Communicating in New Ways‍

Some of us have thrived for years in the environment of the face-to-face meeting. It’s meant we’ve been able to read a room, notice body language, and maybe build rapport with someone based on the photos in their office or by identifying with the university on their displayed diploma. We were able to look our employees in the eye and tell if they were up or down or scared or happy.

The fancy language describing this is emotional intelligence. Lots of us have used that to our advantage to lead, manage, sell, buy, present, and any other number of key business transactions.

For the past month or two, those abilities have been back-burnered for the majority of us in almost every situation.

Instead, we are WebExing, Zooming, LinkedIn-ing, Teaming, calling, or messaging. Those activities require a whole different set of skills and abilities and, frankly, too often too many people are ill-equipped for human interaction that doesn’t include actual human interaction.

How do I know this to be true? Let’s take it back to the basics and talk about email.

Tend Before You Send‍

I’m pretty sure I’ve made every mistake one could make in electronic correspondence. True as that may be, I can tell you there are some rudimentary things you can do to help get your message across, practice decent decorum, and leave a better impression.

In anxious times like these most people are so focused on getting their points made and their to-do lists cleared that they “shoot” emails out without regard to how they may be received. Lately we’ve seen some interactions with people who are perfectly kind in person or on the phone but send some emails that actually felt like a punch in the stomach. It happens every once in a while, but when it happens routinely it’s easy to see the sender just isn’t being thoughtful. They’re actually being selfish.

Decorum and decency should be a regular part of commerce and – in times such as these – even more so. Unfortunately, tonality is often absolutely ignored, and hastily written emails are sent.

Consider these simple tips:

• Send that email to yourself first. Come back to it, read it, edit it, then decide if you actually want to deliver it to the intended recipient.
• Read it back – slowly – to yourself before hitting send.
• Put a delay delivery on it. Just because you are working at 1am on a Sunday night doesn’t mean the person who is now working from home, nervous about circumstances, or tethered to their email has to read it and respond at 1am.

Polite engagement needn’t be saved for in-person communication. It’s appropriate with a keyboard, too.

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Heard it All Before

“Misery loves company.”

“It is what it is.”

“This too shall pass.”

“Take it a day at a time.”

“The sun will come up tomorrow.”

My English teacher in high school called sentences like that colloquial language. I learned that meant ordinary, expected, or very commonly spoken phrases. For the last few weeks people in a daze are speaking trite and expected sentences. They are using language that reflects the often dulled senses that accompany horrific seasons such as this. These are painful days no doubt and this isn’t a quick message about watching our vocabulary.

There’s a reason people know these phrases and speak these statements. Read them over again.

The reason they are said so often is that they are soaked in truth. We do feel better knowing we aren’t the only ones navigating these unknown waters. When a worldwide crisis like this happens, people realize they can’t change the circumstances that encapsulate them. It helps to know it’s a season and that the next season won’t just be hotter, but more hopeful. Keeping a short account, checking in on friends and loved ones, making sure you are breathing – these are the things that are best done in quicker and more regular time intervals.

Comfort in Tomorrow

How do I know this to be true?

The new day that comes after today always comes. It may be rainy, it may be windy, but the fresh start that the dawn brings means new opportunities await us. Every day a new day comes.

Sure, it feels like the world will never be the same. And like post 9/11 and other significant events, things will change. True as that may be, we will also find a pattern, a routine, a regular pace to life again. Baseballs will be pitched and hit. Movies will be released. New sitcoms will be produced. Another type of automobile will be invented. Handheld mobile phones will get bigger and smaller and be able to do more. Babies will be born. People will fall in love and some will get married. Life will return to normal. Not a new normal, but a normal-normal.

You’ve heard it before – the sun’ll come up tomorrow. It rings true – because it is.

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Wait2Do This?

Yesterday, in the midst of all the new ways of conducting business, I was on my seventh conference call of the week and a significant client of ours told us what had been happening in their world. Major work was being put off by a large cross section of their clients. He tongue-in-cheek said, “August is going to be a really busy month,” because that’s the arbitrary time everyone has determined things will get back up and running.

Nobody really knows when the craziness of this virus will pass or when business will return to whatever “normal” is. While there is some benefit to having to learn new things (like trying to stand during those web conference calls), it’s obviously an uncomfortable time.

August is far enough out into the future, past the “summer vacation” months, and yet not too much into the distant. So, sure. August seems good but wait a minute.

A Concept4Your Consideration

The problem is, life may take a little longer to “get back to normal”. Or maybe we’ll bounce back quicker, but people won’t feel so good about keeping their summer vacation travel plans considering all the social distancing they’ve been doing this spring. Honestly, no one really knows how busy August will be.

You’re adjusting. You’re adapting. It’s really all a business can do. Or is it?

If you can get past the initial gut punch and somehow deal with the newness surrounding the way commerce is done, there are so many things you can accomplish during this time. I run a non-profit music venue as a side hustle (www.TheSpotonKirk.org) and for that organization and so many others like it, there isn’t a lot that can be done because, well, the doors are shut.

For you as a leader, as you get your oxygen mask over your face, think about how you can set a course for your team by getting that design in place or fixing that system that has long needed your attention. Now is a great time to build a recruitment plan, a marketing plan, or perhaps even look at a merger or an acquisition.

Don’t get me wrong. These are trying times, no doubt. In some regards we have no idea just how tough they can be. But that doesn’t have to mean these are idle times. Just as you’ve done in the past – use the shifting landscape to give your marketing and business development approach some much needed attention.

It's your very best bet to get back on track… when the time is right.

Three Things2Know

In real estate there’s an old saying: only three things matter – location, location, location.

It’s funny how that same adage has an application in the world of marketing and advertising as well. So many creative shops and ad agencies focus on the messaging – maybe even exclusively – with little thought or fanfare concerning where the material will run, when it will run, and how it will be rotated.

You have a bank on the south side of town and you run a billboard promoting it up in the northern suburbs. Your company’s really fun radio commercial is in the sixth spot of a seven-commercial break. Your TV commercial created to target upscale homeowners is running right in the middle of the afternoon soaps.

Location matters – in real estate and in marketing.

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How You Can Make It Work4You

You should pay attention to the messages you are creating and how you are putting them into the marketplace. That’s a huge part of successful advertising and in the ultra-competitive landscape of 2020, it’s really important you get that piece of the plan right.

Do yourself a favor, though, and hold the placement of the outreach you are doing in equally high regard. Think before you lock in that annual agreement, sign up for that on-sale package, or decide about the billboard or newspaper advertisement. Even the best, most well-crafted ad has to be seen and heard by the right audience to create the momentum and branding you are hoping to gain. While it may seem simple and logical, you’d be surprised at how often I see or hear something that is way out of alignment or sorely out of position.

So remember, placement is to advertising like location is to real estate.

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Say Goodbye2the 1990's

Twice in a matter of days I asked a “youngin” about learning something and both times they took the same tack. Suddenly, I realized how old I was.

You see, back in the day we’d have asked a friend for information, or gone to the library, or found an expert, or gotten a hold of an owner’s manual. Heck, back then we’d even grab a phone directory and look up a business that could help us solve our problem. A phone book? It’s almost laughable now.

These days all people – especially younger people – simply google things to find their information. (I kept "google" lower case because it's a certified verb now.) Or, better yet, people will youtube the answers to their queries (again, a verb).

It’s just how things are done today.

Use the Tools4You

It’s 2020 – time to embrace the action of googling or youtubing something. Whether you want to learn how to save an orchid that is going brown or see how a 1996 Cadillac STS works in an easy-to-grasp video format, it’s the most current way to get information.

You’ve probably already been thinking about making some improvements in the digital arenas of your organization’s world. Consider this as the powerful suggestion you needed in order to get those things up to date and make sure your business is reflected in these platforms. It's not just ensuring you're in the mix, it's realizing culturally this is how people gather knowledge and get their facts. It’s simply how commerce works these days.

Of course we still have appreciation for the Spin Doctors, Cheers, and those bright, colorful braided sweaters, but it’s time to get with the times people. (If you don’t know much about braided sweaters, it’s okay. You can google it.)

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Opportunities 2 Notice

Football teams have evolved their rosters through the years – just like baseball teams did years before. You have short yardage runners, nickel backs, receivers who only play on third downs, and kickers who are especially talented at nailing long field goals. (If you can kick a long one, shouldn’t you be able to kick a short one even better?) They have specialists galore.

The business-as-sports analogies can get old, but at times they are appropriate.

You have a marketing director, or a marketing coordinator, or even a few people in your marketing department. That means your marketing needs are covered, right?

How to Address Them 4 Development

There are dozens of positions on a football team and, similarly, there a lot of marketing specialties. No one person can have the necessary capabilities to handle all the various marketing needs – and typically even two or three fall short. That’s where you find the gaps. The creative wiz who can brand and make eye-catching graphics may not have the expertise with the written word, or with media buying, or with managing a Google Adwords account. A web designer may not be as efficient as a website builder, or if they can do both of those things, there’s a good chance they wouldn’t be as good at maintaining an ongoing program.

And that doesn’t even count video work, radio production, the creation of white papers, or direct mail – whether via the post office or the digital world. There is just too much for one or even a few marketers to master. Why try to fight it?

You wouldn’t expect that third down receiver to toss the touchdown pass and typically most coaches don’t want their high-priced quarterback blocking defenders. In this case, the sports analogy works just fine. Ask for help with that out-of-the-ordinary project when you need it and be excellent at what you regularly do. It’s a win-win.

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