In my last article I covered the basics of what a business presentation is and how to go about giving an effective one. I mentioned that I would be elaborating on the different types of presentation aids that exist and this is basically the scope of this article.
What are presentation aids?
Anything that helps you make your presentation more effective is an aid. In the old days we used to struggle with audio cassettes, and tape recorders, not to mention VCRs and video tapes. Today the biggest aid you have is the computer. It takes care of audio, visual and projection needs. An all in one package deal.
It is useful indeed to use Power Point to compile your presentations. Put all the relevant data onto digital slides. Shuffle them along in the order that you want to speak about them. Hide slides you don’t want to use for shorter presentations. There is a lot that you can do with the laptop at your disposal. Yet, the ongoing slide show is not the only feature that you can use in a presentation.
Handouts are the most common one for business presentations. They allow you to give the client a piece of paper with relevant information and your contact details. A very handy way to get them to contact you when they need more details. Also if you give them good facts and figures that they want to keep safe, the handout will fare much better than the business cards that you hand out.
Videos and pictures make great presentation aids. Let’s face it, not all of us are born orators. Most of us are hiding behind our scripts and wishing the presentation was over. So it makes sense to show relevant videos that will explain your point just as well as you talking. It is also less monotonous and more engaging for the audience if you mix your speech with videos.
Charts and Graphs are better than mouthing figures. Pictures make a far greater impact on the human brain than numbers. The visual impact of bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and organograms is far better than the oral impact. Have them in color and use the 3D effect. It will be all the more interesting to peruse the statistics in the case.