The Most Powerful Marketing Tool and it's right in front of us

Raise your hands, both of them.

Back slowly away from your device.

Now LOOK UP!

In our age of technology, we are losing our observation skills. I consider it one of the most important, most powerful tools in marketing and business. When you observe, you also listen. Eyes open, mouth shut. When you observe, you become aware. You become aware of trends, habits and cues. Most importantly, you notice what is not being said, what is missing. From interpreting body language to facial expressions, you can learn a lot just from observation.

Unfortunately, even in the empty spaces in our daily lives and weekly routines we are missing out on many opportunities to simply observe. Whether waiting at the post office, grocery store line and now, even in traffic, most people are glued to their devices. We don't notice people anymore - we don't notice their sadness or happiness. We don't notice a person that needs assistance. We simply don't notice and it's having an impact on our ability to understand people.

Today's teenager spends an average 7.5 hours per day glued to a device. You would think that should lead to very powerful observation skills as they are looking at so many people in videos and memes and photos. But this is not happening. Children's ability to read emotions actually decreases with increased screen time. (Source) If our teenagers are growing up with decreased ability to understand facial cues, let alone body cues, what does that mean for the future of business and marketing? For marketing to be successful one must understand how to connect with people and most of that is based on emotions and habits.

Last year I tried an experiment - I dumb downed my smartphone to a flip phone much to the dismay and embarrassment of my girlfriends. The only thing I could do on it was text and that was such a pain that I rarely even did that. However, by doing that, I stayed off the phone a lot more. I didn't spend that time on Facebook or Instagram and in those dead spaces during the day, I observed what was around me.

More importantly, I observed the online conversations on social media platforms. I only logged onto social media during business hours and only if I had a specific reason. I would read a little and then go back to my work. I rarely posted anything. You didn't need Facebook's trending algorithm to tell you what people were feeling or what the hot topic of the day was going to be. Eventually, everyone talks about the same thing and most of it is media driven. You notice the cycles and our patterns. In May you see graduation pictures. In the summer, you see vacation pictures and oddly, how many of your friends go to the same places and how willing they are share to private details even of their children. In August, you see kids dressed up with terrible faces heading back to school lugging their fresh, new backpacks.

The most important lesson I learned in observing the professional social networks was how "canned" everything had become. Real conversation about real business issues was hard to find. Everything is now a meaningful quote with a beautiful picture rather than addressing what small businesses need - real advice on startup, strategy, marketing, operations or advice on reducing stress or achieving work/life balance.

Whether you sell, consult or create products and services, the power of observation tells you everything you need to know to be successful in marketing. I use it every time I meet with a client. I observe when they're not open to my suggestions. I back off rather than barreling ahead and ask different questions, probing into why they don't like it so I can make sense of it or offer other suggestions. I observe they're getting irritated and have learned it's because they are feeling uncomfortable or not ready to proceed. With new client prospective meetings, I watch as they sit with folded arms in front of me and slowly, as the meeting progresses, their arms unfold and they begin to lean in, they're making increased eye contact and they're shaking their head up and down. I know then that we are connecting and this may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Observation is the most powerful marketing tool if only we would use it.

A year later, at the end of my "no smartphone" experiment, as I was trading in my flip phone, I was asked by the sales rep, "How can you be successful without a smartphone?" I felt sorry for the guy - young but eager. He had been questioning me about my business. I said, "The device does not make you successful. You do." The same is true for observation. You can't use it, if you don't do it.