Good laughs and bad

Good Laughs and Bad, reproduced from our news letter.
Wise communicators realize there are good laughs and bad laughs. A "good laugh" for top communicators is when they are laughing at themselves and using self-effacing humor.

Top salespeople, managers and executives spend considerable time teaching people an abundance of new information. Laughing at yourself fills our need for laughter and diminishes the probability of coming across as too preachy. When you laugh at yourself, people like you that much more and, all things being equal, are more likely to buy from you.

A simple example: Let's say you are struggling to add up a customer's order. You say, "Allow me a moment to double-check my numbers. Being a math major fortunately was not part of the job requirements."

Many managers may worry that using self-effacing humor will reduce their credibility. This couldn't be further from the truth. Humility is truly a virtue.

Laughing at yourself has many benefits. Besides physically and emotionally making you feel better, sharing funny foibles on your road to success only humanizes you.

You will forget the customer at your peril.

I enjoyed this article from Luke Johnson of the Financial Times. In our challenge helping people manage their sales and business development this makes a lot of sense.
www.ft.com/comment/columnists/luke Johnson. See the article "Forget the customer at your peril".

Giving your Offspring a Headstart?

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2c913216495213d5df646910cba0a0a0/?vgnextoid=0ba00467f5b32210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=teaser&ss=Education&s=News

The above does seem to be a huge link! On the chance that it does not work go to www.scmp.com and search for Mildred Law. She wrote an article called Parent's Say on the 3rd July.

I love her argument. She so sensibly dismisses the mad rush of many parents to try to give everything to their children. Great sensible logic.

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive

I have just scrolled throught the precis of this interesting book. In fact my colleague, Case Everaert, wrote an interesting comment or two.
I was startled by one of the 'ways'which stated that "abstract names allow customers to come up with reasoning." It then used, as an example, crayola calling its crayons cornflower blue and kermit green.
It is precisely because cornflower and kermit are NOT abstract that the tactic worked so well. They make us instantly imagine a picture of a blue cornflower or a green kermit.

Abstract means no imagination, no mental pictures. Rather the opposite of what the authors are implying.