Visuals To Help Explain Your Ideas

The positive press did wonders for United Airlines and shows how important it is to give staff the freedom to use their judgment in special customer service situations. They shared his story with the captain, who radioed the flight crew of his connecting flight and asked them to wait. The crew’s hearts went out for Kerry, and they delayed their departure until he arrived and got on board. Kerry made it on time to see his mother and was able to say goodbye to her before she passed a few hours later. He was overwhelmed with gratitude for the United Airlines staff and shared the story all over social media pages. If those airline employees had to stick to a schedule and couldn’t use their discretion, Kerry wouldn’t have been able to see his dying mother. If I phoned you tomorrow and asked you what percentage of people say good customer service is important when determining their loyalty to a brand, would you know the answer? What if I called and asked what happened to Kerry Drake on United Airlines? Humans tend to make decisions based on emotion, and then we use logic to justify those decisions. This is a powerful way of inspiring people to take action. For example, if you’re trying to get somebody to buy a product from you, tell a story describing how someone’s life changed after buying it, creating emotion and painting a picture of what your listener’s future could look like. Contrast clearly illustrates the value that a person could receive and the changes they could see if they move forward with your call to action. The main idea should be boiled down into one sentence that sums up your core message, and every element of your presentation should work towards supporting that message. Using our previous example, you wouldn’t say your presentation was about The importance of the customer experience.

Come And Get It

That’s more of a topic than a main idea. Instead, you would say, We will see an increase in our revenue, customer loyalty, and public perception if we commit to improving the customer experience. Once you’ve nailed down your main idea, gather as much supporting evidence and material as possible. It’s helpful to have plenty of stories, numbers, and facts to choose from when it’s time to assemble the final product. If this sounds overwhelming, don’t think you have to do everything from scratch. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. You can look at other presentations, news articles, surveys, industry studies, and any other relevant content connected to your main idea. As much as possible, try to look at anything you find from a few different perspectives and see if you can generate a fresh take on it. Metaphors, similes, and analogies are incredibly effective at helping people quickly understand new or complicated concepts. They help people connect something new to something they already know and understand. In a sales script, I mentioned the word ketones, and I watched as the audience zoned out. I discovered that if they don’t know what a word means, they stop paying attention to everything you say afterward.

Breaking Point

Ketones are kinda like millions of little motivational speakers running through your body that give you energy and make you feel awesome. Incorporating these types of comparisons in your presentation will make it significantly easier for you to explain new or complex ideas to your audience. You can use them to emphasize a point or increase engagement during a presentation. Our brains are hardwired to answer questions, so they get your audience thinking and more involved in what you’re saying. This is a great way to keep people focused as you speak. You ask the question, pause to give them a moment to answer in their minds, and then move on. Depending on what you asked, your next step may be to answer the question yourself. Why is this important? Do you know how this idea could work for you? Have you ever felt this way? What do you think happened next? We’ve all experienced this, haven’t we? So, how can we make this better? Your first instinct might be to open your computer and launch PowerPoint, but according to Nancy Duarte, our presentation expert from earlier, this isn’t the best strategy. When you immediately jump to PowerPoint or other presentation tools, you’re almost forced to think through your presentation linearly, one slide at a time. It’s easy to get stuck thinking of the details of each individual slide rather than first focusing on the overall structure of your presentation. Remember, each idea should contribute to your overall main idea. Once you have all the ideas out of your brain and onto the notes, stick them to the wall or put them on the ground so you can see them all together.

Immovable Objects

Next, start grouping them by subtopics. As you group similar ideas together, it will become a lot easier for you to organize your content. You can then arrange and rearrange them until you nail down a structure that makes sense. As you complete this, you might find that some of the ideas you initially wrote down aren’t necessary and can be taken out. It’s time to create slides that are professional, visually appealing, and easy to follow. I’ve worked with a lot of clients who are terrified of high slide counts, which is understandable. We tend to think that more slides equals a longer presentation. But that’s not the case. You could spend two hours presenting with 1 huge slide or ten minutes presenting with 25 short slides. Personally, I’ve seen both, and guess which one was more enjoyable? Watching 25 slides over ten minutes was far more interesting. The more content you have on a single slide, the harder it is to follow, and there’s a higher chance of your audience getting confused or losing interest. The simpler it is, the easier it will be for your audience to understand. If visuals are included, they retain 55% more information.