It’s clear with the advent and widespread adoption of technologies like augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), engaging with target audiences has become an extremely visual experience. Interaction with a customer is no longer one-sided or two-dimensional, meaning marketing and sales professionals are adopting completely revamped approaches to how they tell their brand’s story.

Any marketing expert could tell you that storytelling is not just about telling the story; it’s about showing it. This is why tactics like direct mail marketing and the like have shown resurgence in recent years in interaction with consumers directly. That tangible, visual element is what can seal the deal for a sale.

But how could a marketer, especially at the B2B arena, bring storytelling to the next level, beyond endless slide decks and poster boards? And why should they, when these tactics have been the way of the world for the last 20 years?

The answer is simple: visual interaction and immersion. It’s all around us. From Snapchat filters to home décor, people are looking for ways apply an augmented version of their reality to achieve a specific vision or aesthetic. That concept of interaction and immersion has to be baked into your marketing strategy to even show up on a consumer’s radar today.

Peter Arvai, CEO and Co-Founder of visual presentation platform Prezi, elaborated on this dynamic in a recent conversation with Modern Marketing Today.  Arvai explained, “When people can be reached through so many channels, the story part is what connects the dots. And if you have a good story and you have a really immersive, visually strong experience that emphasizes that, then you have a chance to actually deliver that story to people.”

The other important factor to consider in this updated approach to marketing and sales enablement is the concept of a two-sided conversation instead of simply presenting information to someone. Prezi calls this conversational presenting. A conversation is what makes a customer feel heard and what gives them confidence in their solution provider. There is a deeper level of understanding between parties that results from a conversation as opposed to a presentation.

The fluidity and flexibility of more interactive presentation platforms opens up a lot of doors for marketers and sales professionals. They’re able to keep up with the conversation and focus on areas that actually matter to their potential customer in a more intuitive way. Arvai added, “The more responsive they [the marketing or sales team] can be to a specific customer’s needs, the more likely they are going to be successful in closing the deal.”

In fact, according to recent study from Harvard, more immersive presentation platforms, such as Prezi,  appeared more organized, engaging, persuasive, and effective when compared to its PowerPoint counterpart. PowerPoint actually had very similar scores to presentations with no visual aids at all in this study.

So there is something to be said about creating a more immersive and interactive storytelling environment for sales and marketing teams. By adopting presentation platforms that operate more similarly to a person’s mind and natural flow of conversation, there’s likely more success to be had.