Sales representatives (or sales reps) in the machine industry typically use different visual representations such as slides or reports to exchange information and mediate social interactions during sales meetings. In such collocated settings, sales reps increasingly use mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets and laptops), while carefully considering how granularity in spoken and visual form shape the conversation. However, little is know on the supporting and disturbing role of visual granularity in sales meetings.

We investigate the role of visual granularity and the social relevance of mobile devices in face-to-face sales meetings of the machine industry (i.e., lift trucks, paper) using Conversation Analysis (CA).