124 DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE
analogies just reviewed (in the format of a search phrase) and
the number of links to articles using those phrases: Apple TV + DVD player for twenty-first century: 40,000 links
iPod Shuffle + pack of gum: 46,500 links
iPod + deck of cards: 227,000 links
Your listeners and viewers are attempting to categorize a prod-
uct—they need to place the concept in a mental bucket. Create
the mental bucket for them. If you don’t, you are making their
brains work too hard. According to Emory University psychol-
ogy professor Dr. Gregory Berns, the brain wants to consume the
least amount of energy. That means it doesn’t want to work too
hard to figure out what people are trying to say. “The efficiency
principle has major ramifications,” he states. “It means the brain
takes shortcuts whenever it can.”^20 Analogies are shortcuts.
Nothing will destroy the power of your pitch more thor-
oughly than the use of buzzwords and complexity. You’re not
impressing anyone with your “best-of-breed, leading-edge,
agile solutions.” Instead, you are putting people to sleep, los-
ing their business, and setting back your career. Clear, concise,
and “zippy” language will help transform your prospects into
customers and customers into evangelists. Delight your custom-
ers with the words you choose—stroke their brains’ dopamine
receptors with words that cause them to feel good whenever
they think of you and your product. People cannot follow your
vision or share your enthusiasm if they get lost in the fog.Your customers are your most potent evangelists. I recall a
conversation with one of my clients, Cranium founder Richard
Tait, who said he sold one million games with no advertising,
all word of mouth. “Never forget that your customers are your
sales force,” he told me.
His customers—he calls them “Craniacs”—want to have
fun. Since fun was the name of the game, so to speak, TaitWord Fun with Titles