Have you ever thought about what it takes to make someone care? No, this isn’t an article offering dating advice or “the secret to his heart” but, even in business, it’s a valid question. In personal relationships, care should be authentic and organic. In relationships with your customers, clients or audience however, care is something you create and inspire. The responsibility lies with you.
So where do you start? A portion of a well-known proverb might be a good first step: “Walk a mile in his shoes.” As a former journalist, that meant putting myself in the shoes of my viewers, starting with our daily editorial meetings. During those meetings, the news staff gathered to talk shop, discuss current events, debate what was newsworthy, pitch stories and organize a plan for coverage. Over the years, I’ve participated in thousands of editorial meetings but, no matter the city, the content or my role in the newsroom, I always had the same question in those meetings: “Why should I care?” When someone pitched a story: “Why should I care?” Outside of those meetings, when I trained producers to stack a show: “Why should I care?” Preparing people for an interview: “Why should I care?” Working with reporters on their storytelling… you get the idea. The goal: Think purposefully. If my question was met with an uninspired answer or, worse, no answer at all, it signaled a need to reassess.
Since starting Rein Communications, that question hasn’t gone away. In fact, it’s something we ask our clients regularly because it’s applicable to everything we do. Gauging the concerns of your client base is a crucial component of success. Sure, you might know your stuff and have something amazing to offer people, but hoping that’s enough to make people care is a fool’s errand. Hope is not a strategy. So I’m challenging you to think about those four little words. If you told someone about your company, your project or your product, what would you say if they asked, “Why should I care?”