I've heard some pretty impressive stand mount "small" speakers at a few audio shows (TAD and Raidho are two examples) that outperformed many larger speakers. If you accept the Stereophile definition (thanks Rickd1225) then I completely disagree with your dealer, unless maybe your listening room is a large auditorium. "Presence" can be at least as good on small speakers as large speakers. It's a function of the speaker design. I've heard plenty of big speakers that had mediocre sound.
Can you have too much speaker presence?
My dealer says I’d lose too much speaker presence if I went to a smaller speaker. I’m not posting the speaker in question solely because I don’t want this to become an attack on them. I get it, presence means there and in the area, but can too much become and issue, especially when it is centered in a specific frequency range?