Making numbers sell

How do you communicate this huge amount of money to the average citizen?
CNN chose to compare the figure to McDonald’s apple pies – and was ridiculed by Jon Stewart for its troubles. Even Bill Clinton got in on the act. What did CNN do? And why did it fail?

Change the playing field
In a way, numbers are not inherently helpful when trying to persuade a reader – it’s the scale of how they are presented that makes a difference.

In his book The 8th Habit, Stephen R. Covey describes a poll of 23,000 employees in a number of companies and industries. The results look something like this:

• Only 37% had a clear understanding of what their organization was trying to achieve
• Only one in five was enthusiastic about their organization’s goals

This is interesting, but abstract. So Covey puts the results in more human terms: “If, say, a soccer team had the same scores, only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal was theirs. Only 2 of the 11 would care.”

Suddenly the numbers come alive. This comparison creates a picture in our minds that we can relate to. Our picture of a soccer team is more vivid than the abstract concept of ‘their organization’ – and we can easily see how badly the team would operate.

Take it to the everyday
Following the same principle, you have to bring numbers down to a human scale. This example about the cost of spam comes from windowsecurity.com:

• Figuring it takes 4.4 seconds on average to deal with a message, the messages add up to $4 billion in lost productivity for U.S. businesses each year

As a number, that’s not very helpful for two reasons. Firstly, the $4 billion refers to all businesses in the US and not yours, my reader. And secondly, how much is $4 billion anyway?

Putting this into a more everyday context would be much more powerful.

• Figuring it takes 4.4 seconds on average to deal with a message, the average office worker wastes seven minutes deleting spam messages everyday

(In the spam example above, I assumed the average office worker gets 100 spam messages a day, because I don’t know the actual figure. This breaks one of the cardinal rules of using figures: always speak the truth! When people see a solid claim, their immediate reaction is to question it. In this case, they’d immediately compare the time given to their actual working day – so get your figures right from the start.)

Don’t be an idiot
CNN tried to apply both these principles when it compared the $700 billion bail out package with apple pies. But the comparison was a disaster. Because the new playing field (MacDonald’s) was unconnected to the context, and the everyday situation (buying 2000 pies) was simply ridiculous. The key is to choose a relevant new playing field or everyday situation that adds to the reader’s emotional and logical understanding of the number.

Some other thoughts on numbers
1. It’s always a good idea to use a number where you can. Look at these two sentences and see which one gives a more compelling argument:

• Our product will knock 15% off your logistics bill
• Our product will save you money

The first is better because it’s concrete. And this applies every time. So if you’re about to type ‘comprehensive’, ‘extensive’ or ‘vast’, stop and see if you can find the number.

2. Single digits are usually written as words (one, two, three, etc.), while everything else is written as figures (10, 11, 12, etc.)

3. And for some reason, three points normally look better than two.