Presentation Skills Training: How To Deliver A Winning Webinar

Yes, it really is possible to deliver a dynamic and powerful webinar, even if you consider yourself technophobic. Just follow these 7 easy tips and you’ll be delighted at the dramatic results to your business. More and more people are gravitating towards virtual meetings, online presentations and educational webinars. Why is this trend so popular? Savvy business owners, entrepreneurs (and global organizations) know that in today’s economy, presentation skills are crucial for success. everyone is searching for valuable insights. When you position your experience and knowledge in easy bite-size chunks, delivered virtually, you attract interested buyers. What many professionals don’t realize is this: presenting virtually in a webinar format requires a unique set of skills. It’s not enough to collect your slides together and talk for an hour at your virtual audience. In the last few years, we’ve developed and delivered presentation skills trainings for small and large organizations. Our clients are hungry for webinar practices, virtual collaboration and virtual selling skills. Here are the top practices we’ve found that helped our clients—and will help you deliver dynamic webinars—every time. 1. Plan With A Storyboardr Step away from the computer to plan your webinar. Use a presentation storyboard to organize ideas, gather data, and plan a compelling story flow. 2. Organize Visual Impactr In virtual presentations, visual impact is even more critical than face-to-face. According to 3M research, the human brain digests visual information 60,000 times faster than words. When you want to attract, hold and focus attention, use visuals to do the work for you. 3. Get Trainingr Rather than relying on a hit-and-miss approach, get presentation skills training. Target training development to address specific needs, audience issues and real-world delivery. The best bet: learn virtual delivery skills on Day One. Practice with actual content in a simulated setting on Day Two. 4. Provide Valuable Insightsr In virtual presentations, you are constantly competing for attention. You must have something to say, share and teach that is extremely relevant for your remote audience. Otherwise, they are likely to be distracted and multitask. While this is equally true in person-to-person settings, go the extra distance to provide highly relevant content. 5. Match Urgencyr If you have an immediate need to deliver webinars, use this opportunity. You’ll have a much easier time getting funding and scheduling time for training when your virtual training skills clearly impact the bottom line. 6. Master Technologyr When working virtually, you must learn the basics. But, don’t worry. Even if you consider yourself to be ‘technophobic’ the features are easy to learn. One of the first things to do is to get familiar with all the features. Learn how to find your way around your particular system—just as you did learning to drive a car. Funny story. When I signed up for Driver’s Education, I didn’t know the gas from the brake. Naturally, I got the ‘most improved’ award when I graduated and got my learner’s permit. Even if you don’t know how to use emoticons, IM or how to log on, these are learnable skills. If you learn best one-on-one, have a tech-savvy peer show you the ropes. 7. Experiment and Evaluater Leave room for experimentation. Encourage presenters to use their unique talents and strengths. One team member may be highly skilled with a ‘radio-announcer’ voice. Another may be a wizard at technology. Experiment, explore and evaluate what works best. In a short time, you’ll have a powerful system for yourself and your team. Interested in boosting your presentation skills? When you do, you’ll know exactly how to transform in-person meetings, presentations and trainings—into highly effective webinars.