Same words but 38% more impact. How is it possible?
Vladimir Bushin
Making you the #1 choice | Negotiation consulting & coaching | My mission: bringing trust back to a world losing its human touch | Ask me how to make a real connection: [email protected]
You probably heard this advice: "Don't use the word 'BUT' because it negates everything you said before it."
True, it's working against you in most cases, but…
If this is such a bad word, then why does it exist?
Is there a time when it really shines?
It turns out that this word is very effective when it comes to building credibility.
Yes, building credibility.
And not only.
It can help move people's hearts.
That's true.
In the next few minutes, you'll see how to do both.
There was a charity organization raising money during the housing crisis in 2008.
It was a challenging time with high unemployment, debt, and a lot of fear.
The charity organization had a noble purpose and wanted to do everything possible to find people who could share.
They created an empathetic message intended to connect with people during this difficult time.
Here it is:
"The impact of your donation has never been greater than it is today. But we know how difficult it is for many people to give during these difficult economic times."
Unfortunately, this message didn't attract enough people to make donations.
Dr. Neidert, a Ph.D. and a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, suggested a change that didn't add or remove any words.
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But it increased the influencing power of the message significantly.
He suggested changing the order of the sentences.
The new message would read:
"We know how difficult it is for many people to give during these difficult economic times. But the impact of your donation has never been greater than it is today."
This subtle change moved the focus from the negative part and used the word "BUT" to reduce the effect of negativity shifting the focus to the benefits - the impact of the donation.
The second message produced 38% more donations.
Imagine that just a change in the order of the words was equivalent to helping 38 more people on each 100.
The word BUT has its magic because something special is always more powerful than generic.
It makes the exception of something valuable really stand out from the ordinary.
Check out here how L'Oreal used it in their marketing and examples of building credibility:
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8 个月The word no one wants to hear....BUT.
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8 个月A language is easy to learn, but it isn't easy to learn how a language influences. Great post Vladimir Bushin. It's a good reminder that though our words may gramtically be accurate, we need to look in the terminology in deeper detail to uncover the truly influential merits.
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8 个月I have heard and read so many things about ??but?? and your perspective is finally showing another angle. Rules are good, but exercising careful judgment when applying them sets us as true leaders of our free will.
Self-employed
8 个月Ah, the infamous 'BUT'—a word often vilified for its supposed negative impact on communication. That word is not appealing to anyone
self-employed
8 个月It’s really very positive. Our brains are very complicated things. It’s very interesting to learn these things. Especially when you’re training your communication skills.