Joey Asher is president of Speechworks, a selling and communication skills coaching company in Atlanta. He has worked with thousands of business people, helping them learn how to communicate in a way that connects with clients. His new book, 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, is available now. He is also the author of three previous books: How to Win a Pitch: The Five Fundamentals That Will Distinguish You From the Competition, Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers and Even a Geek Can Speak. He can be reached at 404-266-0888 or joey@speechworks.net.
I can't decide which ad from this year's Super Bowl I like best: the Tide ad with the shirt stain that looks like Joe Montana or the one where the guy considers selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for a Mercedes-Benz.
But to my mind, neither comes close to what some consider the greatest Super Bowl ad of all time: the Coca-Cola ad starring Pittsburgh Steeler "Mean" Joe Greene that aired during the 1980 big game.
We can all learn about connecting with audiences from that ad, which still pulls on my heartstrings (If you haven't seen it lately, it has 1.8 million hits on YouTube).
It's all about the story
Perhaps the most important point is that stories grab our attention. That story of how a little boy offers a Coke to a big mean football player never seems to get old.
Last week, a senior executive of one of my clients told a wonderful story of how one of his employees came to him with a personal problem and together they worked it out. As he was telling the story, I looked around the room and saw that everyone was riveted.
All the best presentations have stories.
Short stories are better
I love the economy of the Mean Joe ad. It lasts one minute. It includes a few lines of dialogue. Yet it tells a wonderful tale of a child finding a way to connect with an intimidating football player.
Many stories in presentations last too long. Those stories usually have irrelevant details. One of my pet peeves is when people telling a story describe the physical act of making a phone call. "Then I called him up to ask him why he made that decision. When he picked up the telephone he told me ... ."
No one cares about the physical act of using a telephone. Just tell us what you told the guy.
Cut your stories in half. They'll usually be twice as good.
