Why are presentation skills important?

Presentation skills enable you to share your ideas with others

Why are presentation skills so important? Well, if you’re asking that question, I’m about to give you the answer. You’re here, watching me on video, right, and right now I’m presenting to you. So if we think about right now where we are in this modern age and how important video is, that’s one reason right there why presentation skills are so important. Because presentation skills are what would enable you to have the confidence, and the ability, and also the structure to go on video and to share your ideas with people.

These days communicating on video is very important

So let’s just keep it to video right now, before we even talk about getting out into the workplace, being in the same room, or in a conference, or in a meeting with people, let’s just keep this to video right now. But let’s think of all the many reasons why somebody would want to go on video and share their ideas or information with someone else. So maybe I’m on Instagram or Facebook and I’m sharing my story of my day. Maybe I have a business and I’m promoting perhaps an event. I’m a public speaking coach, so I might be promoting an upcoming event and wanting to get people to my events so I can make some more money, or share my latest ideas. It might be that I am just selling a product or service, or wanting you to be more aware of that, even if I’m not trying to sell it. I may just want to get some awareness amongst my audience. Or maybe I want to grow an audience, and I’m out there sharing my message, trying to attract more fans and followers.

Presentation skills give you the confidence to communicate your message on video

There’s so many reasons. I’m sure I haven’t even touched on half of the reasons why people go online. Maybe they want to share a video that’s entertaining, share some jokes, share a political view, try and get their ideology across and get more followers. All sorts of reasons why you might want to go on video. And those are the same reasons why presentation skills are important.

They help you keep people engaged

So if you go on video and you’re all over the place, people don’t understand what you’re saying, you jump from one idea to the next without creating a logical link between them, and it’s really hard for people to follow you, the likelihood is that they will check out really quickly. So you want to keep people engaged, right? So again, that’s where presentation skills come into it.

They help you get your message across clearly and logically

So we’ve just talked about video, but let’s keep it to where we are now in this moment. If you’re watching this right after it’s been recorded, maybe it might last a few more years, you never know. But keeping it to this modern day and age, podcasts, okay. Podcasts involve you using your presentation skills as well. Same sort of thing. Logical arguments, speaking clearly, people understanding your message. So we’re just confining it to some of the sort of modern ways that we get ideas across before we even backtrack and think about meetings, think about conversations, think about conferences where we’re actually talking to large groups of people.

They allow you to make a good argument

So let’s go there now, shall we, and think about presentation skills in those environments. So once again, if you’re speaking to a lot of people at once, maybe you’re in a conference, perhaps you’re in a meeting, you want to have decent presentation skills for a number of reasons. In the work context, maybe it’s less about entertaining people but it might be more about persuading them. So perhaps you are in a sales meeting and you need to persuade your potential new clients to buy from you. So again, if you are all over the place, you’re not putting a very good argument together for the product or the service that you’re selling, the likelihood is that you’re not going to make the sale. So once again, presentation skills are coming into it.

People who are good at speaking have an advantage and can be more powerful at delivering their message

Could just be a conversation. You’re speaking to somebody. Again, maybe you’re selling, or you’re trying to persuade. So it just might just be one to one. But even there, having decent presentation skills makes a difference. Now, in our society, unfortunately, people who are very good at writing their ideas versus speaking are a little bit disadvantaged, shall we say. Because with how important video is, podcasts, obviously speaking to a live group, having verbal communication skills can be seen as more persuasive and more powerful than having written communication skills.

Having good presentation techniques mean speaking and sharing an idea well

And when I talk about presentation techniques, obviously I’m talking about being able to speak and share an idea rather than write. So copywriters can make an enormous amount of money. Copywriting is a wonderful skill to have, but nevertheless, there’s that immediacy when you’re speaking to another human being, whether it’s on video or on podcasts or in the same room, there’s an immediacy that is there which isn’t there when you’re writing. Because typically, when you’re writing, you can edit it, then there’ll be some time spent getting it online, versus, boom, I’m on video. I’m trying to persuade you here and now.

They help you persuade, sell, entertain, educate and encourage people to act

So presentation skills are incredibly important, whether you’re trying to sell, whether you’re trying to persuade, whether you’re trying to entertain, whether you’re trying to educate, or whether you’re trying to make somebody or encourage them to make a change and a transformation in their lives. All of those things can be done in a very direct way, whether it’s through video, whether it’s in a meeting, and that’s where presentation skills are so very important. And I’m just touching on the high level stuff here. I’m not going into the detail of how you can be more persuasive, or how you can be more educational. That’s something to be saved for another video. But I hope that I’ve persuaded you of why it’s so important to have good presentation skills.

Leaders who can present well have more credibility

Perhaps you want to lead a group, perhaps you are standing for an election and you want to be a leader. So of course, again, the better you can present yourself, the more likely you’re going to be voted for. And again, I guess, unfortunately, in a way, because it can be seen as unfair, but people who have good presentation skills often come across as seeming more intelligent, they come across as being more persuasive, they seem more like natural leaders than people who don’t have those same decent presentation skills. Now that second group, they may have brilliant ideas. They may be just as powerful and just as effective at what they’re doing as the people with the great presentation skills. But we tend to be biased towards people who can put a good verbal argument together and can be persuasive.

It’s worth learning basic presentations skills to stay competitive

So even if you prefer to write, you prefer to use some other means to get your ideas across, I still think it’s worth picking up some basic presentation skills, so that when you’re in a situation where you have to verbally present yourself and get an idea across or persuade people to do something, you aren’t at a disadvantage compared to those people who are natural presenters.

Good presentation skills can make you more successful

So hope I that helps. I hope that answers your question why presentation skills are so important. I haven’t even touched very much on the workplace, but having decent presentation skills can make you more money, it can help you be more successful, it can help you rise up the career ladder much faster. Tons of reasons. I’m just touching on the very outskirts of it here. But I hope that you now understand why these skills are so very important. I’m Shola. Take care. See you next time.

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Shola Kaye is an award-winning speaker, author and professional speaker coach with clients around the world. Her work has been mentioned in Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar and on the BBC.
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