How to Tell a Joke is a Business Skill

1. You and I are not interested in playing the Comedy Room.

2. However – discovering how to improvise our selling story is a closing-skill.

3. So what? We need to learn to organize a funny joke because it helps influence, convince, and persuade folks to accept our business or professional proposals. Not by being a comedian, but because it has the same three elements.

Secret of a Successful Joke

The framework: First, the Set-Up, Second, the plot, and Third, the Punchline.

The Set-Up is a logical beginning where we show agreement with the listener’s long-term beliefs and expectations.

Set-Up: A 12 year old comes to his father for help with his homework in using five specific words in five different sentences. Makes sense, right?

The Plot: The Pop seriously creates these five-sentences, but they are obviously wrong, and even jerky. Raises our curiosity – why did he do it?

The Punchline: The kid dopes out he has been scammed by his old man, and gets

mad. The Pop explains why he scammed the kid with wrong answers. Problem/Solution.

A Punchline offers a conclusion, payoff, and moral of the story (joke). It is an exaggerated point that makes us laugh at Pop’s Switcherzoo. We (listeners) are IN

on the joke. We GET it without thinking, analyzing or going to a dictionary.

My Aha! Experience

“Pop, can you help me with my homework? I got these five last words

I can’t figure out how to use each one in a sentence. “

“Sonny, you come to the right window. Gimme your problem. It is just as

important to know where to find the right answer, as learning itself.”

“Here, five easy words, but I have to use each one in a separate sentence.

First is Tsunami, that’s one I never saw before. Two, is Tutor. Number Three is

Denial, used as a legal term.  Four is Defeat, used in a specific battle. Number

Five is Cataracts, which I don’t know at all.”

“Gimme that list. Are you ready? I’m not going to repeat it twice, so pay

attention.

Tsunami, it comes from Latin meaning Salt. I fried the Tsunami and eggs,

and added mustard on Italian bread for flavor.

Tutor, from the Latin for Horn. In the Bible, Joshua blew down the walls of

Jericho because he was a Tutor. Harry James played a mean trumpet, and he was a hot Tutor. See, two for one.

Denial runs 4,184 miles in Africa and feeds into the Mediterranean Sea. Oh

yeah, Denial separates into the White and Blue, and they collect in Egypt.

Defeat. George Washington had 2,300 Patriots at the Battle of Trenton,

against the Hessians on December 26, 1776 (day after Xmas). The Americans could not afford boots for their soldiers, who had to wrap Defeat with rags for the seven-mile march to Trenton, New Jersey.

Last, is Cataract. The word is taken from the name of a Native-American

chief and has come to mean luxury. General Motors owns the Trade Mark for

the name Cataract, since August 18, 1902.”

I sat there stunned, just 12 years old, but I knew Pop had scammed me.

“I will never ask you anything again. Thanks for nothing.”

“Wait – you don’t trust me and my answers?”

“No, I don’t trust you or anybody else after this.”

“Pay attention – this is an important moment in your life.

It is called an Aha! Experience. You don’t trust your own father, and nobody

else, right? You have to trust and depend only on yourself, right?”

“Yeah, right, so what?”

“Sonny, tomorrow I am going to sign you up at the New York Law School.

You have learned your first critical lesson about independent research.”

“That’s was my Pop. Yeah, I went to New York Law School graduated, and

passed the Bar (not Kelly’s) on the first crack.”

How to Persuade, Influence, And Convince

You will almost never read the following in a textbook, hear it from a professor,

or reach this conclusion by yourself. It is against the grain, contrarian, and counterintuitive. That is why it is important.

Thinking Bad, Knowing Good

Thinking is B-A-D if you want to persuade, convince or influence others to your ideas. You never want the client, a judge or jury, or a buyer to stop in the middle of your proposal to think, analyze or critically judge your proposal or defense argument.

Procrastination is another name for Think-ing. It delays and terminates the action

response you require. You language should communicate simple, basic ideas Automatically – without recourse to complexity and complications. As easy-as-pie.

Problem/Solution

Consider me an Oversimplifier – that is a compliment because Oprah, Dr. Phil, and

Jay Leno use Oversimplification – (generalizing) to thank for their superstar status.

We the public, from six-year olds to professionals, to Seniors with PhDs, H-A-T-E

thinking, school, and education. It has to be said if you want to learn how to Manipulate – folks to your ideas and proposals.

Wait! Ma-nip-u-late – that word has a negative aura of twisting someone’s arm to accept what you say. Yet everyone, every hour of the day is successfully or failing to

manipulate their adversary (client) to accept our version of the facts.

Lawyers must manipulate clients to hire them instead of 42,000 other competent counselors. What about manipulating Judges and Juries? Manipulate means to

persuade, convince, and influence. It also is a synonym for guide, direct and, negotiate. It is what Doers – do to succeed.

From intelligent folks to the other-kind, we all have problems – stuff that burns our

fundament, and causes us pain. We do not want complex explanations. What do we all want? Solutions, cures, and answers, right? Problem/Solution is our universal life goal. Answers, not pleasant conversation.

Endwords

Would you be more competitive if you could read three (3) books, articles and reports, in the time your peers can hardly finish one? How about doubling you

memory – permanently? Ask us how – now.

copyright © 2009

H. Bernard Wechsler

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