Bull Gets It Done
Do you watch the TV show Bull? I don’t because….well let’s just say that for someone who has spent 20 years picking real juries in real courtroom, there’s a LOT of TV magic involved in that show. The show is well named. But it has some great lessons on how to tell your story and help them believe.
In the show, Bull is a jury consultant who helps lawyers choose jurors for their cases and then helps them try to win. You could say Bull it a salesman–he has to sell his client’s story to the jury. You could say he’s a leader–leading the jury to the conclusion he wants them to reach. And you could say he’s a customer experience expert–providing the best possible experience to the jurors in his cases. Ultimately he’s an advocate, telling a story and helping the jury to believe.
And the skills Bull uses to sell, lead, and advocate are the skills you can use as well. He asks questions of the potential jurors. This is to help the team decide who to choose for the jury, but also how to help them believe. For example, in one case there was a basketball coach on the jury. During the trial, Bull and his team made sure that some of the questions involved basketball analogies that would speak directly to her. He knew that juror, and he used that knowledge to help her believe. He won that case. Of course.
But Bull doesn’t stop with questions. He uses body language and tone of voice to help him choose who will be on the jury and how he will tell the story as well.
Real life jury selection has even more to teach us than Bull does. I recently did a live webinar with my friend Alan Turkenheimer, the CEO of Trial Methods. We talked about how the skills we use to pick people in the courtroom can be used to pick people in business and life. Everyday we choose clients, customers, partners, babysitters, dates…the list goes on. You can use the skills of a jury consultant to pick who you will tell your story, and how you will make them believe.
We are all telling stories every day. The advocate helps the listener to believe the story, and the result is better than TV magic. It’s real magic.
If you want to see that webinar, sign up for my weekly videos. You’ll get a private link to that hour long webinar and you’ll also be the first to hear about the next webinar we have headed your way….
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