Giving a presentation for work, school, or another purpose can be a very difficult thing for some people to accomplish. Some people may feel confident in their abilities but aren’t getting the desired results. Improving your presentation skills might seem like a daunting task, but it’s better to take action now so you can start to see improvements. Let’s look at six signs that your presentation skills might need some work.

1- Audience Looks Bored

This may seem obvious, but if the audience looks bored during your presentation, they’re probably not paying attention to what you’re saying. This is especially difficult if your natural speaking voice is a bit monotone. They’ll walk away thinking, “This could have been an e-mail” (which they probably wouldn’t have read). You should look up periodically to make sure the audience is engaged.

2- Applause or Laugh Lines Get No Response

Similarly, if your presentation contains applause lines (“Last quarter, we beat our sales goal by 31%!”) or jokes that aren’t getting the appropriate response, you may need to workshop the jokes with a colleague or cut them out entirely. In other cases, you may need to work on your delivery or timing.

3- You Appear Visibly Nervous

Feeling nervous before a presentation is natural, as fear of public speaking is very common. However, if you’re sweating, stumbling over words, or you look too uncomfortable while presenting, you may be projecting an air of insecurity. If you don’t feel confident, your audience may become distracted or, worse, feel like you don’t believe what you’re saying.

4- You Don’t Know Your Audience

If you’re speaking to the sales department, for example, you’ll lose the audience if you start using technical terms or jargon they’ve never heard and don’t understand. They’ll be too focused on trying to decipher what you’re saying to give you their full attention because they’re too busy trying to figure out what a “backflow” is. Knowing your audience is a vital presentation skill.

5- You Stumble When Answering Questions

Many people are perfectly comfortable giving a memorized presentation and reciting facts or figures. However, if you can’t properly respond to questions from the audience, they might think that you don’t know what you’re talking about or that they know more than you, especially if they know the answer to a question that you don’t.

6- Presentations Not Translating to Results

Perhaps the most important sign you need to improve your presentation skills is that you aren’t getting results. Let’s say you’re giving a marketing presentation focused on selling a product or service but it doesn’t lead to sales. Maybe the product is flawed or there’s some other reason that no one is buying, but it’s more likely that your sales pitch wasn’t convincing enough.

If your presentations are failing to connect with your audience in any of these ways, it may be time to improve your skillset. Presenting isn’t for everyone, but by identifying and correcting flaws in your process, you can increase your chances of getting better results no matter what you’re trying to promote or explain.