Solidarity Sunday: Leave Them Touched, Moved, and Inspired
We rolled up to a non-union job site with a crew from the hall the other day. After the foreman cast a conspicuous glare at our union-branded attire, and "mean-mugged" us for a few seconds, one of our guys noticed a Georgia Bulldog sticker on his hard hat.
"You a Bulldog fan?" was met with an enthusiastic "hell yeah!" from the foreman. Immediately they began showing each other pictures of cool UGA gear, a picture of one of them with the national champion trophies, games they'd attended, etc. Instant common ground.
An intuitive move by our guy. In the blink of an eye, he turned a hostile interaction into an opportunity for conversation. But after a few moments of sharing a common interest, our guy turned the conversation to specific job opportunities on the union side. The foreman immediately went cold again and soon we saw ourselves out.
In this case, we went from establishing rapport by talking about a mutual interest (something the foreman was interested in) to talking about our self-interest (something he was clearly not interested in…at least for now).
If the goal of non-union job site visits is to bring workers over to "the good guys", then our tactics need reflect that. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. They don't care about us until they know we care about them. And they don't need what we provide until some event happens in their life that makes the pain of staying in the same situation, greater than the pain of changing it. The chances of a person (the good ones anyway) needing what we sell at the moment of our visit is slim and none.
The more prudent tactic might be to adjust our job site visit goal to first making a good and lasting impression, and them leave an easy path to discover what we do on their own time. We call it "leaving them touched, moved, and inspired."
Touched - establishing a common ground, a common interest that they are at least willing to let their guard down enough to start a friendly conversation.
Moved - give them something of value as a gesture. ...a bottle of water, a helmet sticker, a stick of gum. Just some token of congeniality to trigger the law of reciprocity. (Turns out we are psychologically hardwired to return favors. Reciprocity is one of the most powerful tools of persuasion.) Doesn't have to be anything expensive at all. Maybe with a little planning and forethought we could come up with stickers, or water bottles, or packs of gum branded with your local that has a QR code that leads to a "join us" page on your website or a landing page with a comparison of union package vs non-union package. Some type of inexpensive "gift" with no expectation of return. All you want to do is set the hook, and let the law of reciprocity work its magic.
Inspired - "Enjoyed talking to you, brother. Hope you have a great weekend. Take care." And then leave them a card they can quickly tuck in their pocket without the boss seeing. No selling or talking about specifics.
Touched (Even if he doesn't say it, he's thinking "Man, what a nice guy.") Moved ("guy gave me a pack of gum!…Bulldog fan too!") and Inspired ("seemed happy with what he did for a living too") is powerful. You leave a great impression, and an easy path to reach you when something in their life changes…and it will.
How's Your Short Game?
"Shorts", "Reels", "Snaps", "Stories". Social media channels call them different things, but it's the same concept. A short form video meant to convey an emotion in an economy of words. Union Up can help you sure your 'short game'. We have terabytes of union footage that allows us to craft powerful messages that make a difference in your Local.
