Consulting
THE COMMUNICATION UPGRADE
This training program is designed for engineers, scientists, developers, analysts, consultants, solution architects, SMEs, or other technical experts to help them:
- Listen, connect, and empathize.
- Explain complex concepts in simple language.
- Deliver more understandable and engaging presentations.
- Anticipate and answer questions effectively.
Why Upgrade?
1. Sales
Technical experts are increasingly important to B2B sales, account expansion, and renewal. They must be able to deliver compelling presentations in alignment with sales and account teams.
2. Innovation
The very best technical people develop innovative ideas. If they can persuade colleagues and managers to get on board, these ideas can become new products and services that drive growth.
3. Resource Allocation
Executives rely on customer-facing technical experts for insight about evolving customer needs and technology strategy. However, executives cannot commit resources unless they understand exactly what they are investing in and why.
4. Digital Transformation
Because technology is the centerpiece of any digital transformation, technical experts must be able to align stakeholders, drive adoption, and socialize ideas effectively to influence cultural transformation.
METHODOLOGY
The training model is built around a specific presentation event that occurs in the normal course of business, e.g.:
- An enterprise sales or renewal opportunity is scheduled where one or more technical experts will deliver a presentation to customer stakeholders.
- A sales deck is being developed to introduce a new solution to a receptive customer (before being scaled across one or more segments of the customer base).
- A boardroom deck is needed to facilitate meetings between senior leadership at different companies where a very large deal, merger, or acquisition is being considered.
- A presentation to senior executives is scheduled where customer-facing technical experts provide insight and recommendations so that leadership can refine technology strategy, adjust resource allocation, and steer the org.
What I do is use the actual work context of developing and delivering the presentation AS the training environment.
This means I work within the domain expertise of the participants, where they are most comfortable and best able to learn, to upskill the participants in:
- Active listening
- Storytelling
- Pitching
- Answering questions
These four skills apply across a wide range of communication situations, not only improving presentation capabilities, also coaching, collaborating, negotiating, doing press, and more.
When actual work is being done with a presentation on the horizon, participants are incentivized to learn, and teachable moments arise naturally and frequently.
As well, story elements we discover, pitches we design, talk track copy we improvise, and answers to questions we develop during the training can be used in the actual presentation.
The primary result is a technical team with upgraded communication skills, and as a bonus, a better, more clear, more compelling presentation.
SAMPLE PROGRAM
The following six sessions are intended to happen within six weeks and are structured around a specific presentation event you designate. All sessions are provided via Zoom. Typically 3-5 participants/presenters.
- Kickoff (1 hr): Meet Ben, course overview, AMA, optional homework
- Session 1 (2.5 hrs): Active Listening and Priority Objective
- Session 2 (2.5 hrs): Storytelling and Decision-maker Narrative
- Session 3 (2.5 hrs): Pitching and Key Idea Sharpening
- Session 4 (2.5 hrs): Answering Questions and Deck Structure
- PRESENTATION EVENT
- Wrap-up (1.5 hrs): Review the event, next steps, evaluation/feedback
Mathews Mathai
Consulting Services Manager At Autodesk
"I had the privilege of attending several of Ben's sessions on active listening, story telling, and how to sell an great idea. These were some of the most impactful sessions I have had in my professional career and have changed how I approach executive presentations. His ability to take a message and masterfully help you to turn it into a compelling pitch for the intended hero or audience is amazing."
Tacey Baker, MBA, PMP
Chief Operating Officer, Sophic Synergistics
"I am very grateful for the opportunity to have taken Ben’s course on Active Listening and Storytelling with several of my colleagues. This is the best course I have ever taken.
Through a series of mentoring sessions, we developed active listening skills to confirm we understood each other’s perspectives and learned how to develop a presentation that would move and excite our audience to take action.
These active listening skills can be applied in professional and personal relationships to improve communication and understanding. I very much appreciate everything I learned from Ben. He is an amazing mentor and coach."
Paolo Emilio Serra
Principal Implementation Consultant, Autodesk
"Ben is the embodiment of talent, passion, and effective communication. He is making the world a better place one conversation at a time. He taught me and my colleagues how to truly listen, choose the right ingredients to convey a message, and make it memorable. I'm privileged to say that after working with Ben, I started to think, feel, and do things differently when it comes to communicating with others."
Nirav Patel
Sr. Consulting Project Manager at Autodesk
"Ben is an amazing mentor and coach. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have taken Ben's course on Active Listening, Storytelling, and Leadership. I have gained active listening & influencing without authority skills that can be applied to both personal and professional relationships to improve communication and understanding. Ben not only helped me recognize some inconvenient truth about my communication style, but also equipped me with tools and techniques to conquer it and become best at it. As a result, I not only have transitioned to be a great listener but also an impactful leader at work and for the society."
Christina Beckmann
CEO of Tomorrow's Air
"In the 10+ years I have had the good fortune to collaborate with Ben Taxy he has never failed to bring about important improvements that translate directly into better outcomes for our projects.
When I bring him in early in a project he is invaluable in helping refine goals and scope. Later on, we benefit from that firm foundation to develop the core narrative and key messages, something he is masterful at coaxing out of all my extraneous words and ideas.
One reason Ben's work is magical - yes, magical! - is that he shows up to whatever challenge I bring with his own vast and varied intellectual background. He doesn't just listen closely and interrogate my vision to bring precision to what I'm trying to say, he also brings a truckload of his own personal factual wisdom. He will easily relate the task at hand to precedents in other industries, the arts, politics, technology. If he doesn't know much about the topic we've got on the table at the moment I first bring it to him, he'll show up to the second meeting having read and digested the seminal literature on the topic, to become as well versed as anyone in the room.
Our most recent collaboration is highly technical, and its success hinges on it feeling accessible and non-technical: we're working on mainstreaming carbon removal to restore Earth's climate through a new initiative called Tomorrow's Air. For Tomorrow's Air, Ben has supported every step of our journey: from my efforts to win internal support to create the initiative, to the core pillars of our brand story and the communications strategy that has helped us grow our audience from 0 to 20k+, ordering more than 50 tons of carbon removal from leading innovators, in a little over two years.
I highly endorse Ben Taxy! I have worked with a range of smart communicators over the years, but no one is as powerful and provocative and absolutely worth it as Ben."