Why being attentive, empathetic and intelligent will always win
The Most Powerful Tool in Marketing Isn’t a Tool
Between the all-encompassing world of the internet and the new frontiers of AI, the marketing industry is awash in powerful and exciting high-tech tools. And you’d think all that technology would support super-clear, near-instant communication. But all too often, the opposite is true.
At FSM, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to get inside the minds of an audience. Digital tools like ChatGPT can be helpful, but reading minds is tricky. It can lead to mistaken assumptions, trite platitudes and a lot of misunderstandings.
We have found that the best tool to combat these issues is clear communication – which is not a tool but a set of specialized skills. The backbone of every successful relationship is clear communication. Whether it’s between people or organizations, communicating clearly builds trust and supports true partnership.
Our core value of clear communication lives at the heart of everything we do. Let’s break this core value down to understand exactly how it informs our day-to-day work and our relationships with clients.
Say What? Elements of Clear Communication
Communicating clearly requires a mosaic of overlapping skills. We’ve boiled it down to four basic practices that – when embraced humbly and genuinely – lead to deep connections and long-lasting trust:
- Observing & Listening
- Watching For & Resolving Red Flags
- Assuming the Best First
- Choosing Simplicity & Sincerity
Observing and Listening
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“If you think communication is all talking, you haven’t been listening.” – Author and cartoonist Ashleigh Brilliant
We are experts at marketing. Our clients are experts in a wide range of industries, from commercial lighting to manufacturing, landscaping, mental health services, IT support and more.
One of the first and most important things we do with clients is listen – to their marketing needs, yes, but also to the story behind their business. They earned expertise in their field through hard work and experience. The only way we can celebrate and leverage that expertise to achieve their marketing goals is by opening our hearts, minds and ears to them.
In our day-to-day work, we practice listening to and observing our colleagues, as well. Our office typically resounds with conversations between team members discussing coding issues, SEO strategies, ideas for surmounting problems of all kinds. By listening attentively before responding thoughtfully, we validate each other’s contributions to a project, then elevate their ideas by expanding on them.
Watching For and Resolving Red Flags
“An absence of effective communication will ultimately lead to conflict.” – Organizational behavior expert and author John Hoover
We are not afraid of confronting difficult situations at FSM. Part of our commitment to clear communication involves gauging our clients for dissatisfaction and misunderstandings. Anybody can drop the ball from time to time, but true all-stars know that ignoring mistakes only makes them worse. So we take the initiative to notice problems, address them constructively and work toward a resolution with candor and professionalism.
This applies to external and internal communication. We pride ourselves on being mature and professional in every interaction with our colleagues, especially when the situation is complex or uncomfortable.
Assuming the Best First
“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Austrian-American management consultant, educator and author Peter Drucker
It can be quite easy to misinterpret someone else’s communications. Nuances of tone and subtext get lost quickly in emails and chat messages. And it’s a natural human instinct to make assumptions about or take offense at the surface level of digital correspondence.
Part of our commitment to clear communication is not jumping to conclusions about intent. If the intentions or full meaning behind a message are unclear, we make every effort to assume miscommunication over malice – then open a conversation to get to the heart of the matter. We believe that most people mean well most of the time, and an assumption of good intentions is the best place to start making progress toward a mutually beneficial resolution to any misunderstandings.
Choosing Simplicity and Sincerity
“Think like a wise person but communicate in the language of the people.” – Irish poet, dramatist and writer William Butler Yeats
There’s little more frustrating than being overwhelmed by unfamiliar technical jargon. Equally as bad is the feeling of being conned by a slick salesman. The opposite of these is the sense of connection that comes from having a new idea explained clearly, simply and sincerely.
One of our go-to sayings at FSM is “clean that up for me.” It mostly comes into play when our digital or web team members need to explain highly technical aspects of their jobs to less-tech-savvy colleagues. If those colleagues have the responsibility of conveying the complex information to a client, they’ll need to “clean it up” so it’s more easily digestible to someone who doesn’t build websites, manage digital campaigns, etc.
We use a lot of acronyms and shorthand words in our daily conversations in the FSM office. But when absolute clarity is a must – both with clients and with each other – we opt for common, everyday language whenever possible. And you won’t find any high-pressure salespeople on our staff. Our goal is to infuse every communication with a balance of simplicity and sincerity that gets our point across as clearly as possible.
Clearly the Best: Communicating FSM’s Awesomeness
As Albert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The FSM team strives every day to understand our clients, their industries and our own jobs so deeply that we can communicate about them simply and effectively to anyone. After all, truly clear communication is the fuel that strong partnerships run on.
