The client CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) is the world’s leading commercial real estate advisor with over 300 offices in more than 50 countries. CBRE’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business has 134 offices in 36 countries managing investment assets, property and corporate facilities and providing valuation and advisory services.
The challenge
CBRE initially had a requirement to train graduate surveyors to present confidently and effectively as part of their accreditation assessment process. Due to our successful results we were invited to run other presentation skills courses for staff from different levels of the organisation – from graduate surveyors to more senior professionals.
It was recognised how important confidence is for the team when pitching for new business and conducting client presentations. Many CBRE staff have extensive market knowledge and technical expertise, but needed extra help in making a greater impact.
The solution
We designed three levels of Presentation Skills courses:
- Confident Presenter (2 days), a base level course that formed part of CBRE’s core curriculum
- Advance Your Presentations (1 day) for semi-experienced people who wanted to improve their skills
- Presentation Masterclass (1 day), for highly experienced presenters.
The aim of these courses was to develop core skills for getting messages across with clarity, confidence and impact. We were able to assist individuals in projecting their personality, bringing flavour to their presentations and using tools and techniques to engage the audience’s attention. Attendees on the European courses came from a range of European countries – Spain, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. A secondary aim of the course was to facilitate networking and encourage people to work across borders and share best practice.
One of the challenges in offering three levels of training was to determine which level best fitted individuals’ needs. To assist us, we devised a quiz to help the selection process, which is now on our website.
Some participants also attended our Winning Pitches course to hone their presentation skills in a pitch context to have the best possible chance of winning new business.
The outcomes
Initially our courses were delivered across Europe. Based on the extremely positive response from participants and feedback on the improvement in the quality of their subsequent presentations, we were invited to deliver all four levels of courses in the UK. Consistent feedback from participants show that they appreciate, and benefit from, our trainers adapting the course structure to meet the specific needs of each person. Feedback from CBRE was that everyone left feeling that they were a more competent presenter.
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