The Delicate Art of Delivering Sentiment

In the late 1990s, a Japanese artist named Shigetaka Kurita created the first emoji. He was working for a mobile communications company called NTT Docomo. They were developing a new internet platform. Kurita’s company needed him to figure out a way to translate 176 ideas, including people, places, emotions, and concepts in a way that would take up a small amount of space, even less space than words.?Since the new platform allowed for a limited number of characters, Kurita came up with the idea to replace words with pictures.

Today there are more than 2700 emojis and some psychologists believe that their popularity continues to multiply each year because of their ability to communicate sentiment better than words sometimes do.?

Last week’s Mindful Monday talked about the importance of mastering words. They are an important tool in our business as they are the vehicle we use to deliver our communications to one another. That being said, studies show that 93% of communication is non-verbal. That means that regardless of what words you use, it’s hard to communicate our thoughts and, more importantly, or sentiment (how we feel).

By the way, I am not condoning sending?text messages full of emojis to your clients as even emojis only deliver an iota of the sentiment we truly wish to communicate.

So how do we make sure that when we communicate, our sentiments are delivered alongside our words and actions?

#1 Overtly Express Your Sentiment - When you are communicating with someone, it’s important to overtly express your sentiment. If you are extremely thankful that a client chose to work with you in listing their home, say so to the home seller. Create systems so that you prompt yourself to express sentiment in regular communications. For example, calling each client 30 days after they closed on a home to tell them again how much you appreciate their business, goes a long way.

#2 Don’t Send Mixed Messages of Sentiment - I was speaking recently with an agent from our Salem, NH office and I asked her what she gives to clients as closing gifts. She explained that she no longer gives the same gift to every client, because of a book she read called Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Client Retention. She realized that a standard closing gift for everyone didn’t portray the sentiment of how special the client was to her. Now she handpicks something that is special to the person whom she has grown to know over the buying or selling process. According to this agent, her original standard gift program was sending a mixed message. She said, “How can I on one hand tell clients how special they are, and then on the other give them the same gift I give every client? I was saying one thing while doing another.” By the way, the same is true when you tell clients how uniquely special they are, and then only communicate through mass email campaigns. You are inadvertently cancelling out the sentiment of your words through an action that lacks sentiment. To alleviate this is simply a matter of calling the client routinely so that they receive both your mass email campaigns and your personal phone calls. And, when you make those phone calls, don't express sentiment and ask for new business in the same breath. These are two different communications that should be had at two different times so as not to water down the sentiment altogether.

#3?Be Mindful of Sentiment Disconnect - Always remain mindful that we don’t always know someone else’s sentiment. Although it often exists, we cannot see it, hear it, or touch it, and thus we sometimes assume that there is no sentiment when someone speaks to us. Last week, I shared this video about the little boy showing up late for school.?The story is a good example of a sentiment disconnect where the teacher originally has no idea that the little boy is late because he brings his handicapped brother to school each day. This is a good reminder that when receiving communications we should not assume a lack of caring or sentiment from the delivering party. In fact, we should assume the opposite, that the person does care but may have a hard time communicating it.?

#4 Be Sincere - When it comes to expressing sentiment, the most important rule of all is to be sincere. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. Saying nothing at all is a much wiser course of action than saying something that you do not mean. Non-genuine communication will put into question every single communication you have with everyone you meet.?If your words are not genuine, people will stop communicating with you, and when they stop communicating, it's really hard to do business with them. Likewise, when your communications are genuine and sincere, they need not be plentiful to make a difference.