In his 1971 book Silent Messages, Dr. Albert Mehrabian revealed the importance of the verbal, vocal and visual elements on communications believability. The verbal cues -- what was actually being said -- were dominant only seven percent of the time, the vocal 38 percent of the time, and the visual cues were the primary carrier of trust and
believability, a whopping 55 percent of the time.
Communications experts subsequently grabbed those insights and played up the fact that human beings are primarily visual creatures. And that’s true. But it totally misses the good doctor’s point.
What Mehrabian’s research really tells us is that people are persuaded primarily by behavior. You know, actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately, as Mark Twain once pointed out, actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often.
It’s time for everyone to wake up and smell the new millennium. The good old days of influencing by proxy are gone. We no longer dance to the lyrics of rules or rhetoric. We’re not enticed by promises nor threatened by precept. We’re not impressed by sensory hyperbole.
We’ve lost faith in business, government, and other institutions. Communication sans behavioral evidence, no matter how engaging or factual, is no longer enough to move us to belief and action.
Unless you’re an entertainer, the ultimate goal of your communication is belief. Not awareness. Not fear. Not laughs. Belief. Belief leads to experience and experience leads to adoption.
If we believe you can help us, make us look good, improve our relationships, make us feel good about ourselves, etc., then we’ll take your call, stop by your place of business, click on your link, join your organization, or grab your product off of the shelf. If we don’t, we won’t. We’re simply too busy today to act on faith.
So the next time you’re compelled to communicate; to send us a message. The next time you feel the urge to preach from the pulpit, make fantastic promises, tickle our funny bones, or entice our eyeballs . . . stop!
Stop and ask yourself: How can I bring people together -- associates with each other, associates with our audience, and our audience members with each other -- to create something real and valuable? How can I elicit belief through behavior?
Don’t say, “Just Do It,” do it with us! Don’t tell us that you want to be our friend, be our friend! Because if we do it with you, and with each other, we’ll come to believe. And belief is the path to action.
Posted May 28, 2010
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Tom is timely, thought provoking and all about the new brand vision packaged as a Seinfeld stand up. I went to school on his ideas.
Jeff Taylor, Founder, Monster.com and CEO, Eons.
When Tom Asacker writes, I read. Opportunity Screams is the right message for the right time.
Tom Peters
"And belief is the path to action."
No truer words have been said of Online Networking, Social Media & Branding amongst all the blogs I have read so far!
I have a Marketing background in Technology and in the last 2 years have been adopting the new tools of doing business voraciously, only to sometimes wonder on issues of privacy & complete transparency of products, companies & people and the long term effects of these tools. The simplicity & depth of this statement makes me realize it is only authenticity that will transition us through this phase well.
Posted by: Sujata | May 29, 2010 at 08:11 PM
I appreciate your reminder for us to 'stop' the easy flow of words from our lips; and communicate first and foremost through real actions/behavior.
I would also like to add that our behavior is heavily influenced by our 'core values' that either builds or destroys the trust of others in us.
Dianne Crampton's book:
"TIGERS Among Us: Winning Business Team Cultures And Why They Thrive" discusses how the practice of values of trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk & success were able to produce success for Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Jack Lee of 4Refuel and many other leaders.
So aside from a behavior check, it may be time to do a values check as well.
Posted by: Celina Macaisa | May 30, 2010 at 02:53 AM
Thank you Sujata. And indeed, belief is a two way street: We believe in those who believe in themselves and in the integrity of their purpose.
Posted by: Tom Asacker | May 30, 2010 at 01:17 PM
Thank you Celina. And behavior flows from particular values, just as juice flows from a certain kind of fruit.
Posted by: Tom Asacker | May 30, 2010 at 01:19 PM
Thanks Tom, this is a powerful message, especially for an internet marketer :o) I look forward to reading more of your material.
Regards,
Alison
Posted by: Alison Bova | June 26, 2010 at 01:13 AM
This article is dead on. As Vanilla Ice says, "Stop. Collaborate. And Listen." Involvement is engagement. Authentic communicating and storytelling are key to winning trust. When people trust, they are more willing to share. Thanks for a great post. And so relevant.
Posted by: Chris Wren | June 26, 2010 at 11:50 AM