"We will do that verbally"

Entrepreneurs are often so deep into their own story that they leave the supporting visuals for some of the most fundamental points of their business idea out of the presentation. “Oh, why Amazon would not do this? Well, I have a great story to tell that I usually do verbally when displaying the agenda page.”

Stories are great, verbal explanations without visuals are great, BUT. My two arguments why it might be a good idea to back up your story with visuals (in particular relevant for an investor presentation):

1. You want people to remember your story, and a big bold visual might help anchor the idea in the mind of your audience. The visual does not necessarily have to explain the idea, it should just trigger the memory when you bring up that story of the banana peel back up 3 weeks later.
2. The argument for going further than a visual anchor point is that you often lose control of what happens to your file with slides after you have emailed it to an investor. It gets forwarded to partners in the firm, industry experts, etc. Just in case, it is a good idea that someone who did not sit in the room still can understand the idea behind your business.