several of the same people. I was puzzled. Why? So I looked at her brochure. It said pretty much the same things I had said in my email. Removing the bias had strengthened the message. Peo- ple say wonderful things about themselves: In their brochures; their tenders; their case studies; on their web- sites etc. But when a real client says pretty much the same thing, the message becomes compelling rather than viewed with healthy skepticism and suspicion. The facts about word of mouth you can’t ignore Nielsen, in their 2013 ‘Global Trust In Advertising’ sur- vey, polled 29,000 people from 58 countries. Out on its own, with 84 per cent, was word of mouth as the number one trusted influence on their purchasing. Interestingly, in second place with 70 per cent, was on- line product reviews which is another form of word of mouth. All the usual suspects like magazine advertising, social media, TV etc were much further down the list. So if word of mouth is by far the biggest influence, why do we shrug our shoulders, invest fortunes on inferior and less trusted forms of advertising and marketing, and leave it all to blind faith? In fact if you fire up your accounts application, look at the “marketing” cost centre reports, how much did you spend on word of mouth compared to everything else in that category last year? I would bet your spending is rather skewed against the most trusted form of advertising. Word of mouth is gaining credence fast as a separate discipline in its own right. And yes, you can engage an ex- pert to accelerate it, but the good news is that there are a number of things you can do yourself. Your social proof – Case studies If you read my earlier example, you will spot that pretty much the same thing, spoken from a different perspective changes the results – dramatically. That’s what I noticed in UK construction. Case studies, which are the equivalent of bottled word of mouth if done right, are nearly always produced from completely the wrong perspective. To make the point, I Googled contractors in my home town. For the number one result, I clicked on their case studies. Names changed to protect the innocent (or rather guilty!), but here’s what I found: Acme were appointed main contractor within this large scale manufacturing facility… And: Acme Construction was appointed to project manage the removal of 1960's vehicle loading tables and replace with… Because pretty much everyone does the same thing – write from their own perspective, the peril in the title of this article applies to your competitors who are NOT read- ing this. The peril may apply to you too if you don’t act and change the perspective. That’s because you can very easily stand out from the rest by simply interviewing your client and asking them about what you did and how well you did it. It becomes instantly engaging. Let’s try those openings again, this time quoting the client we interviewed, so note the quotation marks and how different it sounds: “I was delighted we appointed Acme as our main contractor for this large scale manufacturing facil- ity…” And: “Acme Construction did a fantastic job of project managing the removal of 1960’s vehicle loading tables and replacing them with…” Turn it into a story – The battle between logic and emotion For some reason, many in business think we leave the home as a human, and when we arrive at our place of work we suddenly become a Vulcan. Especially when it comes to a ‘big decision’ involving, for example, our choice of sub-contractors for a large con- struction project. This is where it’s useful to consider Star Trek and in par- ticular the main character Spock. Why did we relate to Spock over the last 50 or so years? Even those who didn’t follow Star Trek knew the story – he was wrestling in a constant battle between logic and emo- tion. But was it really a Vulcan problem? Or did we all relate to it because as humans we go through the same? The point here is that we like to think logic is at the centre of every business decision. But when people are wired up to monitor their brain ac- tivity before being presented with an advertising message, the synapses in the part of the brain dealing with emotion fire off first. Logic kicks in too, but afterwards. So let’s combine both together. Produce our case stud- ies through the eyes and words of our clients. And make it a story with a touch of emotion as well as business logic. US psychologist tells us which emotions to focus on Abraham Maslow was a U.S. psychologist studying human motivations. So if you want to fire those positive emotional synapses in your case studies, let’s look at the areas his 1943 paper on the topic reveals as central. We are programmed first to survive; then seek shelter; belong to a group of people; be respected by others; and have our self-esteem validated. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — July-August 2015 – 7