Analogy sharpens your message
When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency in the wake of Watergate, he wanted Americans to know they were getting a simple, plain-spoken leader. He said:
“I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln.”
By contrasting himself with a fancy car and an eloquent speaker, he made his point sharper. An analogy like Ford’s can make your message clearer, more interesting and more memorable.
Make your message more memorable.
When legendary film critic Pauline Kael reviewed a critically acclaimed movie that she couldn’t stand, she started her review like this:
“Rain Man is Dustin Hoffman humping one note on a piano for two hours and eleven minutes.”
Any questions?
Distinguish your department.
When Joe Gensheimer, then Sprint PCS’s chief legal counsel, wanted to make sure employees knew that his was a different kind of legal department, he said:
“Lawyers are like beavers. They get in the stream of commerce and dam it up.”
Then he went on to explain that his department’s mission was to “remove all roadblocks to an on-time market launch.”
Need to position yourself, your department or your product? Make your point more pointed with analogy.
How can you tell better business stories?
Stories are so effective that Og Mandino, the late author of the bestselling The Greatest Salesman in the World, says, “If you have a point, find a story.”
Learn to find, develop and write stories that engage readers’ hearts and minds at Master the Art of Storytelling, our content-writing training workshop.
There, you’ll learn how to find the aha! moment that’s the gateway to every anecdote. How to start an anecdote with a bang — instead of a whimper. And how to use “the most powerful form of human communication” to grab attention, boost credibility, make messages more memorable and communicate better.
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