Defining Detail

“One woman pulled off her wedding ring and pawned it to buy gasoline.” *
Now there’s a detail that defines the story.

Returning home from a lengthy lecture on the economic effects of higher gasoline prices, my wife casually asked "what did they say?" Guess what came out of my mouth first? It wasn’t the comprehensive economic analysis or the detailed survey results. All of that took a back seat to a woman pawning her wedding ring for a tank of gas. I'll bet you would have said the same.

Why? Was it really the most important point? Was it the whole story? Of course not. It wasn’t even the whole story about this woman. Who knows why she pawned that ring. Maybe she and her husband split the week before. Maybe she had lost her job. Maybe she was driving home from a bout with the slot machines in Atlantic City.

When you think about it, the story reeks of hyperbole. It is as incomplete as it is overly dramatic. What are they going to tell us next? A fellow sold his car to buy gas?

And yet …

The wedding ring story sticks. It is loaded visually and emotionally. It is what journalists call the "defining detail."

A defining detail is a small but important part or feature of a story that sets forth its meaning. It defines the story, brings it to life, gives it emotion, makes it distinct and underscores its essential quality. In short, it sums up the point of the story, drives it home and makes it memorable.

At a recent meeting, one investment manager after another got up and talked about how they manage their portfolios. All of them made good, professional presentations, but two stood head and shoulders apart. Why? They drove home their points with defining details.

One was talking about the future growth of China and India. He summed it up with a visual image of cranes in Beijing and gave the audience the detail: "90% of the construction cranes in the world today are in India and China."

The other told a story of a Japanese finance company. Explaining that many Japanese businessmen live so far from the city center, they spend the work week in town, sleeping in tiny rented rooms. Knowing this, and the fact that many of them like to enjoy expensive evenings out with colleagues, the finance company started issuing a special credit card. What makes it special? What is the defining detail? The way the card is billed. If the card is current, statements go to the office. If the card is delinquent, the bills go to the cardholder’s home. Not surprisingly, the cards are rarely delinquent.


Defining details not only give your presentations focus, they make them memorable and bring them to life. They can help you understand your clients better.

In April’s column, we defined investment wiring as “the emotional baggage involving money that most every client carries around. It’s the combination of usually irrelevant or obsolete beliefs, attitudes, and prior experiences that impede clients’ freedom of thought and actions regarding money, limit their investment progress, and can destroy an advisor’s ability to help them reach their financial goals.”

When interviewing clients and prospects, ask yourself what are the defining details that affect their investment wiring.

Here are a few we’ve come across:

“My father invested too aggressively and died broke and emasculated. That is not going to happen to me.”

“When I was headed off to graduate school, I took my secret savings – a couple of hundred bucks – and went to the race track to make a killing. I lost it all.”

“My brother went to work in a low level job at a dot.com and walked away with millions. I was always the smart one. It’s my turn.”

When you present, offer the defining details that sum up the story and make it stick. When you listen, ask the kinds of questions that reveal the details that define your clients.

* Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette April 23, 2006

Copyright 2006 Alan J. Parisse

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Alan Parisse’s bi-monthly column for Annuity Super Producer, 1:1, addresses questions to ask clients, ways of establishing crediblity, ideas for building client trust, methods for improving listening skills, and more.

For over twenty years, Alan Parisse has helped financial advisors, executives and managers enhance both their service to clients and their income.
He is internationally respected for his insights into the impact of the changing, global economy on investment cycles and financial marketing. Alan’s clients include a wide variety of industry and governmental organizations. In high demand, Parisse has been a keynote speaker for a long list of securities firms, insurance companies and banks. In addition, he has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Business School, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Business, UCLA Graduate School of Management and the University Of Pennsylvania Wharton School Of Business.

An accomplished author, Parisse’s ideas have been quoted in numerous business publications, including: The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Barron’s.

Parisse’s speeches, webinars, podcasts and landmark audio program, The Great Salesperson, continue to help ease the transition from a product based transaction-oriented system to one based on relationships and value added advice. His new book, Questions Great Financial Advisors Ask and Investors Need to Know, co-authored with David Richman, goes the next step by providing the tools necessary to create the dialogues needed to serve clients in today’s demanding marketplace. Published by Kaplan Trade, it is available at AMAZON.com.

The information and strategies Parisse shares are the culmination of a career dedicated to finding new ways to harness the forces of change and shape the future. Parisse’s insights come from years on the front lines as an executive, investment banker and salesperson. During his career, he was instrumental in the creation, marketing and sales of investments valued in the billions of dollars.

Alan Parisse, MBA, CSP, CPAE
Principle
The Parisse Group
1630 30th Street, PMB 310
Boulder, CO 80301

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