This week I have been catching up on Series 7 of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm via i-tunes.

I love Curb.  It has everything:  great characters brought to life by brilliant actors, ridiculous yet really funny stories that twist around and feed back on each other and that quirky look at life that Larry David first brought us with Seinfeld.

What’s the secret to Curb’s success and how does it relate to making your next big sale?

I didn’t’ realise this until about Series 3, but Curb isn’t scripted: the actors, originally chosen for their ability to improvise and bounce off with each other, simply get together and follow Larry David’s storyline structure. So the secret to the success of Curb is the realism of the acting – the way the actors spark off each other.  It’s the spark that thrives only in spontaneity and many of the show’s best lines and moments exist purely because of improvisation. 

The point is, no scripts, just structure.  Curb simply wouldn’t have been the same with scripts and canned laughter.  So, one of the world’s most successful comedies, and they make up the words as they go along! 

A week or so ago I wrote a blog that looked at three types of sales people who sell on the phone:  Scripters, Drifters and Architects.  The blog reasoned that scripting is not the way to sell any more – and neither is drifting through a conversation and going on “gut feel”.  The way to sell in 2010 is by being a Sales Architect.

Larry David is the architect of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Rather than create scripts, he carefully lays out the foundations (story) and the key milestones for the characters.  Then he lets charismatic humans interact, with fantastic results.

 Give us a call if you need a hand structuring your sale, Larry David style!