The late, great Johnny Carson once said about comedy… “If you buy the premise..you buy the bit.”
It seems to me that when you DIG (sorry) all the way down, so much of the discussion on sales, marketing, buzz, tipping points, etc.. come down to figuring out a highly efficient way for people “buy the premise.”
The key is to hone that premise so that it allows people to buy into it as personally, quickly and easily as possible.
Imagine if a comedian opened his routine with the equivalent of…
-A 40 slide PowerPoint or
-The first 200 pages of a 300 page business book or
-20 pages of proposal verbiage or
-30 phone calls and a folder of brochures and clippings or
-A slew of PR firms, ad agencies and Marketing guru’s…
… they would get booed off the stage every time. And quite rightly.
Think of how a truly great comedian can quickly connect to you, can set out the environment/situation/problem that you can totally relate to and then..BAM…that quickly…they deliver a punch line that generates a memorable response… The “bit” is sold.
What premise are you selling? How could you hone it to perfection so it takes the receiver only moments until they connect and buy it?
Do what comedians do. Get to the punchline. Get to the meat of your story.