That subject line sounds a bit silly.

We're all human after all. At least I assume I don't have too many AI subscribers secretly analysing everything I send out.

But many of us don't come across as all that human.

Years ago Huthwaite published a nice little white paper by Neil Rackham called “Avoiding the Traps in Selling Professional Services”.

In it, he reported the results of a study they'd done into the key components of trust between professional service providers and clients. In their words: competence, candour and concern.

Competence is whether you know what you're doing professionally. Candour (the British spelling!) is being straight with them and telling the truth. Concern is caring about them and focusing on their needs above yours.

On average, sellers of consulting services scored 83% on client perceptions of their candour and 66% on perceptions of their competence. But just 35% when it came to concern.

In other words, clients thought their consultants didn't particularly care about them, understand their needs, or prioritise them above their own.

That study was first published in 2004,  but I think things have actually got worse.

Back then, most of your marketing was done face to face where you had a chance to get across your human side in person.

Nowadays with so much marketing being done online and so much emphasis on content, it's all too easy to “be professional” and focus on establishing your expertise without building a real human connection with your potential clients.

But think about the people you follow and listen to on a regular basis. How many are “all business” vs those you know more about personally through their communications?

There are a few people I follow who are like a black box to me. I only see their expertise and I never see what's going on in their life, how they feel about things, how they came up with ideas, their successes (and more importantly their failures) with their ideas and with clients.

But they're the exception and they have to have outstanding insights for me to keep following them. Otherwise, frankly, I get a bit bored. I feel no connection to them.

The vast majority of people I follow and listen to have something more to them. I know a bit about them because they explain their content in ways that reveal their life, their opinions, their ups and downs.

It's not quite like following a soap opera or reality show but there are a lot of similarities. We're inherently interested in people, not just ideas.

So having the courage to share a bit more about ourselves in our marketing can have a big payoff.

As long, of course, as it makes us seem more human and more likely to understand our clients – not if it comes across as just showing off.

I'll talk about how to do that in next week's email.