Giving advice to clients who are doing something you know is not beneficial for them can be pretty tricky. On the one hand, you don’t want to insult them. On the other hand, as an experienced professional, you are obligated to saving them from making a mistake.
Ginny Carter is in a field where she finds herself in that situation on a regular basis and she solves that problem very tactfully—with vivid metaphors.
Ginny is a business book ghostwriter and book coach, who helps entrepreneurs, consultants and other business experts write books designed to vault them into respected thought leaders and in-
Ghostwriter – dices containing the word ghostwriter a book glasses and a fountain pen.
demand speakers. Part of her job is to tell clients what they don’t always want to hear.
Notice how vivid her metaphors are…
Watch the Flow
Often, a client wants to add in material to the text I’ve ghostwritten for them, and doesn’t want me to change any of it.
This can be a problem not because they want to add new things in – that’s fine – but because they often (unconsciously) re-use words and phrases that I’ve already employed in the same paragraph or just before. This spoils the flow of the writing and can make it a bit clunky and repetitive.
I explain to clients that when you add in new words and phrases to something that’s already been written, it’s like changing the color of the walls in your living room. Now the carpet clashes with the walls, so you have to replace it. And now the sofa is the wrong design to go with the new items, so you have to move it around so it’s not so obvious – or replace that too. What might seem like a simple change or addition has a knock-on effect and can involve a full-scale re-design. Which I’m happy to do, but the implication is that the whole paragraph or page may end up reading very differently to how the client envisaged it.
Clients (especially female ones!) like this analogy as it relates to their own experience and they can visualize what I mean.
One False Glitch…
Outside of proofing for spelling and grammar, clients will ask, “Why is editing so important? “
I tell them: Think of watching a fight scene in a movie. You’re engrossed in the action, wincing at each body blow and flinching as a nasty one causes blood to pour from the hero’s head. Will he make it through so he can save the day? Will he even survive? You forget you’re in a cinema – it’s just ‘real’ to you. Then, as you peek from behind your fingers to see if he’ll manage to escape from the grip of his evil enemy, you notice something incongruous on the left side of the screen. It’s the edge of the scenery, which only shows for a second but long enough to distract you from the action. This glitch reminds you that you’re only watching a movie after all. For that moment you lose your sense of flow – not for long, but enough to spoil your fun.
Now imagine you’re reading a book, and have the same experience due to being unable to work out what the author is trying to say. Or maybe there’s a clumsily constructed sentence or misspelled word. It’s the same jarring experience, but with one important difference. You’re unlikely to walk out of a cinema if you stumble over a split second in a film. But with a book it’s all too easy to put it down, intend to pick it up again later, and never get around to it because your last encounter wasn’t terribly positive.
This is why editing is as much a part of creating a brilliant business book as planning and writing it are. Put this way, clients readily see that even their brilliant manuscripts would benefit from editing.
The Value of Vivid
Ginny’s analogies are rich with engaging, vivid details which easily make clients see and feel her point: the ripple effect of changing “just” the wall color of a room and the suspense of the fight scene.
Think of the metaphors (analogies) you use in your business. If you made your metaphors as vivid as Ginny’s, how much easier would it be to influence others to accept your advice, ideas, or recommendations?
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors
P.S. Ginny Carter’s guide to writing a standout business book is Your Business Your Book. You can find her at ,https//:marketingtwentyone.co.uk or connect on Twitter @_GinnyCarter and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginnycarter/.
Metaphors Make Presentations & Speeches Memorable!
Call today and let’s turn your information into experiences that engage and persuade!
212-876-1875 amiller@annemiller.com
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