How to Get Your Point Across

Back on this blog due to popular demand...

I got the joke below from a colleague yesterday.  It's more than a joke.  I think there is a profound lesson hidden in it.  No matter if you are an entrepreneur, engineer, sales guy, or venture capitalist, if you want to get your point across, you have to frame it in a context that your audience can relate to.  You have to put yourself in your audience's shoes.  Now enjoy the joke keeping that in mind...

Boudreaux, the smoothest talking Cajun in the Louisiana National Guard, got called up to active duty one day. Boudreaux's first assignment was to the military induction center, and because he was such a good talker they assigned him the duty of advising new recruits about government benefits, especially the GI insurance to which they were entitled.

Before long, the Captain in charge of the induction center began noticing that Boudreaux was getting a 99% sign-up rate for the more expensive supplemental form of GI insurance.

This was odd, because it would cost these low-income recruits $30.00 per month more for the higher coverage, compared to what the government was already providing at no charge.

The Captain decided that he would not ask Boudreaux directly about his selling techniques, but would instead sit in the back of the room at the next briefing and observe Boudreaux's sales pitch.

Boudreaux stood up before latest group of inductees and said, "If you has da normal GI insurans an' you goes to Iraq an' gets youself killed, da governmen' pays you beneficiary $20,000.00.

If you takes out da supplemental insurans, which cost you only t'irty dollar a mons, den da governmen' gots to give you beneficiary $200,000.00!"

"NOW," Boudreaux concluded, "which bunch you tink dey gonna send ta Iraq first?"

Comments

[kevin leversee]

Knee deep in a proposal I blew an aneurism when I reviewed

This text:
To reduce risk and make development more efficient bureaucratic Methodologies have arisen.

I then found

acquisition of acquiring user determined behavior on a long tail aggregation play...

We also have to speak in clear sentences- I all to often realize our own language is not the clients.

And when in a hurry- we often speak complete crap. Yes even me, and even our team.

Nothing determines greatness like the ability to communicate well.

[baris]

Well said Kevin.