In our personal lives we all aim to get that special commitment, or special some to say ‘yes’ when we ask the big question.  Fear drives us not to ask and the thought of rejection often freezes us in our tracks.

In business we have the same dilemmas.  While you might not be asking your clients to marry you ( although you might ) you are asking them to trust you, your product/service and then offer up the Benjamins.  This is a task all on it’s own.  I want to share some scary numbers with you about business commitment rates.

The below are all examples of some type of business, their efforts and the results ( commitment level ) of such efforts.

• A good preacher should to be able to get 70% of the people who showed up on Sunday to make a donation.
• A teeny bop rock group might convert 20% of concert goers to buy a shirt or souvenir.
• A great street magician can get 10% of the people who watch his show to throw a dollar in the hat.
• Direct marketers used to shoot for 2% conversion from a good list, but now, that’s a long shot.
• A blogger might convert 2% of readers to buy a book.
• And a twitter user with a lot of fans will be lucky to get one out of a thousand to click a link and buy something. (.1%)

Do you see the disparity?  It is quite clear.  Who on the list above has the most personal connection with the client base?  As we get father away from the personal human connection we start to see a dramatic loss in commitment.  Why?

Easy of the ‘no’ or the ignore.  How easy is it to ignore a tweet or a FaceBook update?  How hard is it to ignore a human being standing two feet in front of you?  Although technology is great and can help you reach the masses it has to be understood that there is no easier way to get clients to commit then offer a personal human connection.

This doesn’t mean you don’t need your social space or you should not focus on it.  Just understand what you can really get out of it.  I fear too many business owners are investing and counting on Twitter to grow their business ( aka get new clients to commit ) that they abandon the core of business—knowing people.

Want more commitments? Commit yourself to human connections.

Stats reviewed and drawn from Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com

Technorati Tags: Customers, LIME, Marketing, Social Media, Social Space

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