The other day while networking. Someone asked me: “What is the ROI of speaker training?”
I could have said: “Studies show…” and then quoted some figures that look like more than they are. But I didn’t. Because the question is wrong.
Although there are actually a few projections: 4.5 million dollars a day from bad presentations, they say. Based on wild assumptions, not measurements. McKinsey surveys report an estimated 25% increase in productivity through better communication – but these are perceived truths, not hard data.
The real question is: Why doesn’t it hurt to present badly? And why do so many people only invest in their speaker skills once the damage has already been done?
The real reason people DON’T invest in their speaker performance is not a lack of ROI proof. It’s that it doesn’t hurt in everyday life.
The two worlds of speaker performance
There are two worlds:
- World 1 (everyday life): Internal meetings, standard conferences – you won’t stand out here
- World 2 (high-stakes): Investor pitches, big stages – everything is decided here
World 1: The mediocre biotope
Your everyday life consists of internal presentations, team meetings and standard conferences. And everyone is relatively bad here, which is exactly why you don’t stand out. It doesn’t hurt to perform badly here. Sometimes even the opposite, so you don’t stand out.
Everyone here reads out their slides, everyone tigers, everyone babbles if they think it will build up tension. As long as mediocrity is the standard, you’re safe. You don’t have to be good. You just don’t have to be worse than the others – and you can do that easily.
No pressure to suffer = no investment!
World 2: High-stakes moments
The investor pitch. The board presentation. The big stage at OMR or DMEXCO. The recruiting interview for the new management position.
You’ll immediately stand out here.
It’s not about whether you’re better than average. It’s whether you’re convincing. Whether you are captivating. Whether your message gets across. You lose – and often don’t even know why. Was it the idea? The timing? The market?
No. It was how you performed.
But: people simply don’t talk about it and what isn’t discussed doesn’t happen.
The problem
You spend 90% of your time in World 1, so you think it’s working.
But the 10% in world 2? They decide everything. The deal. The career. The impact. The visibility. The trust.
And because world 1 is more common than world 2, you don’t realize how much you are losing.
Why most people don’t come (even though they should)
Those who develop their speaking skills do so:
Because they have lost in World 2 – and they know it. Because they feel that they are delivering less than they could. Because they want to make more of a difference. Because they have to go on stage and would like to do it well – but are afraid to do so.
A lot of people who perform on big stages don’t come.
Why not?
Fear! Fear that once they start working on their performance, the whole house of cards will collapse.
“Why? It’s worked out well so far.”
“My colleagues always said how great I was.” (That was World 1.)
“Why should I put money into it? And time too?”
The bigger the stage, the greater the avoidance. Because the investment would mean I admit – especially to myself – that I’m not perfect.
That is the real cost. Not the euros for training or coaching. It’s the missed opportunities in world 2 because you feel safe in world 1.
The ROI that nobody calculates
For those who do NOT invest, the question is different:
How many investors would you have convinced if your pitch had not only been convincing in terms of content, but also in terms of presentation? How much quicker would your board have said “yes” if you had not only informed them, but also got them involved? How much more impact would your research have had if the message had not only been good, but also understood?
But it’s not just about you.
It’s also about the 200 people in front of the stage. They WANT your information. They torture themselves through your 24 minutes. Because you speak too quietly or too monotonously, because you babble, because you read out your slides, not realizing that you have long since lost your audience.
Do the math:
200 people × 24 minutes = 80 hours of wasted life time. In ONE presentation.
That’s the ROI we don’t measure: Not just your missed impact in World 2, but the collective time wasted by everyone who had to listen to you.
Why we do not (want to) measure this
Because World 1 makes it invisible.
As long as everyday life doesn’t hurt, the cost of high-stakes moments goes unnoticed. Nobody does the math after a failed board presentation: “That cost us the 3 million deal.” They say: “It probably wasn’t the right time.”
Nobody says after a keynote: “That was 80 wasted working hours.” They say, “It was okay.”
We keep the problem politely invisible. And that’s why speaker performance remains a “nice to have”.
What helps? Research on communication skills training shows: 93% of studies show measurable skill improvement, 96% show higher self-confidence. The problem is not that training doesn’t work. The problem is that nobody takes it seriously – until it’s too late.”
And what about the ROI now?
I don’t think the question is whether I can prove the ROI. The question is: do you want to afford to continue living in world 1 and losing in world 2?
I can’t give you an Excel table that proves this. But I can tell you: anyone who stands on a stage and knows that they are not delivering knows this number. It feels like: wasted time, missed impact, untapped potential.
And that can’t be measured in euros. But you can still feel it.
If you realize that you are living in world 1 – but losing in world 2: now is the time to change that.
Find someone who can help you. And if you think that could be me – then let’s talk. Then we’ll see together whether the Speaker Masterclass is the right step for you.
