Last weekend, I accompanied my 88-year-old dad to his 70th (gasp) high school reunion in Concord, New Hampshire.
After parking the car, we started off across the school grounds to the auditorium. That’s when the rain started coming down, first in syncopated drops, then cascading out of the sky.
Yikes, we still had a long way to go!
Suddenly, a golf cart pulled up alongside us. Inside, the alumni ringleader, Steve, along with one of the speakers, Caroline.
“Jump on board!” he said, gesturing to the back seat while opening a large red and white striped umbrella… large enough to shelter Dad and me.
Caroline had in her lap a bouquet of yellow and red flowers in a vase. As we sped along, she suddenly held it into the downpour and said with glee, “At least we can water the flowers!”
A moment of magic. Rain — umbrella — flowers — it all stood out in full color.
Your Presentations Need Sensory Detail
My dad’s reunion was a wonderful day from start to finish. But what I remember most, and what will stay with me longest, is that brief golf cart ride and the powerful sensory encounter I felt on board.
This is the kind of experience your audience needs as well.
Absent that, if we simply flood them with information — lab results, social impact, statistics, data, definitions, concepts — we risk leaving them with little more than cognitive overload.
I know. You have big, important ideas to share. But we are physical creatures. We can only stay in our ‘thinking’ brains for so long! We need to engage our senses as well.
That’s what keeps your audience involved, helps them understand, and ensures your messages last well beyond your final words.
Three Things to Keep In Mind
“Okay, I get that I need to use sensory detail in my presentations. But how do I do it?”
1. Visualize the Scene
Imagine you are creating a movie in your listeners’ minds. Now think of a few sensory details that will bring that scene to life.
For example, my client Jurgen described the moment a crisis occurred in his small engineering firm. He spoke of how they all sat in a “tired old office around a conference table with folding chairs, mint green walls, and the smell of stale coffee.” You can see that scene, right?
That’s the kind of detail that helps your listener place themselves in the scene.
2. Tune into Emotion
Clarify what feeling(s) you want your audience to have.
Anxiety? Elation? Frustration? Excitement?
Imagine you are trying to share enthusiasm for your product’s benefits, by first recounting what a particular customer said about their problem. You can describe how the customer had their hand to their forehead, how they grimaced as they explained their pain point.
This isn’t data and it is just one customer’s experience. But it’s shared in a way that the rest of us can feel and identify with.
3. Consider the Power of Scent
When it comes to creating long-lasting memories (and bringing us back to long-ago experiences in an instant), smell is our strongest sense. Our brains interpret memories of smell differently than visual images or sounds.
That’s why saying, “The meeting room smelled like stale coffee,” has a powerful effect. It evokes the memory of a cheap coffeemaker boiling away on a burner all day long.
Likewise, when you say, “As my colleague and I walked up to the customer’s headquarters, the smell of new mulch filled the air,” you bring to mind the experience of fancy corporate offices where a landscape crew just laid down perfect blankets of mulch around the trees and plantings.
Choose the Right Kind of Sensory Detail
Engaging the senses of your audience can be the difference between “That was nice,” and “That was amazing!”
But keep in mind that the purpose of sensory specifics is to move your message forward; it’s not about simply checking boxes by adding detail.
You want to search and experiment to find detail that first evokes senses (connecting you with your audience; making the message memorable) and, second, evokes the feelings you want to inspire.
Hold out a bouquet of flowers in a downpour, so they can see it for themselves, and they will still be talking about you!
