Derren Brown

This week I got one of the best phone calls I've had in ages. It was from a good friend and business contact of mine who asked me three brilliant questions. 1. Do you like curry? (er - yeah!) 2. Do you know who Derren Brown is? (are you kidding? I'm a little bit obsessed with the guy) and 3. what are you doing tonight? (get in!). Luckily the first two questions did indeed link to the third and it wasn't just a ploy to get me to go dogging.... Tickets to see Derren Brown live and a curry - all paid for! Not bad for a Tuesday!

Anyway - I could talk about Derren Brown until the cows came home and given that I don't know where the cows live, that would take some time. What I actually want to write about here are three brilliant business (or indeed life) principals that we can learn from Derren Brown.

1. Honesty. Derren stands up at the beginning of every show and declares to his audience that he is not a Psychic, possesses no magic powers and generally is a human. He describes his show as "magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship". His point is that for years people have claimed that these stunts were in some way supernatural and that by admitting that they are not, it makes the audience no less impressed but significantly less patronised. Honesty in business works much the same way. It handles your customer expectations more effectively, gives them a greater understanding of how you work and builds a better foundation for a long term relationship.

2. Basic & simple wins every time. Derren tricks look extraordinary but when you know the explanation you are bound to be disappointed by how amazingly simple they are. When I tried to explain one of the trick's mechanics my friend just couldn't accept the explanation because its just too pathetically straight forward. This is Derren's greatest ability. To make the very very ordinary appear anything but. By keeping it simple it ensures that it works every time and it can be perfected. Business processes should be just as profoundly simple. How often have you called a business and found them to take the longest route possible to sort something basic?

3. Good communication is key. Derren can plant ideas in people's mind purely through his use of language and paralanguage. You can too! Excellent communication skills are vital in business. Listen carefully, be thorough in your descriptions and remember - if someone doesn't clearly understand what you mean, the fault lies with you. Better consider how you get your point across and exactly what your customer needs to know.

If you're not familiar with Derren Brown's work then 1 - I don't know why you read this far - and 2. Go to You Tube now!