Leave 10% for the audience: a lesson in persuasive communications from a love guru
Here’s a tip on persuasion brought to you by Will Smith’s character ‘Hitch’.
No, really.
‘Hitch’ is a somewhat prototypical romantic comedy in which Mr. Smith plays a professional ‘date doctor’ who advises people on how to date (and score) like a champ.
In a particular scene, Hitch is prepping ‘Albert’ (portrayed by Kevin James) about an upcoming date in which — he says — Albert might just get lucky. But before that, he needs to nail the first kiss. After some awkward role playing, a bit of advice comes out:
The secret to a kiss is to go 90 percent of the way and then hold for as long as it takes for her to come the other 10.
Interesting.
Not the tip in itself — I have no clue if it’s effective or not. But the idea behind it.
The other day, I was at an APG event with a work colleague. We were at BBH’s offices watching a presentation on sources of insight to craft great briefs. And as a result we also ended up seeing a lot of great work.
One thing we both agreed was characteristic of that work — it never treated the audience like they needed every single detail put in front of them. It never went all the way to connect all the dots. It said just enough so that you could reach the conclusion by yourself.
In other words, it never went to 100%. It always allowed the audience to ‘come the other 10’.
It’s like when you explain why a joke is funny. Or when, in a movie dialogue, someone states an obvious conclusion after a subtle moment. The point is for people to get it, not for you to spoon feed them.
Hitch’s quote is a good anecdote and maybe even a good dating tip, but it’s a great principle for anyone who works with persuasive communications. If you go 100% you risk either being boring, obvious or sometimes just plain disrespectful.
So what would happen if your idea or strategy didn’t say it all but instead crafted those 90% in just the right way? What would happen if you left 10% for the audience to figure out by themselves?
