The effect we’re trying to achieve
People connect with people who are on their side. When people feel your organisation/you are on their side, they feel an emotional connection. Everyone likes someone else to help them out.
It also triggers what is often called the law of reciprocity. When someone does something for us, we generally feel bound to do something for them or feel a small of sense of being in their debt and we treat them better.
So take on the mindset of being their representative, not your organisation. That doesn’t mean ignoring your company’s needs.
How
A lot of this can be achieved through language.
For example:
“Let me see what I can do here” instead of “you need to do this”
“Tell me more about what you would like to see and let’s see how we can get you there”
“Let’s do those together”
Authenticity
But we also need to use this language with authenticity. We’ve seen these sorts of phrases used many times by marketers. A common one is “we’re in this together” only for the organisation to them fail to provide any evidence of that. Without backing up the phrase, it actually does more damage than good.
After saying, let’s do this together, gives an example of how. e.g. say you were running a political campaign. “Let’s do this together and we’re going to start by putting pressure on…..”
Listen to the episode for more context
Image credit: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-businessman-signing-contract-in-office-3771097/