How NOT reading the room (aka the Market) costs you.

I don’t have all the smarts in the world, but let me not hold you back from the obvious, that, ‘people’ are everything. Well, because they are. People in this world, people in your world, people in your social circle, people in your reference circle, and in all the circles that you’re not a part of (yet).

These ‘people’ in question are your users, your buyers, your stakeholders, your colleagues, your partners, the media, your critics and now of course even your Trolls on social media (and multiple other invisible media, dark social etc.)

Enough has been said about the explicit need for a marketer to don various roles- of a Researcher, of a StoryTeller and a Narrator, of the Design-er, the Writer, the Editor and that of a pragmatic-number-driven-ruthless data crunching monster who must aggressively and accurately prune superfluous ad spend at all points of time, but, what remains is the?importance of reading people and the room better?first.

Irrespective of a B2C or a B2B environment, you need to amp up your listening and observation skills to make sense of the problem.

As a marketer, you are a sentient being, who, before wearing the cliched many hats, must improve on not just developing a keener?sense to truly listen, and?actively listen between the words and the pauses. You must be able to read well and read between the lines (sometimes) and then truly paint the picture (both the larger picture and the one that’s zoomed in — a?specific?picture of the microcosm that you’re trying to dissect). Like, this Funeral Director?who reads the room in silence , or when?Martha Lane Fox depicts ?that-

“Businesses that understand tech are more productive, regardless of size or sector. They ask better questions and they have more resilience. They create better services for less money.” only because they thoughtfully and truly ‘listen’ to the market/stakeholders/users.

There is so much to be said about these ‘people’ who you want to be giving to and taking from at the same time. You want to be able to improve and sanitise your understanding of the problem at hand, you want to know the deeper context that you are not privy to (yet), you want to know what they knew then and now know even better, you want to understand how their understanding evolved from then to today and just so much of that?information asymmetry is really a chasm you won’t fully cross!?As it often happens in conversations of politics, I loved what this author had to say?about having an unpopular opinion and feeling the dichotomy? of not belonging to either sides.

You are, both collecting and making first impressions when you walk into a room full of people,?some of whom maybe invested in the problem more than you?and who have taken upon them the responsibility of delivering on sales and revenue- mistakenly called the ‘harder’ side of the business.

But you need to develop a closer sense and a clearer lens of knowing?how delirious first-impressions can be. They emit a tonne of data, and obscure another tonne of data. And, you need to develop the sense of knowing better between the two.

And, yes.?Power resides in knowledge.

For example- My encounters with Negotiators (particularly in sales, or in media buying) have often indicated insincerity and a degree of phoniness that usually becomes visible only?after?some time has passed. This is troublesome because people don’t like Phonies. Phonies are not trustworthy and they make others uncomfortable; conversing with phonies also blurs the boundaries between sharing information and insight, and you never know where that piece of useful information will land up.

Back to how is this connected with Reading the Room/Market, and what does it have to do with business? Well, everything, because in the capitalist world, it’s somehow easy for some people to adopt personas that are not their own, and?they will act out differently?when they are with their bosses, or colleagues or their professional peers.?As a businesswoman, you must develop a sense to see the phoniness early and avoid pitfalls of wasted time and effort that come with it. For instance,?you want to hear what the room is telling you versus what the people in the room are explicitly telling you. You need to train your eyes and ears to sift through the noise and catch the signals early.

So, whether you are selling or buying, talking or listening, hiring or being hired, or playing a role in someone else’s requirements or demands, or simply negotiating a contract with the various partners, freelancers, agencies and individuals you will work with — eventually, the sooner and the more you know about the problem and the person you’re dealing with, the better it is for you. In fact,?NOT?reading the market can well be dangerous in high stake projects or high opportunity cost environments-?as made evident by Samsung’s and Amazon’s multiple product launch fiascos . As?MG Siegler ?aptly puts in this article,

“you just need someone taking the high level temperature of their industry. That is, someone who could “read the room” and could make sure that many initiatives at a company aren’t directionally incorrect, or worse: dangerously amiss”

If done well, reading the situation better can open up opportunities for you to discover interesting and subliminally related things (sometimes more than you intended to in the first place) that you can use to your advantage. Knowledge is power, always.

Lastly, as?Peter F. Drucker , writer and management consultant, rightly said:?“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”

Follow more for the next post on “Listening like the Psychics”.

Shruti talks about #brand , #productinnovation , #customercentricity , #behavioraleconomics , and #marketingcommunications