The 3 Pillars of Impactful Insights

Making an impact is hard. It is also far-fetched.

So much for a spiffy opener. But truth be said, the Millennial and Gen Z generations are fixated, fuelled by the idea of making an impact.

I will not delve into depths of making an impact. I will take this back to the drawing board and look at how we can begin by making an impact with our clients, dare I say as we do our jobs.

To give you advice that is actionable and that you are able to have it as a cheat sheet anytime you are asked to provide insights, recommendations, advice within your work scope, I have created 'The 3 pillars of Impactful Insights'. Feel free to copy-paste, print, bookmark it or add it to your OneNote so it within easy reach next time you need a re-fresher.

CURIOSITY

Seek the WHY. Like Simon Sinek taught us with Start With Why. Most people know what they do, we could argue that many know how but only a small minority of intellectually curious individuals actually know why they do the things they do.

As a consumer insight consultant I have quickly learned that our best clients typically know what they want and we know how to find the answers, but unless we peel the onion until we truly understand why our client is briefing in a new piece we have nothing. Questions will remain unanswered and a myriad of requests will follow.

Also worth noting, there is also a huge difference between giving insights and being insightful. The first is active whereas the latter is passive and dependent upon how good a listener we are, how much we care about the client and their "pain" and, ta-dah! the impact we make with our recommendations.

To sum up; Be insatiably curious, ask questions and push back.

COURAGE

You are probably thinking. OK, Amanda. Easier said than done.

I know. It is simple but in no way easy.

Pushing back and challenging clients take a huge amount of courage, empathy and tact. And make no mistake, it will not always be well received or accepted. Clients usually have their ways of working with agencies and consultants as a one-way. I instruct, you do. I request, you deliver.

Changing ways of working takes time, patience and open, honest communication. The key is to understand that oftentimes they won’t have clarity on the rationale behind a request and will ask for everything. The result? Inaccurate, inefficient and rather useless insights.

If anything, put this on yourself and pre-empt to your client that you want to make sure you draw out the central question of the brief so that you are able to deliver on expectation and on target. People love to be heard.

PASSION

Understand your clients' pain points, goals, upcoming challenges and have their best interest at heart. Show that you are on their side and that you care about the project as much as they do (which you should anyway). “Wear their team’s shirt”.?

Be passionate and excitable about the findings and share their enthusiasm when presenting. This will make for a lot more engaging interactions and encourage clients to share more with you, seeing you as a true trusted partner. This is how you become indispensable and rather hard to replace.

Remember: People don't care about what you know. People care that you care.

WHAT IT ALL ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE...

BE DELIGHTFULLY INTERESTING

• Anyone can have a target audience, very few actually have one.
• Have a BUY IN: 2-3 Killer Slides, 3-5 supporting and everything else on appendix.
• All rounded recommendations: previous conversations, (stay in touch), governance, internal updates, stay up to date with market trends.
• It doesn’t take long to spot the key take out or identify patterns in any given dataset. Avoid Repetition. If there is no insight, don’t force it or waste too much time on it. It will end up diluting the key areas of focus.?

BE INCREDIBLY HUMAN

• Evoke Emotion and be excited to present (and do PRESENT!)
• USE ACTION and POWER words.
• I cannot stress enough the importance of booking results presentation meetings. They can be done as informally as a roundtable chat (that will depend on your relationship with your clients)?or more classic presentation + Q&A sections. But do insist in presenting.

BE BRUTALLY HONEST

• It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Everyone lies or omits; data does not. So stick to it when drawing insights.
• Sometimes the data will tell a very different story to what your client is hoping to hear. Adopting an attitude of transparency will help you build trust in the partnership and it is a powerful character building tool.
• Find the Silver-lining: Do not bring them problems, create solutions. Become a problem solver before all else. If an insight piece shows an issue have solutions and suggestions to hand and incite for an open forum to take place.

Sometimes what is obvious to us isn’t to everyone else. If everything else fails just ask “How would you like me to support you going forwards?”