Law of Relatedness - Persuasion Strategies - Pt. 2

Last week we talked about how the Law of Social Proof acted to persuade others. When clients experience your services and tell their stories, prospects who hear (or read) these stories become more open to the value of your services.

The Law of Relatedness builds on this law.

It adds one important component. If those who tell their stories are like the people who hear the stories, the persuasion factor increases. And if the situation of those who tell their stories are similar to those who hear the stories, then the persuasion is even stronger.

The response you are looking for is: "I can relate to that!"

The more connection we feel to someone, to their story, their situation, to their problem, the more relatedness, the more effective the persuasion.

OK, so what are some ways to apply this in your business?

1. Make sure your testimonials are directly related to the concerns of your prospects. Work at getting stories that people can directly relate to. Ask those who write testimonials to talk about their original situation and how things changed once they started working with you.

2. When you write articles, either for publication in your eZine or newsletter, include case studies that prove your point. If you're writing about a management practice, for instance, talk about how a client dramatically increased their effectiveness by applying this practice. Give enough details so that the reader can completely relate your client's situation to their situation.

3. Have your clients interviewed and recorded. Use that recording as an "audio testimonial" to post on your web site or to forward to a potential client. You might do the interview yourself or hire someone to do the interview. In any case, do more than a canned sound bite. The listener will relate to the audio testimonial better if it's in the context of a natural conversation.

4. If you do an introductory event or teleclass, invite successful clients or customers to be at the event or on the call with you. At the appropriate time, interview them briefly about how they came to use your service, what their challenge was and how you helped them overcome their challenge and produce a higher level of results.

5. When you post testimonials or case studies on your web site, include pictures of your clients. It's easier to relate to a story if the words also come with a picture of the person who told the story. Never make your testimonials or case studies anonymous.

Ultimately, you want to do everything possible to help your prospects to relate to your existing clients. You must get the thought process going in this direction: "I'm very much like that person. They have a similar business and similar challenges. What they say makes sense; it's reasonable, and the results they've gotten are what I'm looking for. I'd like to know more."

By practicing the Law of Relatedness, when prospects ultimately respond to your marketing, they will be much more predisposed to doing business with you.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Relatedness equals persuasiveness. Of course, this also applies to prospects relating to you. Being visible, telling your story, building trust and familiarity over the long term is also an application of this law of persuasion.

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What other ways have you applied the Law Relatedness in your marketing? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Comments

[Kare Anderson]

Here’s how I use the Law of Relatedness. Followers of Middleton’s savvy ideas could adapt this approach by offering to speak twice at a member-based organization where their kind of clients belonged.

At the beginning of my session on SmartPartnering at annual conferences, I ask the audience to listen closely to three of their peers who successfully adopted at least one of the methods they heard me suggest, when I spoke to the group the last year.

(The previous year I'd invited attendees to write to me about the successful way they used one of my methods, saying I would pick three lucky people to share their success with their colleagues the next year.

Two months before the conference I called three of the most fervent, successful attendees, invited them to speak and reviewed with them what they would say.)

At my session, each of the three has three minutes to describe how they put their partnership method into practice in their business and what benefit(s) resulted.

Then audience members could vote on their favorite real life story from their peer (with whom they could relate) by writing the name of the person on the back of their business card (or blank card on their seat).

After the three spoke, attendees were asked to pass their cards to the aisle where they would be counted.

I said that the winner would be announced at the end of my session - and then began my seminar.

That winner would get a $400 package of my products + a gift from an exhibitor at the conference.

After the session the winner would pick up the exhibitor's gift at the exhibitor’ booth in the tradeshow.

With this approach audience attendees hear success stories from peers with whom they can relate - before I start my session. It starts positive conversation amongst them - about my "product" speaking and creating products on SmartPartnering.

Those three who spoke are motivated to be their articulate best. This approach engenders bragging rights in those three, the winner and the "sponsoring" exhibitor.

One way to deepen the Law of Relatedness is to establish ways that your happy customers can speak and act in support of their belief in your product.

Each time they do, they become more deeply believing and articulate fans - thus increasing their influence on their peers.

BTW, as a longtime fan of Middleton's pithy, news-you-can-use ideas, I recommend him in my speaking at conferences of those in professional services - so his Law of Relatedness sure worked on me.