Empathy Archive - Page 39 of 39 - This Moment Counts

So what?

A presentation can be brilliantly argued, beautifully designed, masterfully delivered …

… and still fail because it lacks a compelling answer to one simple question: “So what?”

Audiences look for an answer to this simple question every time and if they don’t find one, they will sooner or later tune out. Without a compelling answer to the question of relevance, any effort you put into other aspects might be a waste of time.

So, why should they care? Why them? Why now?

The more compelling the answers to these questions are, and the earlier you provide them, the more likely it is that you can make change happen.

Hard choices

Many people believe that a great presentation makes it easy for the audience to choose you. The easier, the better.

Yet, the most satisfying decisions are the hard ones. The ones where we consciously struggle with the decision.

What makes a decision hard is that it forces us to confront who we are. Do we want this thing so badly that we are willing to pay so much for it? Do we really want to spend the effort of changing our habits to achieve that goal?

If a decision is hard then it is because we care. Because if we wouldn’t, it would be easy, right? If we don’t care, we can just as easily dismiss a thing as we can choose it. It won’t matter much.

So, leading your audience to a hard choice means leading them to something they care deeply about. And if they do, then the decision they make is this:

“If that’s who I am, then this is what I need to do!

This, of course, is only possible if you care, too! Leading them to this point means making them see that you understand something profound about them. That you do care about them.

You care by leading them to the point of no return. The point where this choice needs to be made. The point where tension is so high that it can only be relieved by making the decision.

What separates good from great presenters is that the great ones realise that it’s still the audience who’s going to decide. It has to be. Because when it is, you’ve got commitment. They have consciously decided for you.

Your job is to make this decision obvious. To confront them with it. To make them see clearly so that if that’s really who they are, then, well …

… up to you to decide.

Good and bad is still alive in marketing

When I think back to when I was a teenager, a lot of TV shows had this very clear distinction between good and bad. Today, it has become hard to find a great show that’s like that. Good is never all good, bad is never all bad. Today’s heroes are torn apart by inner conflicts and their darker sides. In fact, often it’s even hard to say whether there’s good or bad at all.

In a way, you might argue that this is what makes heroes heroic in the first place. It is by overcoming their fears and shortcomings and taking responsibility for their cause that they change the world. So, while we still do have heroes, we don’t have good and bad as we used to.

Except in marketing. Many marketers still act as if it’s us vs. them, good vs. bad. In particular, they act as if they are all good and the competition is all bad.

Which – obviously – is not true and everyone, including themselves, knows it. So they try hard to persuade us. To make us believe that they are the good ones. They will shine the brightest light upon themselves, praise their good sides and hide their dark sides.

And in doing so they overlook the fact that the world has moved on. That it’s precisely the rough edges that we admire in our heroes. We admire them because they are like us – imperfect and vulnerable.

Stories help us to convey this mixture of emotions and this is why so many brands have embraced storytelling. Stories make a brand relatable. They make a speaker one of us. We feel with her.

And because we do, we fall in love with what she stands for and what she brings into our life. It is one of the reasons why we buy from her. Because we see how her story matches ours. How our life improves because of their products.

Not because it is all good but because it matches who we are.

How do you relate to the life of your audience?

Shouting is easy

Shouting is easy, getting people to listen is not. Yet, it’s all about being heard and not at all about talking louder. Or talking more. People listen when what you say resonates with them. And that means talking smarter, not harder.

Shouting louder seems like the easy thing to do. More posts, more ads, more promotions, a bigger show, shinier decorations. And it might work.

Or it might not.

What shouting does is provide you with a moment of attention. People look over. But they might just as well move on when they decide it’s not for them.

People will stop to listen when what you say resonates with them.

Instead of pushing hard to make them care about you, the smart thing to do is to care about them. To look at things from their perspective. To try hard to understand what matters to them. So that you can articulate what they feel but what they can’t put in words themselves. And when you do this, you won’t need to shout. They will listen – even when you whisper.

Walking in their shoes

Hope, you are well!

How does it feel to walk in someone else’s shoes?

It’s a question that we don’t ask as often as we should. We might not like what we see. Someone else’s shoes might be uncomfortable because their day isn’t quite as easy as we expected it to be. Or their business isn’t quite as straightforward as we thought it is.

It’s much easier to walk in our own shoes. We are used to wearing them. We know what to expect when we put them on. They feel comfortable.

The virus provides us with a new perspective on this. In a way, most of us are walking in completely new shoes these days. In shoes we’ve never worn before. Unusual ones. Ones we would never have chosen ourselves.

And although it remains hard to imagine what it’s like when someone else is walking in these shoes, we do get an impression of how they might feel. Because this time we’re all wearing the same shoes. It’s as uncertain for us as it is for them. It’s as uncomfortable for them as it is for us.

This has led us to see others with different eyes. We can now see them struggling just like us. We can now see their fears and desires as we share the same fears and desires. And we can now see how it’s ok to change minds from one day to the next. To shift priorities. To be less than perfect.

This is one thing we should strive to keep after this is over. To see others, not just look at them. To acknowledge their fears and desires, not dismiss them. And to treat them in a way we ourselves would like to be treated when walking in their shoes: with respect, patience, and understanding.

Take care.

Reflections

Hope, you are well.

So much is turned upside down these days. Businesses all over the world are struggling to understand what the current situation means for them. Those who can have already begun to adapt their offerings to serve new needs around a physically distanced, anxious society.

On short notice, the virus forces us to reflect fundamental questions: Is this still the offering that serves our customers in their new needs? Can we use our employees’ strengths in new ways? Can we apply what we did in the past to create new services for the present and future? What is it that our customers need urgently?

The virus forces us to reflect our values. Where yesterday wealth and growth were important, today health and safety are. Where yesterday individualisation was important, today connection is. None of us knows what will be important tomorrow. But now is the time to start thinking about it.

The virus forces us to reflect who we are and who we want to be, especially how we want to treat others. Where in the past we’ve seen greed and hard selling, today we’re seeing businesses all over the world being helpful, being generous, and communicating with empathy. People will notice.

As we get more used to the changing conditions, these reflections will help us regain our strength even if in vastly different ways than before.