed greater than the sum of the parts involved.
Professionalism
When it comes to reaching higher levels of communication efficiency and impact, the right type of training is essential. Given the breadth of knowledge and experience represented, workshops open to the public must target a low denominator. Corporate seminars on presentation skills do not have this limitation. No matter what level of oral success an organization wants to achieve, it is the starting point for this public speaking training. Combined with live demo exercises and videos, the results can truly skyrocket your company’s reach and reach.
Team influence
A team presentation may be a group event, but more often it is presented by team members one by one, as if they were accidentally thrown onto the stage. For example, a common scenario is an individual conducting a series of meetings with a prospect or client when the specific expertise of a team member is required. A team that is less expressive will declare itself either a collective failure or underperforming. In both cases, the team needs to be trained to deliver clear goals and memorable skills. Recently, I trained a global marketing team formed by a pharmaceutical company for an important marketing effort. The multilingual nature of the team shows. It was only during the two-day training provided to them by The Genard Method that members not only honed their skills, but began to really work together and work together. This is a case study of team training in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Sales ability
Another interesting effect sometimes occurs when teams are not trained in sales presentations in a timely manner. For example, when an entire sales force uses a “feature” presentation in PowerPoint, it may not be aware of the fact that the deck is outdated or no longer accurate. A “we’ve always done this” mentality can hurt a company. Sales presentation training workshops—often held at annual sales meetings—can bring awareness to the problem. Part of that is simply because a new set of eyes from the outside world sees the problem. But skilled trainers will also be able to connect the company’s stated goals for influencing audiences to what audiences actually see and hear. It’s part of his or her job, and in fact, it’s not uncommon for us to see this need among salespeople who show up on the shop floor.
Corporate Spokesperson Bureau
Does your company have a spokesperson office? It’s a great way to keep learning for employees who often speak up after on-site workshops. It’s customized to enhance your employees’ comfort and desire to speak on behalf of your organization.
Create your own coaching staff
This is one of the lesser-known benefits of presentation skills training. Typically, the HR Director or Chief Learning Officer brings this up during initial discussions with us about training. The executive is interested in seeing how it is done, i.e. how she or he can continue to mentor key executives once our workshop is over. Often the person will ask if they can attend the workshop on their own so they can learn. We are happy to oblige.
Build stronger customer relationships
As I tell clients and trainees, your competitor’s product or service may be very close to yours, and often in the same price range. So what made that client or client decide to do business with you? The answer is they want it! This usually means that they enjoy communicating with you and doing business together. In fact, one way they might understand early on, as they do with you, is that you give them evidence in your presentation. Credibility and honesty are the cornerstones of a successful presentation. Of course, they only come when confidence and comfort are high. This is a key reason to provide your employees with presentation skills training that meets that need.
Recognized as an industry leader
Is it time for your company or organization to leave Presentations 101 behind? Competition is fierce, and of course, in the 21st century, it is truly global. When your employees are there, they represent everything you have to offer, and everything you have. The audience does not separate the message from the messenger. If you want to be recognized as an industry leader, your business presentation must go beyond good, beyond effective, to extraordinary. Give your employees the right presentation training and they will.
