The 7% Statistic Lie

Welcome to the show!

In today's episode, I'm talking about a statistic that I hear weekly and sometimes daily being quoted.  The statistic is, that only 7% of the message is interpreted via words and the balance is through voice and nonverbals.

It's not accurate, it was never meant to be used as a research point the way it is being used.

What is my problem with that you ask? 

People are not doing their due diligence on what they teach, this is a problem when it comes to buyer trust which is at an all time low.

The people that are just taking this statistic and teaching to it would not be doing it if they knew the data was seriously flawed and it is.

You can't quantify a statistic like that with on 32 participants in the study and they were given limitations on words which would sway the study.

The point though is that people need to take more accountability for doing the work instead of the easy and lazy way out of just posting something and not doing the work behind it.  It's not fair to the consumer to be told information that is not true.

It's a problem, it's a big problem and all of us will reap the fallout from it.  Do the work, honor the buyer enough to do the work.

Yes, voice plays a HUGE role in the delivery of the message, in fact I've reflected on this statistic before from the perspective of how it's inaccurate because voice holds more weight.

Truth be told, you may not like this episode and you may not like my take on it.  That's okay.  Integrity, delivering quantifiable information to best serve my listener's and students is everything to me.  Being liked is just a bonus!