"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”
~Dalai Lama
When I or virtually all other writers agree to share information and insight we have gained by study, experience, mistakes or from others with all of you that read the articles, blogs and columns, it is to help you grow your business and possibly do it with greater productivity, new concepts, better margin, quicker lead times and better results for your clients.
Have you ever really paid attention to the advice from advertisers who insist that you “act now” because quantity is limited? The reality is that the speed of your reaction has no effect on the quantity available and the advertiser seeks to sell whatever is on hand. In many cases the available quantity will exceed what is actually sold. They know however that most people will ignore the advertising, so a “call to action” that gets immediate response may improve sales.
But what if the offer is universally attractive and everyone that learns of the offer takes advantage of it? The result will be that more people are likely to be disappointed. This however never happens because most people don’t listen!
Since taking over this column and with nearly 60 articles so far, there have only been two comments published. I however receive many emails regarding what I have written and in a lot of cases the time between the articles being published and the email it prompted was not enough for any to have actually used suggestions made or tested the information in any way. These people weren't listening with the intent to learn but only to craft their response.
And that’s perfect! We count on you not listening. Here is why, if everyone listened to good advice from (real) experts, put into action suggestions to be more successful, engage more clients, get more referrals, promote great program ideas, increase available budgets, etc. - there would be little or no benefit because everyone would develop together. The saying that a rising tide lifts all boats is intended to suggest that is a good thing. It goes along with those that say they want to “level the playing field”. But in a competitive world, why would you want to help your competitor compete?
You want your boat riding higher and faster then the rest and your playing field to favor you making the goals!
As mentioned above there are very few comments to my articles that get published, but in addition to those who want to disagree, I am happy to say many are people thanking me for something they picked up reading my articles and put into play in their business.
The few that listened get to move ahead, leaving those that don’t behind. Those that listen come away with, maybe, something that they didn’t know before.
Not every suggestion, observation or case history will be a fit for every sales pro in this industry. There are many variables including resources in both time and money, size of your business, nature of your contacts and the size of their organizations, and your personal style of working. But not listening is universal! 100% of people that don’t listen learn nothing new!
So here is my suggestion for this edition of Marketing Matters: read the articles PromoCorner brings to you. Wait until you can digest the information and see if it is appropriate for your business and act on what fits. You might want to go back and look at some previous articles that you may have overlooked. This free resource isn’t duplicated anywhere else.
And keep this in mind, if you're still reading this edition, you have hopefully learned something new and everyone that didn’t get past the first paragraph have not!
Gregg Emmer is chief marketing officer and vice president at Kaeser & Blair, Inc. He has more than 40 years experience in marketing and the promotional products industry. His outside consultancy provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of other businesses and has been a useful knowledge base for K&B Dealers. Contact Gregg at gemmer@kaeser-blair.com.