|
Audience Response Systems – Why You Should Use Them
If you
are selling services to other businesses, you will find that an
Audience Response System can be an invaluable tool in
understanding your client’s needs, developing a solution to the
issues identified, and obtaining commitment to the solutions that
you provide.
Because you are most likely unfamiliar with audience response
technology, we will provide a description of what it is, the types
of systems available, how to get one, and how to incorporate it into
your practice.
Audience Response Systems – What They Are
If you
have ever seen the TV show ‘Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’ or
‘America’s Funniest Videos’ you’ve seen an audience response
system. At a certain point during the show, the audience is asked
to pick up their keypads and vote. Once they have, a graph is
displayed showing exactly how the audience voted.
The primary components of the system are of course, keypads.
Whether wired or wireless, keypads send their vote to a base
station, also called a controller. The base station gathers all
votes and sends them down a short cable to a computer that is
running audience response software. The software then compiles the
results and displays a graph. In a business meeting, the graph is
shown on your presentation screen rather than on TV.
Audience Response Systems – How Would You Get One
Because
the choices and prices are many, we won’t go into a detailed
procurement explanation. Suffice to say for now, you can either
purchase a system, or rent one. For more information on how to
rent an audience response system or how to buy one, we suggest you
visit the
Audience Response Learning Center.
Rest assured though, whether you choose to buy or rent, using it
is a fairly easy, straight forward task. The challenge is more in
learning to use audience response software, more than anything
else. Fortunately today, there are a number of very good
PowerPoint® plug-ins, which allow you to use a keypad polling and
graphing feature from within PowerPoint®.
Audience Response Systems – What They Can Do For You
First and
foremost an audience response system will keep your audience
awake! More important, it makes them an interactive part of your
presentation. But ultimately, the simple act of an audience voting
on keypads will help you reach your meeting goals.
Let’s assume you are selling your services to a large company. You
have been invited to make a presentation to a group of 18 people
from the client organization. Without an audience voting system,
you will make your presentation and most likely go home with no
idea whatsoever, as to how you did. The decision rests with these
18 people, but you do not know how they feel about it.
However, with an audience response system, you would likely know
quite well how they feel. And, all they would have done was press
some buttons on their keypads. As you moved through your
presentation, you could pause and ask them whether they understand
the point. That question might be in the form of a 1 to five scale
for example, where 1 is ‘I do not understand’ and 5 is ‘I
understand clearly.’
If the voting system shows that people do not understand, you can
clarify. If they do understand, then you can ask whether they
agree with your premise. Near the conclusion, you might ask whether there are issues
that need to be resolved before they could move forward with your
proposal.
The difference between asking that question verbally, versus using
the audience response system is that people tend to be far more
truthful when answering with a keypad, because their answer is
anonymous.
Audience Response Systems – How Do I Get Started
There’s
lots of good information on the web, including the
Audience
Response Learning Center. We do suggest that for your first
meeting or two, you should rent. Your
audience response rental company can provide a
technician to run the audience response system. Once you have seen
it done once or twice, you will be comfortable enough to do it
yourself, at least for relatively small meetings.
Article Contributed by
Audience Response Rentals, LLC
Site Home
|
