Challenge: Dry presentations cluttered with numbers meant brilliant insights were buried.

PIMCO’s future as a leading global investment management company depends on grooming rising talent. They are committed to identifying the next generation of analysts and leaders who can help sustain and expand the company’s reputation. Client-facing staff need strong presentations to win over new investors and solidify relationships with existing ones.

But when addressing clients, PIMCO’s young analysts would often present a long, complicated book of information, rather than extracting the most relevant, key messages. They rushed through their presentations, blitzing their audience with numbers. They weren’t able to bring dry information to life. And they weren’t telling the market story in its essence. So eager to prove their expertise, they ended up turning what might have been a convincing case into a data dump.

Solution: Harvest key insights to craft clear, concise presentations.

My sessions focused on constructing compelling and easily understandable presentations for current and potential clients. I helped workshop participants extract their core message from very detailed pitch books. Together we developed a story with momentum and flow. Analysts learned to emphasize the recommendations that would be most important for their clients.

After training, presenters became more effective by learning to keep it lean and to develop a narrative. They learned to use graphs and charts strategically, in order to support their core message. We developed a framework that would build toward their all-important recommendations. And we practice a delivery style that reflected confidence in their financial insights.

In the end, every presentation becomes an answer to the question: “Why PIMCO?” The well-prepared and thoughtful presenter embodies the answer: PIMCO represents consistent success, high-quality, clear thinking, and attention to the client’s need for long-term wealth-building.

This approach was effective at improving presentations across the company. After these training sessions, managers commented that they were delighted by the changes they saw. They were now happy sending their rising talent out on their own for speaking engagements.