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For anyone of a certain age (we won\u2019t be any more specific) those words most likely prompt a mind\u2019s earful of a catchy tune as recorded by the Fab Four.\u00a0 (If \u201cFab Four\u201d is meaningless to you, skip to paragraph 2.)\u00a0 The lyrics of the song, simplistic as they might be, belie one of the key — maybe even THE key criteria to successful relationship: be quiet; listen up; and you are likely to hear something of value.<\/p>\n
Makes for a nice song.\u00a0 But practically speaking, we don\u2019t much care for the discipline that is required to really listen.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t believe this?\u00a0 Look around, and consider the precipitous decline in the art of conversation<\/em>.\u00a0 E-mail, texting, social updates (in as few as 140 characters, to boot) — all make it infinitely more easy to browse, skim, filter and create shortcuts for messaging.\u00a0 Key words and optimized phrases have become the shorthand of ideas.\u00a0 Seems like this used to be thought of as \u201chearing only what we want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n And if one is really plugged in, technology will do much of the work for you.<\/p>\n Really listening, it turns out — the kind of intentional act that puts aside agendas and preconceived notions — is hard work.\u00a0 It calls for focus and concentration.\u00a0 It has one goal: to learn<\/em> something.<\/p>\n Not to sell, disciple, convert or win.\u00a0 To learn.<\/em>\u00a0 Because learning is the door to opportunity.<\/p>\n (As an aside, if your sales force, customer facing team or social media experts are having difficulty identifying new productive and profitable opportunities, they may not be listening.)<\/em><\/p>\n This is what we tell our children: listen<\/em> and learn.\u00a0 It is — to a lesser degree to be sure, but to a certain degree nonetheless — the way we behave in the earliest stages of an important personal relationship.\u00a0 Talking less.\u00a0 Listening more intentionally.\u00a0 Looking for insights that combine to form a bridge to relationship.\u00a0 Alert to the most promising opportunities for connection.<\/p>\n The unfortunate tendency — in the context of personal and<\/em> business relationships — is to far too quickly believe we know enough (if not, all<\/em>).<\/p>\n And with \u201cresearch\u201d complete, the focus on listening shifts to a preoccupation with what we now want to say<\/em>.<\/p>\n We agonize over brochure copy, web content, Twitter posts, and a message strategy for Facebook, Linked In and now Google +.\u00a0 With so many ways to deliver our message, what we say becomes the focus.\u00a0 Even in conversation, research points to the fact that often, while feigning listening, we\u2019re really thinking about what we need to say next.<\/p>\n Few are the strategic discussions around the execution of a feedback mechanism.\u00a0 Fewer still the times that the listening potential of social media or the firm web site appear on a meeting agenda.\u00a0 These are, after all, messaging tools.\u00a0 So convinced are we that connecting and communicating with the market is about messaging, that the absence of robust listening tools is scarcely noticed.<\/p>\n And we certainly don\u2019t consider the listening opportunity inherent in social media.\u00a0 (How many organizations do you know that follow clients or key customers on Twitter — not to talk to them, but to listen to what they have to say?)<\/p>\n This is not to diminish the need for or value in quality messaging.\u00a0 It is, of course, critical.\u00a0 It is to at least whisper into our collective marketing ears.<\/p>\n Want customers \/ clients for life?\u00a0 Listen closely.\u00a0 Given the time and opportunity, the market will tell you the secrets to their loyalty.<\/em><\/p>\n Eric Fletcher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For anyone of a certain age (we won\u2019t be any more specific) those words most likely prompt a mind\u2019s earful of a catchy tune as recorded by the Fab Four.\u00a0 (If \u201cFab Four\u201d is meaningless to you, skip to paragraph 2.)\u00a0 The lyrics of the song, simplistic as they might be, belie one of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,8],"tags":[1509,911,475,1508,32,53,440],"class_list":["post-3636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-ericfletcher","tag-collective","tag-execution","tag-feedback","tag-listening-quality","tag-marketing","tag-messaging","tag-opportunity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3640,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions\/3640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}