Tag: communication

When sharing is the opposite of caring

FabrizioLeave a comment

You get out of a three-hour meeting where you have discussed important topics for the future of your team, your department, your company.

The first instinct is to share the bits and pieces of information you have collected with your peers – impressions, thoughts, gossips, directions, changes, tasks. If you are leader, you’d probably call right away an extraordinary meeting with people reporting into you, just to make sure that everybody can share in your own frustration, excitement, or whatever it is that you are feeling.

It would probably be a lot better, though, if you would take a moment to actually think about what just happened. Go for a walk. Call it a day. Take a piece of paper and write down what you have heard. Sleep on it. Go on for one or two days before talking to anybody that was not in that meeting about what comes next.

Your confusion does not have to be other people’s confusion.

Sure, sharing is fantastic and it makes you feel a little less lonely. But when you do not yet have a clear idea of what you should share, is it really worth it?

Attribute this

Fabrizio1 Comment

A few years back, I got a cold connection request on LinkedIn that was different from the others one usually gets.

The person sending it – a rep for product A – had done some proper research about me. They even got to this blog (I have a link in my profile, so all legit). They read a few posts and in their request they actually commented on one of them.

I accepted their request and I did not purchase product A.

In fact, I did not even book a meeting, since it was just something out of the scope of my work.

About a year later, a colleague of mine reached out asking for a recommendation. They were unsure which one of two tools they should pick for their own work. One of the options was product A. I listened to the colleague introducing the two options, and ended up saying that I did not have a clear opinion on which one they should choose. I mentioned, though, that I had a very good experience with the sales process of product A. That resonated with my colleague, since they were having a similar experience themselves.

For many different reasons, my colleague decided to pick product A.

The morale of this story is in three parts.

First, to cut through the noise, you have to do some extra effort. Perhaps quality of outreach is more important than quantity of outreach these days.

Second, brand and reputation is about taking that extra effort and making it consistent over a period of time. It’s easy to do the hard work when it works, but it’s when you do it despite the poor results, or despite the ups-and-downs, that the hard work becomes a part of your identity that others appreciate.

And third, well. Try to attribute that sale.

Get it going

FabrizioLeave a comment

Keep in mind that some tools that we use daily in marketing (and not only) are just ideas that stuck.

As such, it is good to periodically review them to make sure that they are still useful and that people using them agree on what they are for.

The funnel is such an idea.

Everybody uses it and talks about it all the time. Yet even within the same organisation, it is usual to have different people look at it from different angles, defining different stages in different ways, and generally using the levers for somewhat contrasting purposes.

So, asking what a visitor is, what a lead is, what qualification means, and agreeing on the process that moves traffic back and forth is a great place for teams to start. And to go back to whenever it makes sense.

Without this conversation, chances are that you are all focusing on separate parts. And that’s not how the funnel gets going.

Better than two

FabrizioLeave a comment

In whatever you do, keep things simple.

One button is better than two.

One paragraph is better than two.

One message is better than two.

One minute is better than two.

One goal is better than two.

It takes time and effort to bring things to their most simple form. And it pays off a million times.

Superpower

FabrizioLeave a comment

Can you put boundaries around what happens in a given day? Can you keep it enclosed in the specific situation, the momentary emotion, the sudden thought?

Professional setbacks don’t have to spill into your personal life. A rejection or even a big failure do not have to determine your next actions or take away from your motivation. Someone being rude does not mean that every person you will meet from there onwards will be deserving a cold stare.

What happens is in the moment. The story we build around it can stay with us for a long time.

What happens is immutable. The story we build around it can be shaped however we prefer.

It’s a superpower to reclaim.