#102: Dialtone

When you pick up the phone you expect to hear a dialtone. (There was a time that in some parts of the world you didn't, I don't know if that is true anymore!)

Think of a 'dialtone' as something people expect to be there. No 'ifs' and 'buts', if its not there, frustration and annoyance are bound to follow. The most common examples refer to product and service features: you expect a car to be sold with floor mats, you expect a meal to be tasty and not give you a bad stomach and when you flip the switch, you expect the light to come on.

There are some other not so obvious 'dialtone' expectations:

• Communication styles: Clients, bosses and dates who expect you to talk to them a certain way otherwise they will not want to work with you.
  
• Cultural protocols: These are strongly held beliefs of how individual and group interactions need to take place at various occasions, public and private.
  
• Normal and customary: These are the business protocols and rules of engagement between buyer and seller.
  

The above are tough, but you can train people to create a dialtone for them. The hardest part of creating a dialtone are:

• Assumtions: Yours and Theirs. This is the equivalent of a hidden land mine. People act, say and expect things and they have no idea why.
• Inflexibility: Once you know that a dialtone is expected and know how to create one, overcoming your inertia and weaknesses is the hard part (i.e. converting knowing into doing).
  

So how to create a 'dialtone'? Start with audience reality. Do your research. Find the sweet spot where they will say 'wow'. Find where it itches and scratch it. Sometimes physically and mostly emotionally and always take permission before scratching the itch.