what is considered the best visual aid to use during a sales presentation?

Using visual aids during a presentation or training session

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June 21, 2018 - Gini Beqiri

Visual aids can raise your presentations - they can increase the audience's understanding of your topic, explain points, make an impact and create enthusiasm. Information technology has go more important to make information visual:

"Something is happening. We are becoming a visually mediated club. For many, understanding of the earth is being accomplished, non through words, but by reading images" - (Lester, 2006)

In this article, we discuss how to use visual aids for presentations or training sessions.

What are visual aids?

Visual aids are items of a visual mode, such equally graphs, photographs, video clips etc used in improver to spoken information. Visual aids are chosen depending on their purpose, for example, you may want to:

• Summarise data.
• Reduce the corporeality of spoken words, for case, you may show a graph of your results rather than reading them out.
• Analyze and bear witness examples.
• Create more of an impact, for example, if your presentation is on the wellness risks of smoking, you may bear witness images of the effects of smoking on the body rather than describing this. Yous must consider what blazon of impact you want to make beforehand - do you want the audience to exist sad, happy, aroused etc?
• Emphasise what y'all're saying.
• Brand a point memorable.
• Enhance your credibility.
• Engage the audience and maintain their interest.
• Make something easier for the audience to understand.

Preparation and use of visual aids

Once you accept decided that you lot want to utilize a visual aid, you must ensure that the audience is able to quickly empathize the prototype - it must be articulate. They can exist used throughout your oral communication just try to just use visual aids for essential points every bit it tin be tiring for the audience to skip from one visual to some other.

Preparation

• Call back about how can a visual help tin can support your bulletin. What do y'all want the audience to do?
• Ensure that your visual aid follows what you're saying or this will misfile the audition.
• Avert cluttering the epitome as it may look messy and unclear.
• Visual aids must be articulate, curtailed and of a high quality.
• Keep the way consistent, such every bit, the same font, colours, positions etc
• Use graphs and charts to present data.
• The audience should not be trying to read and listen at the same time - employ visual aids to highlight your points.
• Ane bulletin per visual assist, for example, on a slide in that location should only exist one key indicate.
• Use visual aids in moderation - they are additions meant to emphasise and support main points.
• Ensure that your presentation even so works without your visual aids in instance of technical issues.
• Practice using the visual aids in advance and ask friends and colleagues for feedback. Ask them whether they can conspicuously come across the visual aid and how they interpret it.

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During the presentation

• Ensure that the visual aids tin be seen by anybody in the audition.
• Face the audition most of the time rather than the epitome.
• Avoid reading from the visual aid.
• Every bit presently as you show the visual aid the audition'due south attention will be drawn to it and so y'all must immediately explicate information technology. You will exist ignored if y'all talk most something else.
• Make information technology articulate to the audience why you are using information technology.
• When you no longer need the visual aid ensure that the audience tin can't run across information technology.

Tailor to your audience

Cull your visual aids tactically so y'all appeal to your audience. This means finding images your audience can relate to, images they volition find familiar and images they will like. Also retrieve almost what style of visual assist is suitable for the audience; is it quite a serious presentation? Can you exist humorous? Is it more formal or informal?

Instance of using visual aids

When watching this video, notice how the presenters:

• Talk to the audience while writing
• Turn their body to the audience while writing
• Don't spend too long writing in one session

Types of visual aids

In that location are a variety of different types of visual aids, you must decide which will arrange your presentation and your audience.

PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is widely used for presentations because it's easy to create attractive and professional presentations and information technology's simple to change and reorganise content compared to other visual aids. You tin insert a range of visual items into the slides which will improve the audition's focus. Also, the audience can by and large meet slideshows better than other visual aids and you don't accept to face away from them. Yet, your presentation can look unprofessional if this software is used poorly.

Tips:

1. Have a clear and simple background.
2. Avert using likewise many dissimilar types of fonts or font sizes.
3. Only use animations for a purpose, such equally, to reveal the stages of a process, otherwise this can be distracting and look amateurish.
4. Use a large font size - a minimum of 24pt.
5. Use bullet points to summarise key points.
6. Consider providing handouts of diagrams because the audition will find the diagrams easier to read.
7. Avoid putting as well much text on a slide.
8. Avoid using red or greenish text as it's difficult to read.
9. In that location should only be i primal point for each slide.
10. Always have a back-upwardly plan in case at that place is a technical event and yous cannot show the visuals on the solar day, for example, bring handouts or a poster.

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Whiteboards

Whiteboards are great for providing further explanations, such equally, showing the order of a procedure, creating diagrams or explaining complex words or phrases. They're frequently used to display headings and write downwardly audience suggestions. Whiteboards are also platonic for displaying important data for the unabridged elapsing of the presentation, such as, fundamental definitions, considering the audition tin can but glance at the whiteboard for a reminder.

Tips:

• Ensure that enough time has passed for the audience to take notes earlier rubbing something off of the whiteboard.
• Write concisely to avert facing away from the audience for too long.
• Handwriting must be big and legible.
• Practice beforehand as you may feel nervous about writing in front of an audience at the fourth dimension.

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Handouts

Handouts are papers that contain key information from your presentation or they may provide farther information. They prevent yous from overwhelming the audience as there will be less information on the slides and therefore less data they need to write down.

Tips:

You must consider when you desire to give the audience the handouts:

• If given at the beginning and heart of your presentation the audition may be reading rather than listening to you or they might not pay attention to what you're saying equally they already have the information.
• If given at the end of your presentation the audience may be trying to take lots of notes which may reduce the corporeality of information they are actually agreement.

To manage this, provide the audience with partially completed handouts so they will accept to listen to what you're saying to be able to fill in the gaps. Providing the audience with graphs and charts beforehand is too beneficial because the audience will notice them easier to read than, for example, from a slide.

• Tips on creating handouts for your presentation

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Video clips

Using videos are a great wait to engage the audience and increase their interest. Use video to bring motility, images and sound into your presentation.

Tips:

• Ensure that whatsoever videos used are relevant to the presentation'south content.
• Merely evidence as much of the video as necessary.
• Never show a actually long clip.
• Videos tin be difficult to fit into the structure of a presentation so ensure that you tell that audience why you're showing them a clip and tell them what to wait for.
• Inform the audience how long the video will last.

Flip chart

Flip charts offer a low cost and low tech solution to tape and convey data as y'all speak. They're more beneficial for smaller audiences and they are favoured for brainstorming sessions equally you tin can gather ideas easily. Flip charts are also widely used for summarising data and, like with a whiteboard, you can use them to show permanent background information.

Tips:

• Before your presentation, place the flip chart in a location that you tin can hands admission.
• Set up any sheets y'all tin can in advance, fifty-fifty if you can merely write downwards the headings.
• Flip charts can be moved so you can avert facing away from the audition - stand next to information technology and go on to face the audience.
• Have simply i master idea per canvas.
• Write legibly, largely and in block capitals so information technology's more visible.
• Cheque with the audience that they can read the text - do not use a flipchart if there is a large audition.
• Only write in black and bluish ink. Scarlet ink is adept for circumvoluted or underlining.
• Using a pencil write notes to yourself beforehand so you call up what to include - the audition volition not see this writing. As well cartoon lines in pencil beforehand can proceed your handwriting direct.
• Flip back through the sheets to consolidate points.
• Practice writing on the flip chart advance as you may feel nervous at the fourth dimension of presenting.

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Posters

Poster boards can be created using a variety of visual devices, such as graphs and images. They're mostly quite portable and you can make them as elaborate as you desire. Withal, they tin can exist expensive to produce if the poster is quite complex.

Tips:

• 1 poster per bulletin or theme
• Use color
• Use block capitals
• Avert using posters when presenting to large audiences as they will not be able to encounter the content

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Product, objects or artefacts

Objects can be useful tools for making an impact or even for making a dull topic more interesting. Sometimes they'll exist needed for technical and practical reasons, such as, showing a model or conducting an experiment.

Tips:

• If you lot are presenting to a small audition consider passing the object around but provide enough fourth dimension so they won't take to divide their attending betwixt the object and what you're saying.
• If the audience is large ensure that you move the object around so everyone sees it.
• The audience volition be more distracted from what you lot're maxim when they're looking at the object and so keep information technology hidden until the correct time and provide the groundwork information before revealing it.
• Explain why you're using the object.
• If you are conducting an experiment or demonstration, motion slowly with exaggerated movements so the audience can follow. As well explain precisely what's going on.

Two examples of alive production demos:

Key points for using visual aids

Attempt to discover out what the presentation room is like beforehand, such as, the layout of the room, the equipment etc, and so you tin see if your visual aids are appropriate and whether they volition piece of work there but always accept a contingency plan regardless. Also call up that the audience should be able to empathize an prototype almost immediately.

Practice

Before your presentation, ensure that you do with your visual aids so you lot know how to operate the equipment. If something goes wrong you lot'll have a better chance of solving the problem.

Use colour

Research suggests that using colour increases people's motivation to read and their enthusiasm for a presentation. Software like PowerPoint is great for producing colour visuals.

Using the colour wheel can help when choosing your presentation's colours:

• Colours opposite each other in the wheel are complementary and they create contrast. Using complementary colours makes your text more readable.
• Colours adjacent to each other are analogous and they are harmonious. Using analogous colours makes your presentation more unified.

The Adobe color bike, which helps you lot option complementary colours for your presentation blueprint.

Avert using too many colours in your presentation as this tin look cluttered and unprofessional and continue your color themes continuous, for case, if you highlight all the key words on i slide in blue, continue to do this throughout the presentation. As well be careful with colour associations, for example, in many cultures red is linked to danger. Endeavour to represent your words and topics with colours that brand sense and are appropriate.

Many people are blue-green or red-greenish colour-blind so avoid putting these colours next to each other'southward in, for example, a graph. If yous cannot avoid placing these colours next to each other and then apply text to conspicuously label items.

Evidence

Research suggests that information displayed visually is well remembered: "memory of information 3 days later a meeting or other outcome is six times greater when information is presented by visual and oral ways than when the data is presented by the spoken word lone." (U.Due south. Section of Labor OSHA Function of Preparation and Education, 1996)

There is also significant evidence suggesting that most learning occurs visually - some researchers suggest that 83% of human learning happens visually. The psychologist Bruner conducted multiple studies which suggest that people call back 80% of what they see and do, xx% of what they read and only 10% of what they hear.

In summary

Visual aids are worth including in your presentations considering they can help you explain information more coherently which makes presenting easier for you and learning easier for the audience. They too help add diversity to your presentation thus making it more interesting for the audition. If the audience empathize what you're saying and they are more engaged, they're more likely to be persuaded by you.

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Source: https://virtualspeech.com/blog/visual-aids-presentation

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