Grab Their Attention

In the movie, "The Player" during a scene at a Hollywood studio executive meeting Mr. Levy shows Reeve, the central character, how to pitch a potential movie story. Levy holds out a newspaper, saying, " Here, read a headline, any headline."

Reeve responds : "Um . . .'Immigrants Protest Budget Cuts in Literacy Program.'"

Levy: "Human spirit overcoming economic adversity. Sounds like Horatio Alger in and the barrio. You put in Jimmy Smits, you got a sexy 'Stand and Deliver.' Next?"

Robert Kosberg, a Hollywood producer convinced a studio to make the 1993 pets -gone-wrong movie "Man's Best Friend." His pitch was "Jaws on Paws".

~*~
See the power of spare, specific details over speed and volume of speech?
How quickly can you attract someone's attention and interest?
How briefly can you describe your main, differentiating benefit?
How soon in the conversation or email will you offer it?

The stories we tell about each other paint the picture of how people see us. Why not speak English like it tastes good?

Offer the Specific Detail that Prove Your General Conclusion

Unfortunately, the more you know about a subject the more likely it is you will bury the best details in the underbrush in generalities. Listeners go on a mental vacation before you get to the telling point.

Remember, the specific detail is more credible and memorable than the general statement. In short, specifics stick to the wall of their minds and generalities slide out of sight.

Here's six specific techniques to tell the story others love to re-tell.
That way you'll become more frequently-quoted. Then you naturally become your kind of customers' top-of-mind choice

1. Be brief.
If your characterization is sufficiently short then you can repeat it, as an aside or reminder throughout a conversation. Others are more likely to remember and repeat it. Here's some ways to be pithy:

A. Use a familiar word in a new way and you might even capture a trend:

Example: Futurist, Faith Popcorm, predicted five years ago that people would want to be "cocooning" in their home.

B. Be catchy, using one or more of these memorabiity-building devices:
• Alliteration: "Peak performance" and "high tech/high touch."
• Rhyme: "Jaws on Paws"
• Repetition: "First things first", Steve Covey's advice.
• Puns: Tongue Fu!, title of book by Sam Horn.

C. Employ an unexpected turns of phrase: To connect with people upon first meeting, I suggest "going slow to go fast."

2. Make favorable comparisons with familiar, admired objects
When people in your work world are immersed in jargon, your remarks can stand out from others, when you make a comparison with a well-liked product, person or situation from outside your profession or industry.

Example: At the high stakes Quist H & Q Healthcare conference, venture capitalists hear 20-minutes talks by CEOs of start-ups and public companies who seek funding or favorable stock analysts' reporters. The tension is high and the schedule is packed. Most presenters speak fast, using a mix of highly technical scientific and finance language.

The CEO from bio-tech company, Amgen, walked past the podium to the center of the stage, pulled up one suit and shirt sleeve to bare his raised forearm. He opened his talk, saying, " You will feel the effects of this medical patch faster than it takes a Porsche to go from zero to 90. "

3. Hijack a familiar slogan to use in a new way.
After a company has spent millions to make a slick slogan well-known, twist it in a new direction for your intended meaning.
Example: Redwood Hospital in Northern California used this billboard variation of the popular milk slogan to ask for blood donations: "Got blood?"

4. Anchor your suggestion in a relevent story
To pull people into hearing and remembering your view, set it up with a brief anecdote.

Example: When you want to suggest that people may be looking at a problem from the wrong perspective, offer this story first

There is an old story in Soviet Russia about a guard at the factory gate who at the end of every day saw a worker walking out with a wheelbarrow full of straw. Everyday he thoroughly searched the contents of the wheelbarrow, but never found anything but straw. One day he asked the worker: "What do you gain by taking home all that straw?" "The wheelbarrows."

5. Veil the truth in humor
So much of life is fast-paced and tense. Consider opening a meeting with mock-serious inspiration or admonition, then grinning. You'll find true life, Dilbert-like examples everywhere that you can keep for your dry humored use. Here are some of my favorites:

"What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter."
(Lykes Lines Shipping)

"This project is so important, we can't let things that are more
important interfere with it."
(Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service)

'We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees."
(Switching supervisor, Verizon)

6. Encapsulate a Situation
Offer a vignette that captures an emotion

Example: Jenny Lee's literary agent characterized Jenny's book, I Do. I Did, Now What?: One Woman's Musings on Married Life, as "a rant that (almost despite itself) ends up as a celebration of marriage."

Financial analyst, Alan Parisse shared this perhaps apocryphal newspaper advertisement with me: "For sale. Infant shoes. Never used."