Challenge: How do you make dry, technical explanations or serious strategic recommendations resonant and memorable beyond the basic facts so that people will feel the way you want them to feel and/or take action after listening to you? One solution: Use compelling closing metaphors to wrap up your point. Here are three examples.
Explain and Reassure
In most investment companies, every Monday morning Investment Analysts will brief their firm’s portfolio managers on the latest economic developments to aid them in explaining events when they speak to clients. This week, Analyst Alan J. had to present the impact of the Fed’s recent interest rate increase to his investment management team. He knew their clients would be very concerned about the stock market volatility the rate increase caused and what the implications would be for their portfolios. The basic facts of Alan’s remarks included
- Inflation is at an all-time high
- Volatility in the stock market is now at a concerning high as well
- Clients need to understand that history shows that, despite periodic drops in the market, stocks and bonds continue to do well over the longer term.
When he got to the issue of volatility, Alan showed a graph of stock market volatility over the last X years, illustrating that not only was volatility a fact of life in investment, but, most importantly, historical evidence showed that markets continued to rebound after volatile declines.
He concluded, saying, “Think of a person walking up a mountain and playing with a yo-yo. The trail up the mountain is your portfolio. The yo-yo is the stock market. At any given moment, the yo-yo is up or down, but the key thing to 
remember is that, longer term, the direction your portfolio is going in is always up.”
He added, “Yes, the current volatility is concerning, but, as country singer Dolly Parton remarked, ‘If you want the rainbow,’ i.e., long-term growth, ‘you need to put up with the rain,’ i.e., the inevitable periods of volatility, and right now, we are putting up with the rain. However, afterwards, we expect better weather ahead.”
The graph helped listeners see the left-brain logical technical analysis and the metaphors appealed to the right visual, emotional brain, making the overall messaging resonant, memorable, and, most important, reassuring.
Drive Home Your Point
In a different situation, look at an argument made in a recent Op Ed article in The Wall Street Journal by Senator John Barrasso (R. Wyoming), a man with a mission. He argued vs. the United States for still buying uranium from Russia. His goal was to win readers’ support for a policy change. His key facts included
- More than 90% of the uranium that fuels U.S. power plants is imported and Russia is the third largest supplier
- In 2021 Russian imports cost almost $1billion, money that helped underwrite Mr. Putin’s war machine
- Mr. Putin has a personal interest in the success of Rosatom [a state owned nuclear energy corporation], a company he founded in 2007…that has flooded the market with subsidized fuel since 1991…That has driven America’s only uranium conversion facility to shut down and its only enrichment facility to reduce output
- The U.S. cannot develop a commercial capability to compete against Rosatom while we depend on foreign uranium
The Senator then explained what the U.S. could do to become independent of Russian uranium.
He concluded…
“Europe has been rightly criticized for getting hooked on Russian energy. Now America must free itself from Russian uranium. I have introduced legislation to do this. Our nuclear supply chain should begin with American-mined uranium and end with American fuel. It is time to put Mr. Putin’s nuclear cash cow out to pasture.” [Emphasis mine]
You could get a little lost in the many left-brained facts he presented, but his central point, i.e., the urgency to change a self-defeating policy, was made crystal clear with his closing metaphor.
“Wrap it Up” in Your World
What concluding metaphors in your business would
- Help listeners better understand your technical explanations?
- Drive home your key points?
- Motivate listeners to take action now?
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay – with Metaphors!
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
Need ideas for more compelling presentations to
- Open Minds?
- Close Business? or
- Wow an Audience?
Contact me at amiller@annemiller.com or call 212 876 1875 for a free consult
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