Category Archives: CLIENT RETENTION

Fiduciary Minefields: The Agency Mess

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Relationships and terminology may define what you do for clients, but do your clients fully understand your legal, moral, and ethical context for delivering extreme service excellence and protecting their interests and goals?

How clear are you and your communication, in all formats and platforms, about related fiduciary responsibilities?

A recent report addresses these issues for the real estate industry, so it offers an excellent example of misconceptions and missed opportunities which may exist in your industry and your communication as well. The bonus is we’re all real estate buyers, sellers, and investors, or wanna-bes, so this is a valuable read on many levels.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA — www.consumerfed.org) started the year off by releasing the report authored by former-executive-director and Senior Fellow Steve Brobeck and entitled “The Agency Mess:Home Buyer and Seller Confusion and Costs Related To Diverse and Poorly Enforced State Laws about the Role and Responsibility of Real Estate Agents. The title tells the miscommunication story. The report incorporates CFA’s research of the literature on real estate agency, CFA’s mystery shopper survey of agents, and a national consumer survey.

I asked Brobeck my questions during a media conference to clarify the communication confusion which can lead to compromised fiduciary relationships, financial loss to buyers and sellers and, therefore, potential loss for real estate brokerages and professionals.

PJ Wade: Could you give us a very exact definition of agency law and what the fiduciary duties are to the client (…the client’s interests above all else but the law) and to the customer who is the third party. Also, in that answer, give us a clear definition of what the word “agent” means and to whom it can be applied. Is it the brokerage, is it the salesperson…?

CFA Steve Brobeck: “[CFA] is considering, in this report, every real estate professional that works directly with the home buyer or seller to be an agent. Some of those agents are just agents and some of them are brokers. But we do not really view a material difference, from the view of the consumer, between having an agent-agent or a broker-agent. So again, when you look at this report, you will not see the term “broker” used very often.

Define fiduciary…The fiduciary is obligated to procure (and I’m quoting from another source here) the greatest advantage for his client. The occasion of that being if you are the seller agent and you are working with a seller, you have an obligation to get the highest price, sale price for the house. If you are a buyer broker, you are obligated to get the lowest price for that house.”

PJ Wade: Do the real estate practitioners, brokers, salespeople, the agents really understand these [agency and fiduciary] distinctions as clearly as they must?

CFA Steve Brobeck: “I think that’s part of the problem. There are several issues related here: the complexity of the law, the variation of the laws, and even the definition of the terms from state to state are not just very, very difficult for consumers to understand. They’re difficult for many agents to understand. Keep in mind, too, that there are 1.2 million, 1.3 million, 1.4 million practicing agents. Some of them have only been practicing for a year or two. In some states, the training is not very rigorous; in other states, it is. They may not fully understand all of these terms and the law in their particular state. The problem is there just hasn’t been any effective monitoring, so even if they are ignorant of the law and they don’t make required disclosures, no on ever calls them on it.”

PJ Wade: So would it be a fair summary to say that fiduciary duties of the agent to the client are to keep the client’s interests above all else but the law? And for the customer—the third party—would responsibilities be fairness and not to misrepresent and care of answering?

CFA Steve Brobeck: “Yes, I think that is a good summary.”

PJ Wade: What should a consumer do if they feel something going wrong? Should they complain to CFA or…?

CFA Steve Brobeck: “I think the first thing—we’re trying to keep this as simple as possible. We’re hoping that the nonprofit groups with whom we work—as you probably know CFA is an association of 240 members [ https://consumerfed.org/history/ ]—and we’re going to be putting this information out for them to communicate to the people with whom they work. We hope the media will communicate this.
We are also going to be communicating with the State Real Estate Commissions and, I hope, [encouraging them] to take a more active role in informing the consumers in their state about agency relationships.
But the key thing is ‘Don’t make it too complicated!’ As I indicated in my prepared statement, people just need to know whether the agent they are working with is a fiduciary. If they are not a fiduciary, what is their role? Their role, if [working with] a buyer, could be a subagent, could be a transactional broker, but [buyers] need to know that.
I don’t think the industry is going to oppose us. They certainly took leadership in the 1990s in terms of passing state laws that actually did some good, but now we need to review those laws. We need to review them, simplify them, and, just as importantly, ensure they are enforced. Ensure that there’s not just heavy-handed enforcement, but that each Realtor, each real estate agent feels that they are obligated, morally and ethically obligated to disclose their relationship to their customers.”

PJ Wade: So, ethically, morally, and legally…

CFA Steve Brobeck: “Well, they are, in most states, legally obligated to provide disclosure. But you know, given the situation, we are not really going to solve the problem unless all real estate agents feel that they not only must comply with the law, but that they have an ethical obligation too, at the earliest substantial contact, to clarify their role as an agent to their customer.”

Did parallel examples of miscommunication and misunderstood services and client relationships come to mind as you read this interview?

The 14-page report, The Agency Mess, provides more detail on the range of fiduciary relationships that exist, most of them beyond what consumers may expect. Without understanding each type of relationship and related fiduciary duties, consumers don’t understand when to confide financial information and when not to reveal their true feelings about a property.

  • Are your clients right about what they are getting for their money when they work with you?
  • Do you survey and interview clients to be sure you understand exactly what they don’t?
  • How do your efforts stand up against relationship definition efforts by competitors?

As a real estate consumer or owner, what is your reaction to The Agency Mess?

Is Payment Not Privacy The Answer?

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“There’s big money in your personal data—for others. Why not you? It’s your data, after all.

If you were paid for the use of the digital data you generate—that is, you shared directly in the benefits that draw corporations to this juicy financial frontier—would privacy be an issue?”

How would your clients or customers respond to this income-generating perspective on who benefits from the data they create through their social media interaction and digital transactions?

If your business or practice stresses a strong client-centric mission—like “our clients come first”—is it ethical to use client data to earn profit without respecting clients’ role in its creation and sharing a “piece of the action” with them? Their share could be income or reduction of service fees, interest rates, or other valued service factors.

Sharing All But Profit

The “everyone else does it” argument for cutting data-creating clients out of sharing data-based profits may be wearing thin for these client users, especially as they bear the brunt of data-related risk:

  • Facebook (FB) has granted access or shared FB users’ data with Amazon, Netflicks, and others, but what did FB users get out of this business exchange? FB users were not asked for their permission to allow FB to earn money or engage in business relationships like these with corporations and who knows who else. When social media corporations like FB insist they “do not sell but share” user data, this still means they make money, but consumers do not and consumers may have their privacy jeopardized in the process.
  • The “free” online features and services that initially dazzled users have become compromised and degraded by practices centered on corporate goals and profit, not value for data-generating users.
  • Efforts to manipulate users to spend more time on social media platforms are directed at increasing value to advertisers and at generating revenue, not at client goals. For instance, when user viewing drops, FB sends out intrusive updates designed to entice engagement.
  • Privacy breaches and identity theft are becoming the norm. Will the ease of online shopping and communicating become overshadowed by data vulnerability, hacker devastation, and lack of compensation for data violation?
  • The big data bite comes from Artificial Intelligence (AI), which uses massive data banks of user information and digital activity to generate savings, efficiencies, revenue opportunities, share price increases, clout increases, and service provision for corporate benefit. Haven’t users earned a piece of the action?
  • Technology makes creating and tracking micro-transactions very doable. The degree of detail possible to collect and categorize data could make tracking each transaction in a shared-benefits arrangement straightforward. That’s blockchain. This means that attributing a reasonable percentage to the user who created the date is practical. Repeat use of the data would create a stream of income for users. Will sharing become the new brand loyalty strategy?

For Clarity: Don’t confuse this suggestion of payment with loyalty-reward-point programs which concentrate on gaining repeat business for the corporation—a grocery store, credit card, airline…. Consumers often pay higher prices and are limited to specific spending patterns to gain benefits—not dollar-for-dollar by a long stretch. This involves consumers spending and then jumping through hoops to receive benefits with earned-reward points they must keep track of to manage expiry dates.

New Client-Retention Frontier

Online users realize that the continuous treasure trove of data arises from every digital thing we do each day, each hour. It’s making corporations richer and more powerful. Online users are only now understanding that all their data adds up to big money for others, not for them. Corporate spokespeople—from FB’s Zuckerberg on down—talk about the importance of user privacy, but do not give privacy or respect for users priority over profiting from users’ personal data—considered the juicy corporate profit-center.

Privacy laws are emerging, but they offer too little advance protection for users. Penalties may be as ineffective as license-to-pollute fines levied against environmental violators. The 2018 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [ https://eugdpr.org/ ], California’s 2020 privacy law, and emerging regulations are one approach to protecting privacy, but most, if not all,  protection provided occurs after the fact: after sharing, breach, misuse….

Missed Opportunity?

Do your clients or customers understand exactly where you and your organization stand regarding respect of client privacy and full disclosure of benefits gained from using their data, perhaps without preserving privacy?

Is this a new client-retention frontier for earning valuable client trust?

Navigating a World in Disruption

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“Disruption” remains the current “hot” word—replacing “sustainable” and “innovative”—to underscore the latest “new thinking.”

Rarely is disruption defined to reveal long-term social benefits and pervasive problems attached to the 21st Century applications that the “new” concept involves.

The context for disruption varies, but unforeseen complexities and unexpected outcomes remain among the greatest challenges in each sector, industry, organization, or walk of life facing disruptive, long-term effects of the hot new approach to anything.

Where do you see yourself with respect to disruption in your profession, industry, or clients’?

You’ve noticed the obvious pattern:

  • Disruptor: Those who benefit, see disruption as a positive, modern force. Those involved in creating it, pat themselves on the back.
  • Disrupted: Those who are in the direct path of disruption lose—their earning power, way of life, standard of living, status, sense of self-worth…—so they do not celebrate disruption. They are busy attempting to replace what they’ve lost and rebuild lives.
  • Distracted by disruption: Those who do not feel they participated in creation of the disruption or were not in the path of its direct negative effects may be unaware of or have overlook challenges or benefits for them or their clients because they consider all of this to be happening to someone else.

Do you investigate disruptions that, at first glance, do not seem connected to your business or clients, but that at very least may create distractions relevant to your world?

Recently, I was invited to attend “Navigating a World in Disruption,” the 12th edition of the International Economic Forum of the Americas’ (IEFA) Toronto Global Forum. This lively, open exchange of ideas and experience brought together more than 3500 delegates and 170 speakers representing more than 65 countries—a mix of disruptors, disrupted, and those distracted by disruption.

FYI: Terrific Places to Think: The four annual IEFA Forums are by design and reputation, places that connect attendees with world leaders and with each other. IEFA declares its mission: “to facilitate agreements, offer business opportunities and provide access to unique insights from leading specialists.”

Navigating a World in Disruption

The three-day Global Forum provided opportunities for business leaders, decisions makers, government representatives, and heads of state to discuss how organizations and economies can thrive amidst intense, seemingly-escalating economic, social, and environmental transformation. Speakers across the broad topic range acknowledged that political upheaval, reactive populism, and protectionism provide charged, distracting climates for businesses. This is a challenge as they are already coping, locally and internationally, with the growing list of disruptive technology: digital transformation, cyber risk, artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain…and the list continues.

Listening to speakers and attendees revealed practical insights for professional practices, independent business, and entrepreneurial ventures intent on successfully “Navigating a World in Disruption.” My research on disruption definitions confirmed the importance of context.

Reducing external and internal distraction is crucial for individuals and organizations intent on building momentum to take advantage of disruption or avoiding negative effects. Here’s three practical examples:

  1. Cyber-Security:
    Instead of becoming easier, maintaining cyber-security has become more challenging. Often it is the seemingly-simple issues that are most distracting. For instance, weak-password-creation habits persist. Using the same password for multiple accounts is a reality that hackers have trained their efforts on. Do your passwords and those of your employees hold up to scrutiny? These same welcomed users may inadvertently compromise security by clicking on a hacked link or visiting a malware-infested website. When employees leave, how much of your organization’s cyber knowledge leaves with or because of them?
  2. Talent Searches:
    The hiring search for specific IT skills and experience has proven less valuable than unearthing genuine desire and innate ability to learn and share. IT can be learned, but emotional intelligence (EQ) is the socially-valued talent that should be a crucial target during hiring. EQ is an important contributor on many levels from cyber-security to anti- and pro-disruption innovation, among other productivity issues.
  3. Collaboration:
    This word has become a conveniently-evasive catchall that is often used to demonstrate inclusive thinking when little may have taken place. Rarely explained or defined, collaboration frequently remains underestimated and undervalued. Collaboration does not involve only the willingness to cooperate or share, or at least talk about it. Collaboration must include communication skills like active listening, negotiation, and persuasive engagement. For individuals and groups who did not receive communication training in the 20th Century or who concentrated on 21st-Century social media, the conscious use of communication skills like these may not be automatic. The other meaning of the word—collaborating with the enemy—may also detract from its potential. The wish or intent to collaborate may not be enough to create practical, functional exchanges and commitment. Those with the knowledge and experience to facilitate collaboration may have the advantage in navigating the world of disruption.

What are your definitions of “disruption” and “collaboration”?
How prepared are you and your clients for disruption in your industry or their worlds?

Are You An Ageist?

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When was the last time you wondered if you are an ageist, that is prejudice against age?

Even if you are approximately the same chronological age as your ideal clients and your peers, you may not be immune from ageism. This insidious prejudice could still be a strong negative influence.

Ageism or prejudice related to age which labels others as either “too young” or “too old” for certain things, is usually automatic and unconscious.

Most people, consciously and unconsciously, adopt different sets of stereotypes as their personal norm. For instance, individuals often apply their own standards to others whom they consider their equal in age. Since individuals usually see themselves as younger by a decade or more than others perceive them, effective communication can become complicated.

Even prospects or clients who are the same age as you, can believe themselves “too young” for some things and “too old” for others. This means they’ll decide this for you, too, whether you share their ageist standards or not.

Do not use age-related comments unless you know exactly why age is relevant to the discussion. It usually is not.</strong

For instance, to build rapport, professional advisors, who perceive new prospects to be older than they are, may use foot-in-mouth comments like “that’s just like my grandparents” or still bad “that’s just like my parents” to break the ice with these “older” people.

  • If prospects see the professionals as being of a similar age, the prospects may feel they have just been insulted.
  • If the prospects are older, the professionals may have lost credibility by pointing out the probably-irrelevant age difference.

How’s that rapport building coming along?

If you want to bring your thinking and communicating into the 21st Century, tackle ageist anchors which may hold you back, personally and professionally. When there is a difference in chronological age between you and your clients—in one direction or the other—you have opportunities to end ageist stereotypes and help clients appreciate themselves as individuals. Which ageist barriers stand in the way of your delivery of extreme service excellence?

Stereotypes represent bias and weakness in our knowledge and understanding. These mental shortcomings emerge as ageism, racism, sexism, and on the -isms go.

This disconnect is compounded by the fact that many of these perceived limitations and restrictions can be traced back to the 19th and 20th Centuries, if not before. Particularly shocking news if the 21st Century is the only one you’re worked or even lived in.

Consider ageism in yourself, your peers, your staff, and those who you answer to, including prospects and clients. Who believes the “too old” and “too young” labels? Remember, ageism is automatic and unconscious. Ramp up your powers of observation before you shrug this analysis off as unnecessary or start calling other people out before taking a long look at yourself.

Which effective communication strategies will achieve the greatest results with the maximum enrichment of relationships and workplace productivity? The key to improvement lies in appreciating individual uniqueness instead of repeating clichés and perpetuating prejudice in its most insidious form—humor. For instance, stop memory-lapse “jokes” like “I’m having a senior’s moment.” Become part of the solution.

How have you deliberately shed out-dated reactions and aligned your communication with 21st-Century realities about chronological age?

Raised Your Service Standards Lately?

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Professionalism materializes in client service, client satisfaction, and client results.

How would you characterize the standards by which you work and that define your brand?

Are they average? Above average? High? Very high? Exemplary? Top of the field?

How do you know which category your standards fall into?

Did you design services to fit your standards or did services evolve by chance? How do you monitor them? Are you sure you are measuring the right things?

How will you know when your standards and, therefore, your brand need improvement?

  • Ask most professionals and business owners about their business standards and they’ll tell you their standards are high or very high. I know because I’ve interviewed hundreds and hundreds of professionals, entrepreneurs, executives, business owners, and advisors. No one identified their standards as less than “high.”
  • Ask clients who observe these professionals up close how service could be improved and the clients have a lot of suggestions. They always insist they’d share these ideas with the professionals if they were asked. I’ve interviewed hundreds and hundreds of these clients, and asked them what could be done to improve service and returns—and they willingly told me.

Raising your standards essentially means competing with yourself because you know you can always do more, be better.

When you already feel successful, this is a greater challenge as complacency may override constructive curiosity, particularly when you perceive the competition as already “left in the dust.”

When it comes to service, what may be a small thing to you can be a symptom of an attitude which communicates to clients a lack of service:

  • If you don’t listen to a client, why should they listen to you? If you don’t respect a client’s opinion, why should they respect yours? Even if they stay with you, will they follow your suggestions? Will you receive all their business? Will they refer you?
  • Clients who don’t believe that the professionals they hire respect them, may not be as open about their concerns and extenuating circumstances. They may also hold back on disclosing how well-off they are for fear of being charged more. What they don’t tell the professional could compromise results. They may make only token referrals unless they receive benefits they value, which may be genuine respect.
  • If you are not from the same generation as your clients, ageism may be a factor as well. The “too young to know” and “too old to know” cross-generation reactions associated with ageism can accentuate differences of opinion and value systems. These reactions may be compounded by cultural differences and language challenges:
  1. Not listening to an idea may be an ageist brush-off or may be perceived as such even if it is not.
  2. Offering suggestions may be ageist criticism or may be perceived as such.

Recognizing exactly what you are doing and not doing, and all the implications of both, is often difficult.

That’s the invisibility of the box. Unless you hire a professional to critique you regularly, this is a task you have, consciously or unconsciously, decided to take care of yourself. How good at it are you? Mediocrity can creep in through sloppiness, poor time management skills, bad habits, insecurity, sensitivity to criticism, inflated ego, stress, and weak powers of observation.

Extreme Excellence: The New Service Model
Experience confirms that excellence in client service is simple, but that simple is not always easy.

  • You simply need to raise client expectations and, thereby, differentiate your business and services from industry stereotypes and from the competition.
  • Then, simply, unfailingly, deliver on more than clients expect, in ways that clients value, whatever happens—no excuses.

Your knowledge and experience enable you to fully envision what “excellence in client service” involves from the target clients’ point of view, online and off.

You’ve observed first-hand why constructive persistence is essential to consistently achieve high levels of excellence in a continually changing world. How do you put this awareness into action for clients?

Working to make yourself and services indispensable—making it all about you—so clients remain dependent on you for problem solving, leaves clients considering these services as an ongoing cost and the problems they address an ongoing worry. Clients don’t feel freed from the problem. They’ve just added the necessity of dealing with you. This fairly typical business approach could lead them to search out less expensive alternatives or worry-free service providers.

In contrast, the ultimate goal in 21st-Century Extreme Service Excellence should be to solve the problem so completely that you and your services are no longer necessary. Concentrate on doing such a thorough job for clients that you theoretically put yourself out of work, and you’ve hit excellence. That’s what your brand should consistently embody.

Aim to create independence for clients and you’ll make yourself invaluable to them. Your introduction of empowering choice for clients will make them committed to you and your services by choice:

  • Their comfort with you and your services will be greater than the clients’ determination to adopt do-it-myself solutions.
  • Clients feel no need to take on new responsibility and manage the situation or the problem because they have confidence in you.
  • They don’t want the job of training to anticipate the problem and stopping it before it takes hold—they’ve got you.
  • Clients take on some responsibility and work to reduce the problem, but they’re comfortable relying on you to fully resolve the situation and bring them peace of mind.

[Excerpt from “What’s Your Point? Cut The Crap, Hit The Mark & Stick!” — Chapter 10 Constructive Persistence & Branding]

WBECS: Learning from & with Coaches

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To be excellent at what professional communicators—from advisors, architects, and digital developers to lawyers, brokers, and physicians—do best, we must never stop learning.

We not only strive to continuously learn about changes in our profession and related technology, but also about relevant changes in the lives, work, and businesses of our prospects, clients, and target markets.

That’s a lot of effort and investment to expend while also, each work day, engaging prospects, serving clients, running a practice or business, and having a life:

  • When opportunities arrive to improve communication prowess, raise professional standards, and allow professionals to learn from and with their peers and potentially within a target niche, that’s amazing.
  • When that opportunity is live and online—with interaction possible and no travel or inconvenience—that’s perfect.

For professional coaches around the world, the Annual World Business & Executive Coach Summit or WBECS (“webecs” as it fondly referred to) is both amazing and perfect.

WBECS organizers hope many of the 23,000 attending the complimentary WBECS Pre-Summit go on to participate in the Full Summit which reportedly provides weekly learning opportunities in flexible, interactive formats over the coming year.

Over 3 weeks, the Pre-Summit offers two or three 45-minute webinars a day, each designed to challenge, fascinate, and stimulate. I enjoy the range of professional speakers and the diversity of topics.

Unexpected “aha moments” pop up regularly as speakers reveal surprising aspects or dimensions of a seemingly-familiar topic or introduce new elements to the client-service dynamic.

As a professional communicator who lists coaches within my target niche, WBECS provides a high-standard insider look at coaches, coaching, and related challenges and opportunities. Bonus topics include business development and leadership.

Please let me share a few tidbits aimed at coaches, but valuable in many contexts. Each of these WBECS speakers made the highlighted comment within a high-content, thought-provoking webinar:

  • Opportunity Abounds: David Clutterbuck revealed the broad opportunity his latest research uncovered: Politicians may be the new big target. Politicians do not use coaches in spite of the fact that CEOs have come to reply on these professional sounding boards and productivity stimulators. Business opportunities are right in front of us. Don’t you mentally kick yourself when someone in your field steps forward with a brilliant idea that had been staring you in the face? [ https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/ ]
  • Intentional Learning: Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever, repeated the opening remarks he has become well-appreciated for: “How focused do you plan to be during this webinar?” Do you begin things you believe will be of value to you with this personal fresh-start? I’ve found declaring my intention to myself at the start of anything stimulates retention and assimilation. Thanks again, Michael. [ https://boxofcrayons.com/michael-bungay-stanier/ ]
  • Personal Branding: William Arruda explained his perspective on brand as consistent demonstration of your “unique promise of value.” Arruda reminded us that now the first meeting and first impression usually happen online, not face-to-face or voice-to-voice. As soon as your name is mentioned, you’re Googled. What is your answer to his compelling question: “What do you want to be known for?” [ https://williamarruda.com/ ]
  • Niche Development: Dorie Clark , who’s latest book is Entrepreneurial You, stressed that when you select a target niche suppress the tendency to attempt to envelope the entire community, profession, or sector you’ve identified. Instead, “go DEEP not wide.” [ https://dorieclark.com/ ]
  • Practice Expansion: Alisa Cohn emphasized the importance of a high closing rate (she’s surprised if she’s not 85% effective) to build your practice. An effective closing process, coupled with persistence and practice, which make delivery natural, ensures you attract the clients your practice is designed to serve. Cohn’s creatively-practical session sold the audience of coaches on the value of closing to clients and on the do-ability of this effective communication skill which is too often dodged by well-meaning professionals. [ https://www.alisacohn.com/ ]

Where do you get your inspiration and your insight into your prospects’ and clients’ needs?

Social Purpose: Falotico & Inner Balance

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Social Purpose Drives Startups

Part 1. What’s Your Point? PODCAST

Launch Day Perspectives PODCAST

Entrepreneurs Lino Falotico and Alicia Zadravec of InnerBalanceWear.com candidly share thoughts on inner balance and on integrating social purpose into their business venture. Are you searching for social purpose to enrich your work, contribute to obvious local need, and reach out to new target groups? Listen in…

PODCAST Highlights: 18:53 minutes
00:48 Lino Falotico’s social purpose & inner balance
04:16 Epiphany…from caterer to designer
05:56 Lino: “I believe my product will…” invisible awareness
08:20 Lino: “20 seconds” next step after epiphany
09:49 Evolution of the business concept of Inner Balance
11:26 Alicia: “Why underwear…”
13:34 The practical side…manufacturing
16:39 7% of net proceeds to Mental Health Awareness…

Part 2. Article: “5 Tips for Successfully Pursuing Social Purpose”

Before you plunge into a new social venture, consider our social-purpose example and these 5 Tips for Successful Pursuit which reveal the driving force of social purpose. This article adopts the perspective of real estate and related financial professionals to explore integration of social purpose into a practice. Simple extrapolation into other professions and business ventures requires only a pinch of imagination. Plus more on Startup InnerBalanceWear.com…

Part 3. Where Does Humor Fit into Social Purpose?

Increasing numbers of professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners want to integrate social purpose into their business venture. Their reasons for doing so, range from personal involvement to client-based concern. In all cases, if social purpose is poorly or sloppily handled, it can setback the cause and undermine business relationships.

When social purpose is your intent, you’ll probably have to address sensitive topics and discuss subjects that can cause offense or upset. Language has evolved over this century to include more and more topics previously rarely spoken of. Have we improved our communication skills or vocabulary to be sure the point can be made clearly and sensitively?

Before you plunge into marketing and sales content and campaigns to spread the word about your social purpose, make sure you won’t get tripped by ignorance or blind-sided by overlooked perspectives. For instance, when considering your social purpose, invest time analyzing where humor comes in and where it definitely doesn’t fit:

  • Don’t assume your taste, experience, or education dictates what others think or react to. Consider the long list of social media “foot in mouth” incidents from the well-meaning.
  • Research the history of your social subject to clarify persistent misconceptions. Talk to those who really know about a subject and you’ll discover an amazing list of things the public misunderstand. Communicating your perspective will involve clarifying this confusion and make you a recognized expert.
  • Expand your understanding of related issues rather than investigating your social issue as if it exists in isolation. If you are already involved in the social issue, you may be too close to see the big picture. If you’ve only recently come across this issue, there may be a lot to learn.
  • Do you know enough about those who are directly and indirectly affected by this social issue? Assumptions are dangerous and often counter-productive.
  • Avoid impromptu responses, discussions, or interviews until professional communicators have helped you. They will clarify your social message, the match between this message and your business issues, and what you want to change about the current social situation. Start with clear simple messages and that will attract experts as well as those directly involved. These people will help build momentum for the cause that they also believe in.

Humor can add another element of complexity

If the social purpose involves changing views that included laughing at people or their behavior, then misunderstandings can complicate the situation. Remember that humor is an attitude. You’ll understand that changing the perspectives on your chosen subject will involve permanently shifting attitudes. How does that align with the client education that helps clients achieve the best results when they use your products or services?

Humor is not always about the punchline or a belly laugh. Often it revolves around every-day occurrences and involvements. When humor is properly applied, attention spans increase and learning increases:

  • Humor can bring people together quickly or widen the divide between them. What are the tensions associated with the social purpose you’re considering? Will humor reduce those tensions or could it inadvertently increase stress?
  • Humor can reveal common ground, common misconceptions, and the silly side of misunderstandings and miscommunication. Jokes and stories that make fun of others can build barriers and entrench resentment. What language, stereotypes, or misconception could build barriers?
  • If you want to use humor to raise morale, build teams, and enhance rapport to build awareness of the issues associated with your selected social purpose, you must understand the issues from all perspectives.
  • Humor may provide strong ways to offer coping mechanisms for those involved during the transition or in the new solutions you propose. People like working and volunteering in positive, optimistic workplaces, so humor will become an asset when intelligently and appropriately applied.

Just because you can get a laugh or tell jokes well, does not mean you understand how to professionally communicate with humor.

The unpracticed speaker often repeats catchphrases and cliché which perpetuate ageism, sexism, and other prejudices. Some people will tell you directly that you have made a serious misstatement, but social media is driven by those who’ll tell others, with much embellishment, about your misstep.

How helpful can you be to your social cause if you cannot communicate the point of your social purpose clearly in every medium, on all platforms your targets frequent?

For more on Forward Thinking, visit these posts:

For more on PJ’s work as The Catalyst, visit www.TheCatalyst.com

Marketing Involves Distraction, Good & Bad

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Businesses and professionals, with good or bad intentions, create distraction.

Marketing, advertising, and promotion intentionally distract targets—consumers or business-to-business decision makers, depending on the business.

These self-serving communication approaches refocus prospect and client attention on the company (its products or services) which pays for the marketing and promoting.

In this highly-distracting world, do your target prospects and clients see genuine value in the additional distractions you subject them to?

  • Your marketing and promotion distract target prospects and clients in an attempt to shift their focus toward your service or products. You consider this interference “good distraction.” Would your target prospects and clients agree?
  • Competitors’ marketing and promotion distracts your target prospects and clients away from your company and toward competitors’ products or services. Would you consider this interference “bad distraction”? Would your prospects and clients agree with you?

I am someone’s target prospect. So are you.

This means we are regularly distracted and interfered with in the name of marketing, advertising, and promotion, whether we want to be or not.

Are you always caught by a marketing or promotion message at the best possible time to make a buying decision for that product or service?

Even if you’re interested, don’t these messages often catch you in the middle of something that is as, or more important, to you than spending your money in response to someone else’s distracting marketing or promotion message? How do you feel about the value of these marketing, advertising, promotional, and other self-serving messages in view of the time they cost you?

Emails and online advertising are honed and data-manipulated to attract select prospects and clients, but these intrusive sales pitches can miss their mark when timing is off—distraction plus.

When the sender—that’s the marketer or promoter—decides what’s the “best” timing for them, not targets. When targets find the messages unnecessary or untimely, the resulting distraction can be a nuisance, an annoyance, an interruption, or a major turn-off.

How are you sure that your marketing and promotion messages carry value in their own right? Is the timing ideal for targets or is the message just a waste of time? Do your selected prospects and clients respond to your marketing, advertising, and promotion? Would your targets label your messages “good distractions”?

From The Target’s Perspective

Targets can be distracted by the cloud of marketing, promotion, and advertising you, your competition, and your industry surround them with, online and off. These distractions can keep target prospects and clients from making clear, confident buying or selling decisions which are in their own best interest.

What is your full intent when marketing?

Most of us are consumers of real estate and its related services in our personal or business lives. This means you may relate to the following example of how one aspect of distraction affects real estate buyers. Prospects and buyers can be diverted from clear thinking and decision making by real estate marketing, promotion, and other deliberate marketing distractions.

Take a look at “Seven Essentials for Buying a Safe Home:”

“In dazzling summer sunshine, everything in a home looks great. But…and it’s a big but! Buyers can be distracted by strategic staging, clever decor, and time pressures.
They benefit from stepping back to determine whether the home they’re considering will require expensive additions or overhauls to keep everyone safe—not just this summer, but every day of the year. As well as any safety concerns specific to your family, there are seven main safety issues that should be top of mind for buyers of houses, townhomes, or condominiums. How long is your safety list when home shopping?” Continue reading…

Are you aware how your marketing, advertising, and other communication distractions could intentionally or unintentionally undermine targets’ decision making?

Is distraction an intended or an unintended consequence of your determined outreach to prospects and clients?

For more on effective client communication and for client retention insight:

Coaching Skill & Recognizing Good Advice

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The under-valued, but essential 21st-Century skill is recognizing good advice—relevant, forward-thinking, practical insight—and knowing what to do with it.

This crucial skill expands opportunity as it overcomes or counterbalances deficiencies, increases advantages, and diminishes problems.

The results include lowering stress, reducing anxiety, and enhancing outcomes.

Change and uncertainty are now standards.

The pervasive influence of both means that to successfully navigate the future, you can no longer rely entirely on your own experience and knowledge to forge ahead.

Achievement in this ever-changing world demands flexibility and resourcefulness based on confident decision making, clear strategic thinking, and an open receptive mind—none of which are commonplace skills.

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Roots of Resistance to Change

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Roots of Resistance to change—yours and clients’—can cause problems and distractions.

Reactions to change, whatever they are based on, are most disruptive when they arise between professionals and their prospects and clients, especially when a transaction is involved. Resistance to change is usually grounded in frustration, vulnerability, past experience, or miscommunication, not in change itself:

  • Resistance can arise when the interests of one individual or group seem to be, or are, ignored, misinterpreted, or disadvantaged by others.
  • Entrenched roots of stereotypes and prejudice in one group may lead to other individuals or groups being labeled “resistant to new ideas or procedures” before they actually reveal their true reactions.

Roots: Resistance to change is not always the wrong reaction, nor is it always negative.
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