The Reinforcement Role

Presenters use support for four primary reasons:

  • To increase understanding, such as for topics that are complex or outside the audience's knowledge level

  • To convince, backing up claims with solid support

  • To inspire or move, relating something so vivid, moving, or catchy that it leads to action

  • To entertain, as for a roast or an after-dinner speech

Consider the following presentation by a representative from an electronics company to a potential customer:

Our innovative new Mod 75 is the perfect solution to your problem. It has worked fine for many other companies. Maintenance costs are almost nothing. It is a significant technological advance over the brand X unit, but it's a bit complicated to explain and much of it is proprietary, ...

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