Often the initial approach to guiding people in another direction, is standing opposite of them, pointing over their shoulder, and saying: “There is where you should go”.

In this scenario you could probably list 1000 rational reasons for your point, and it would land on deaf ears.

The mistake: before showing someone a direction – where ever it is – make the trip to stand next to them, seeing reality from their perspective, understanding their direct wishes and then gently showing the other path. This way you make the journey together, and the other person trusts you and the new direction because of it.

I cannot stress enough the importance of this lesson in functional empathy. Probably because I myself have found myself doing it wrong many times.

An illustrations of doing it wrong vs, doing it right:

Turning website traffic into sales
Wrong: Mentally pushing all visitors in a sales funnel. Everybody who comes in is at the top of the funnel, meaning you first go there, then there, then check out.
Right: Focusing instead on first understanding what the visitor wants, what she is looking for, and what she needs to go to the next step (e.g. not ready to buy, but is ready to sign up for a give away contest.).