How to make numbers sexy

Read time: 2min

Welcome to the Tuesday's Narrative Nerd, the weekly(ish) newsletter where I provide actionable ideas to help you become a magnetic storyteller and speaker.

Most of us try really hard to be very unmemorable when presenting our analysis and findings.

We're like, “23.6% of our customers love our product.”

We show our listeners some random numbers and somehow assume that they'll care about them and remember them. Big assumption.

After reading "Making Numbers Count" by Chip Heath and Karla Starr, I wanted to share a few highlights to make your numbers stick in any presentation or story.

Let's go!

1. Use familiar scales

Numbers don't come naturally to a lot of people. Therefore, to make your numbers stand out, translate them into terms that are familiar to humans. Comparisons are particularly effective.

Examples:

1. Instead of using “6 feet” to recommend the distance during the pandemic, local governments could have translated it into a more familiar scale:?6 feet = 1 hockey stick in Canada (or 1 tatami mat in Japan; 1 adult gator in Florida; 1 surfboard in Australia)

2. Or instead of saying “28% of UK men do not always wash their hands after using the bathroom at work,” say, “More than 1 in every 4 men you shake hands with at work may not have washed their hands between using the toilet and touching your hand.”

2. Focus on 1 at a time

Start with something simple, a well-understood part of the overall scene: 1 employee, 1 student, 1 business, 1 deal, 1 game, 1 day, or 1 month. We are tempted to go for something bigger when what we really need is something with a size we can understand.

Examples:

1. Instead of saying “Throughout the first 18 years of his career in the NBA, LeBron James scored over 35,000 points,” say, “Throughout the first 18 years of his career in the NBA, LeBron James scored an average of over 27 points per game.”

2. Instead of saying, “We spend 520,000 minutes on small talk in a lifetime,” say, “We spend an entire year of our life on small talk.”

3. Favor user-friendly numbers

We often try to show the most precise numbers possible, thinking that it would give extra credibility to our analysis and findings. But this also comes at the cost that the numbers won't be remembered. Instead, see if you can round the number to something more digestible.

Examples:

1. Instead of saying “5.73 times bigger,” say, “6 times bigger.”

2. Instead of saying “9/17th of the pay,” say, “half of the pay.”

These are the 3 ways on how you can make your numbers more memorable. Give it a try in your next presentation or story on a number you want your audience to remember.??

Much love!

Philipp

P.S. Ready to unleash the storyteller within you? Here are?3 ways to transform your storytelling skills:

1. Check out our course Power of StorySelling
2. Get your copy of the #1 best seller The StorySelling Method ?
3. Watch hours of free content?on how to become a better storyteller on my?youtube channel

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