Selling a technical idea through a technical presentation involves more than just delivering technical details; it requires making the idea compelling and relatable to your audience.

Below are three of the best ways for technical professionals to achieve this:

Focus on the Value Proposition

Tailor your message to what matters most to your audience, whether solving a problem, reducing costs, or increasing efficiency.

You need to research your audience to know what message is most important to them. Some ways to do this are:

• Review findings of past surveys in the organization

• What are members of the organization reading?

• What is the expertise of your audience on your technical presentation topic?

The best resource for this information is the event planner for your technical presentation.

Start your technical presentation by explaining why your idea matters to your audience (e.g., “This solution reduces processing time by 50%.”), then delve into the technical details to support your claims.

First, sell how the technical information you present will benefit your audience.

Then, inform your audience of the technical details that will allow them to enjoy the benefits of your technical idea. Sell the “sizzle” (benefits) and then the “steak” (features).

Quantify the value with specific metrics and compare it to alternatives to show the advantage of your idea. Using numbers to justify your audience adopting your technical idea is very powerful.

People believe numbers more than they believe you are telling them the benefits of your technical idea.

For example, hard evidence from studies of reputable companies, universities, or associations will always make your technical idea persuasive to your audience.

So, one way to sell your technical idea to your audience through your technical presentation is to focus on the idea’s value for your audience.

Another way is to simplify complex concepts.

Simplify Complex Concepts

Break down complex technical ideas into relatable terms and support them with clear, engaging visuals like diagrams or animations.

Some technical people want to wow their audience with their topic knowledge. This is the direct opposite of what you should do.

Your job as a technical presenter is to make the information, both your narrative and your slides, understandable to the maximum number of audience members.

You do this by avoiding jargon and lengthy explanations. Your audience wants to know “the bottom line” of the benefits of your technical ideas.

You must tell them explicitly in a language they can understand and process quickly. Use simple language whenever possible to ensure non-experts in the room stay engaged.

It is an art to simplify your language and delivery for non-experts while keeping audience members with topic expertise from getting bored. You must have something in your technical presentation suitable for non-experts and knowledgeable audience members. This is not easy, but it is doable.

My educated guess is you read fiction, non-fiction, and go to the movies. Everybody loves a story, including you and your audience.

I don’t buy people who say they don’t have any stories, nor should you. You have stories surrounding your topic. You may not realize it, but you do.

Instead of stories, call them situations or what happened the other day or recount a conversation. They are all stories that will increase your audience’s engagement with you. Just use stories germaine to your topic.

Build a narrative that explains the problem, your solution, and the positive outcomes it delivers, keeping the audience emotionally and intellectually invested.

An audience invested is an audience engaged. Remember, it is not about you. It is all about your audience. Use relevant short stories to increase your audience’s engagement with you.

Like a high school teacher who gets joy from a student “getting it,” your reward as a speaker is your audience “getting it.”

So, two ways to sell your technical idea to your audience through your technical presentation is to focus on the idea’s value for your audience and simplify complex concepts.

A third way is to engage and address concerns proactively.

Engage and Address Concerns Proactively

Adults have an attention span of twenty (20) minutes. After twenty (20) minutes of one technical presentation format, you must change to another to keep your audience’s attention. So, how do you do this?

Pose questions, use polls, or encourage discussion to keep the audience engaged and thinking about your idea.

You may also want to divide your audience into small groups, pose a question where each group has ten (10) minutes to discuss, and then have each small group brief what they discussed.

Giving audience members an activity to perform guarantees their engagement. It also makes your technical presentation more enjoyable for you. One-way communication from you to your audience is taxing. You also deserve a break during your technical presentation.

Anticipate questions or concerns (e.g., feasibility, cost, scalability) and proactively offer answers backed by data or examples.

One of the best ways to prepare your technical presentation is to practice in front of a live audience. The benefit of practicing before a live audience cannot be overstated.

The goal of your practice sessions should always be to simulate your actual technical presentation as closely as possible.

During your practice session in front of a live audience, ask them to (1) ask every possible question on your topic, (2) evaluate the logic of your technical presentation, and (3) gauge whether you have sold your technical idea to them or not. If not, have them tell you why not.

Have you ever witnessed a thoroughly enjoyable technical presentation and then asked yourself what to do with this information when walking to your car in the parking lot? Always end your technical presentation with a call to action – what the audience should do with the information.

End with a clear next step, such as proposing a pilot project, seeking buy-in, or scheduling a follow-up meeting.

Ensure your call to action follows the SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bounded). Without adhering to this SMART format, your audience cannot accomplish your call to action.

So, three ways to convince your audience of your technical idea through a technical presentation are to (1) focus on the value of the idea for your audience, (2) simplify complex concepts, and (3) engage and address concerns proactively

By connecting technical details to tangible benefits, presenting in an accessible way, and fostering audience interaction, you can turn a technical presentation into a powerful, persuasive tool.

Turn your technical presentations into engaging, engrossing, and absorbing experiences for your audiences.

If you do, you will be accomplishing a successful technical presentation for your audience, which will benefit you immensely in your career.

Call to Action

• Focus on your technical presentation topic’s benefits to your audience and not the intricacies of your technical topic

• Spend considerable time in your technical practice in choosing the language you use to describe complex concepts

• Be proactive in engaging your audience and address their concerns about your topic

Being a confident, engaging, and effective technical speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, Frank DiBartolomeo can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly.

Working closely with you, Frank provides a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent technical speeches and presentations. Connect with Frank and explore how he can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to him at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with him at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks. Listen to his Successful Speaking for Technical Professionals podcast