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Speaking with non-Native English Speakers

December 30, 2016 //
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I was reading an article the other day which suggested that native English speakers need to learn how speak English with non-native English speakers.

It seems pretty obvious to this writer that we need to adapt the way we speak – to some degree – to every single person we speak to, even if they’re also native English speakers. That’s what communication is all about; adapting our vocabulary, phrasing and colloquialisms to the person and situation at hand. This is what all communicators do naturally, talking more slowly to non-native speakers, avoiding idiom, softening accents, and so on.

Those that don’t do this are small-minded, either because they don’t understand the basics of communication or they don;t care to make life easier for the person they’re in dialogue with.

Non-native English speakers may find written English easier to understand, because it’s more formal, they can take their time with it and revisit the sentence if they want, or look a word up for a translation. Spoke English offers none of these luxuries, unless you help out. Written and spoken English are also two different, and diverging, languages, each subject to different forces like speed of change and formalising regulations.

So, speaking with or writing for  non-native English speakers is like speaking with or writing for any speaker. It;s basic sales and marketing. You adapt your content to your audience.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

Meeting with New People

December 16, 2016 //
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Did anyone notable ever say something along the lines of ‘a wise man speaks less, a foolish man does not’?

If they didn’t, they should have, so I’m filling the gap now.

When you’re in a meeting with new people, I think it’s a sensible course of action to keep your own counsel first. This is deferential, which is polite and considerate, but also gives you a chance to gauge the situation, see what they’re like, assess what they know, and generally rate them as individuals, based on your early impressions.

Then, when you’ve given them a chance and you’re surer of the situation, you can start contributing from a more knowledgeable basis.

This approach certainly works well in sales and marketing, when you’re looking to get the customer to do the talking so you can learn more and propose a better solution that builds on your increased understanding of their requirements.

When you understand the situation and the new person you’re talking to better than they do you, you’re in a position to help them better, make a better first impression, and have a better chance of controlling the dialogue and the output.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales

Polls

December 14, 2016 //
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When it comes to polls, it’s been the year of inaccurate polls. When we finally realised they can be wrong, and actually, a bit of a liability. When they don’t get the simple binary result right – yes or no – then what use are they?

Let’s not forget that polls are statistics, which are rarely accurate if they’re not scrupulously scientific. A poll takes a sample size of the population and projects that sample size onto the population as a whole. All of a sudden, polls become ‘the truth’.

Of course, this is flawed in a number of ways. The sample size is probably not be a reflection of society at large. People may lie or change their mind between when they are polled and when they vote. Polls are run by people of a certain societal group prey to their own prejudices and predispositions. The way the poll is calculated may be wrong. And, perhaps most important when you think of the 2 major instances when the polls got it wrong in 2016, the polls don’t reflect the complexities and intricacies of how votes are counted.

Is this the death knell for polls? Probably not, but it’s a useful reality check, a reminder that statistics can be a guide, but often a faulty guide; misinformed, biased, made up or just plain wrong.

As our US friends might say: polls, schmolls…

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning

Old Pilots

December 12, 2016 //
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There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots.

So goes the saying. It’s about risk, isn’t it? The idea that if you take risks, eventually your 9 lives are going to run out and you’re going to fail. If this is in a mission critical line of work, then that failure could be final.

In business, though, you can make the argument that if you’re not failing, you’re not moving quickly enough. Business – especially innovative, disruptive business, is about seeing the opportunity, moving quickly, executing and getting the timing right. You don’t have the luxury of endless iterations while you try and improve to the stage of ‘perfect’. Perfect doesn’t exist.

To have tried and failed not only makes you a better person, it makes you richer for the experience.

Take risks. Fail early, fail often. Then, when you do succeed, you’ll have succeeded quickly, before everyone else, and you have the right window to keep improving while you make hay.

That’s the the promised land for bold pilots, old and young, I think.

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Categories Communication, General

One Hour

December 9, 2016 //
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I’ll keep this post uncharacteristically short. I’m going to put it out there. It applies for work and play.

No meeting, session, presentation and so on should be longer than an hour. Anything more is too much, unfair to the audience, not a good use of anyone’s time. It’s a productivity and attention thing.

Do we really need longer than an hour? If we do, we should split it up into sessions, with breaks. Look at the educational system, which should be focused on learning, absorbing, retaining and using information. Classes are less than an hour, and double classes should have a complete break.

The exception to this is if you, the customer, the audience member, have paid for the privilege. A film, a show, or an evening with someone. Other than that, it should be an hour, max. It’s all you should need.

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Marketing, Sales

Umbrella Gridlock

December 7, 2016 //
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A while ago I talked about umbrella wars in London. Lots of jousting and potential for losing an eye in the daily commute.

Interestingly, though, you only see the wars when pedestrian traffic is moving in more than one direction. The other day I was walking from London Bridge train station into the City at rush hour in the rain. Massive swathes of people all heading into work. All heading the same direction.

We crossed north over London Bridge, about 8-abreast. You can’t actually move in the opposing direction, unless you want to jostle with the buses and taxis on the road. The rest of us are in a moving umbrella gridlock, sucked along at one universal speed. You can’t overtake anyone, you can’t slow down. You can only exit from the edge of the river of people. Diagonal or sideways moves, fuggedaboudit.

Everyone moves as one, a huge, multi-umbrellaed beast, a giant tank of black plastic pointiness. It’s a bit of an odd feeling actually, especially if you like to plough your own furrow, metaphorically. When you can’t do it physically, it seems to impinge the metaphorical side. Moving umbrella gridlock.

 

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Categories Communication, General

Get it Out There

November 11, 2016 //
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When is a product ready? When is a project done? When is the document finished?

It never is of course. Nothing’s perfect in the B2B world. It can always be improved upon. It can always receive another iteration. We can always go round again.

Back in the heady dot com days of the late 1990’s, it was all about ‘ready, fire, aim.’ Look where that got us. In many cases it generated false hopes, over-inflated intentions and a lot of failed businesses.

But there’s still an important philosophical argument to be waged between the ‘it’s ready enough, get it out there and see how it goes’ and the ‘no, it needs more work, let’s put the brakes on and get it out late but better’. This inevitably creates tensions within the business.

The younger and more junior you tend to be in an organisation, the more you favour the former camp. Customers will tell us what they think. It’s time to ask them and then we can iterate accordingly, or so runs the argument. ‘Pick a point and go,’ as I’ve said before. The older and more senior you are, with more at stake, and more experience to back it up, the more you side with the latter camp. It’s not going out like this. I’m not happy. We can do better and we should wait, get it right, and offer customers a better experience, you might say.

Hmm, get it right, versus get it out there. When is a product right?

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy

500 Blog Posts

November 9, 2016 //
2

Hello. It’s Wednesday 9th November 2016. I know there’s been an important election, but I’m not focused on it right now.

This is my 500th blog post.

500. It’s a decent soccer or rugby win rate, a great test cricket score, a phenomenal baseball batting average. It’s a long book if you sew it together. I’m very pleased.

For the last 3-and-a-bit years, I’ve been sharing my ‘musings on stuff I come into contact with’, not caring that I finish my statements with a preposition. I’d like to think it’s a symbol of what I’m about; not quite iconoclastic, but certainly calling things and writing them the way I see them, without any sugar coating.

When I started this blog it was early September 2013. I had a little time and wanted to get into the discipline of writing regularly. I didn’t know how long it would last. I didn’t set myself a goal; maybe I should have. I’m surprised and delighted that I continue my Monday-Wednesday-Friday thing into a fourth year. I’m not quite in the Seth Godin league of 7-day-a-week pronouncements to the marketing masses for the last 7-plus years, but I’m still very pleased. My posts are generally longer than his short ones, and shorter than his long ones. I’ve always tried to go for consistency and occupy your attention for about 1-2 minutes, 3 times a week. I think that’s about the right level of intrusion for blog posts.

I’m conscious that this post has been almost all about me, which is something I always try to avoid, especially in the advice I dispense about marketing, sales, business and life. I think, however, that it’s OK to give yourself a pat on the back when it’s deserved, so I trust you will forgive this minute or 2 of self indulgence.

 

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Categories Communication, Marketing, Sales

Never Leave a Room Empty-Handed

October 26, 2016 //
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My good lady’s father has a saying: never leave a room empty-handed. There’s always something you could be putting back, tidying up, or passing to someone.

It makes sense. It feeds directly into our personal productivity; doing a little often, chipping away at something rather than allowing a huge wedge of a thankless job to weigh us down, becoming bigger by the day, hanging over our heads and making us stressed.

I must confess I’m not good at this. These little pregnant pauses are great moments for doing a few leg exercises to loosen a troublesome calf muscle, or filing a few bills away at a time. Too often I let procrastination of the distasteful become the thief of my time as I kid myself that it’s better if I do one big job.

It’s the same in the electronic world as well of course. Even though we feel we’ve never been busier, with our time seemingly accounted for from the moment we wake til the moment we sleep, there are still little tiny pockets of time that we could be using better. We could be getting rid of emails, deleting old texts or unwanted photos languishing in our phones.

In work and life, idleness is a disease. It’s not the same as relaxation. There’s always something we could be doing.

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Categories Communication, General
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