Pragmatic Marketing‘s Steve Johnson wrote a post a year ago “If you want to be heard, speak in the language of the listener, the buyer persona” in his blog post, What’s a persona? At the same time, Forrester analyst Tom Grant wrote a post for his blog entitled, Listening is hard, in which he said that “Both product managers and product marketers have to be top-notch professional listeners.”
What, you might wonder, is all the recent fuss about listening? Is it simple parental frustration with their children who have now been home from school for several months and are anxiously awaiting the return of classes only days or weeks away (and have even begun in some parts of our country)?
With the myriad of challenges we are asked to face and conquer each day, it is very difficult for product managers and product marketers to slow down or even stop and listen to the market. How can we effectively identify and solve market problems unless we are certain that we have correctly recognized the symptoms and “diagnosed” the market problem that is crying out for a solution, a solution our company can build so we can be called the best thing since sliced bread. (You do remember what bread is ? It’s the stuff that holds your kids’ sandwiches together when you pack their lunches so they can go back to school soon.)
When you are talking with your audience – whether you want to find a job, sell a product, attract interest, or anything – is actually irrelevant. Try thinking about, not what you want … but by carefully listening to the market, what problems need to be solved … who needs a superstar product manager, who needs a roadmap developed, who needs help to launch a great, new product? Try engaging your audience in a conversation – - with you doing most of the listening.
If your communication is all about what you or your product can do, then you are no more than an advertisement that can be turned off by switching the channel. Try re-framing the discussion/campaign/pitch to one that focuses on engaging in a two-way dialog. Talk WITH your audience. You will then be in a position to develop the relationship, which will lead to the desired results.
Same message…different day. But, looking in from the outside, one that merits consistent reinforcement.
