Are Your Visual Aids Visual Roadblocks?

Greg DicksonPosted by Greg Dickson on January 22nd, 2010 | 0 Comments

Reach your audience through YOU, not through your media.

Times are hard, so it’s particularly maddening to see a good opportunity squandered because of events seemingly out of your control. I’m talking about those situations where perfectly good presentations are destroyed by technical failures. Where all you can do is watch in agony as a golden opportunity flies out the window because the computer crashed just at the wrong moment.

But are you really at the mercy of cruel twists of fate? Absolutely not!

I was just at a conference where I watched this very scenario unfold. The speaker represented a software development company that produced computer generated graphics for marketing efforts. His presentation was heavily laced with complex graphic examples projected on screens all over the auditorium. His topic was fascinating, and his product of primary interest to many in the audience.

Unfortunately, several minutes into his talk that cruel twist of fate intervened, his computer bombed and he was left with nothing but himself and his audience. He completed his introduction, yet after fumbling around with the computer for a while, he left the stage unable to finish. What a wasted opportunity! Five hundred audience members, some of whom were high value prospects, interested and willing to listen, were left without hearing the message. The speaker eventually got the equipment working and came back after a break to deliver an abbreviated version of his original presentation, but his audience had checked out on him after the first attempt.

How could this scenario have played out differently?

Well, this speaker could have developed a presentation where he carried on a conversation with the audience, even without the supporting media. I suggest that, regardless of how graphically intense your product or service, you have the capability to describe, in vivid terms, the benefits your product or service can have on your audience—without the help of technology.

How can this be done?

As easily as forming a picture in your mind and then describing it to your audience. Build a dramatic image of what you are trying to convey. Treat your audience as if they were a friend. Have a conversation with them. Then, deliver your message with emotion, expression, and conviction. If you connect with your audience in conversation, you will bring them to a place of understanding that cannot be achieved through video or multi media. You will reach them through your experience—and through your human voice.


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