Sell your Presentation

We had someone interviewing for a job as a trainer at my company today. He had to give a presentation on a subject that he had little knowledge about. He did not get the job.

He told us that he had done 16 hours of research plus 4 hours putting together the presentation, and I believe him. I was mildly impressed that he had learned the subject on his own. From his screen shots, I could see that he had installed the software and gained a beginners mastery of the subject.

But he didn't sell himself or his presentation. Instead, he treated the presentation like a test. He assumed that everyone in the class had a working knowledge of the subject and he tried to prove that he had learned it to their satisfaction.

If he had attacked the training as if he were the most expert person in the room, he would have sold his presentation much better. There were some other factors as well. He looked at the floor a lot instead of the class, but I believe he would have been much more successful had he just explained everything throughly from the general subject to the details instead of acting like he was on trial.

That's just my 2 cents.