“How successful will you be if you only use 7% of something?”
This was the question I asked a group of individuals during a training session. The answer is obvious: “Not very.” My reply: “Then why are you doing it?”
If you have not figured it out yet, you may be using only 7% of one of the most critical functions of business and are expecting to be successful without using the other 93%. What I am speaking about of course is ‘communication.’
The art, yes, it is an art, of communication, is made up of three different components. They are; words, tonality and body language. Words only make up 7% of the art form. This may be one of the reasons that the world is in the mess it is currently in. Technology today has allowed a whole generation to lose the art of communication and why there is so much misunderstanding between individuals. We are relying on only 7% of communication when we decide to text, message or email exclusively.
This was the challenge with the group above. They only used emails for communication with their clients. Some of these clients they had never seen or talked to. Some were as close as 10 km away from their office.
Studies have shown tonality makes up approximately 36% of communication. This is as simple as picking up the phone and speaking to your client/prospect. Have you ever had a phone conversation and the other party says: “Hey, is everything all right?” Why would they say it? It was your tonality that gave you away. However, doing some quick math we are still below 50%.
This combination, 43% is much better than the 7%, however, it is still not even at 50/50. The missing 57% is body language. How do you suppose we can transmit body language through our technological instruments?
I am sure it is coming, but presently we cannot. The only way to have some read our body language is to actually, get ready for the mind-blowing moment of this blog, is to meet face to face. Wow, what a concept.
An emoji can not transmit your actual smile. The smile is one of the most powerful pieces to body language. How will you transmit warmth and caring? You can’t, it’s your eyes that will transmit those emotions. There are no GIFs of your eyes at the moment. How will show confidence and self-awareness to your prospect/client, these are essential to building trust and rapport? There is no YouTube video showing those qualities in you, however, your body positioning and handshake do make those statements come to fruition.
The group mentioned above, brought me in because their conversion rate was really low. Really, you are only being 7% efficient and you expected a higher conversion rate? I had them pick up the phone, every desk had one along with a computer, and set up face to face appointments. Of course, I provided the knowledge and tools to do it effectively and efficiently beforehand. We then worked on first impressions and the art of reading body language and how to effectively use it. The end result; conversion rates skyrocketed. My work was done.
Communication is not about the words, but rather how you say and present those words.