The toughest words to say

When people get married and the priest says: "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"  The woman doesn't say Yes.  She says, "I do."

When you buy a product from someone and you both agree that it is going to help you, I'm willing to bet you rarely hear the word "yes."  The litany of responses will be: 
-Let's go with it.
- When can you deliver it?
-This makes sense.
-I'm on board.

In your professional life, you have so many people that are scared to tell people they can't do something that they avoid the "No" Response.

You know who will give you a straight yes or no?  Little kids.

When we all were little kids, if we didn't like something we weren't shy to say how we felt.  There were no filters.  A kid can "No I don't want to" and not feel pressure to be PR friendly.  Now these filters are important as we get older, but why is it so hard to elicit a simple yes or no?

I can only think of the medical profession where people are given a clear 2 options but even then, you're never given a yes or no.  It's positive and negative.  Positive can mean a bad diagnosis.  You're given suggestions. (Thanks to insight from my friend in healthcare)

No seems to scare people because it signals the chance of losing an opportunity.  Even if that person is not interested, the thought of saying No could mean never.  Saying Yes shouldn't be hard but if you say Yes too much, people question your backbone.  

People avoid situations where they have to say Yes or No.  If you were to google "Yes or No",  You will see blogs and articles with people giving advice on how to avoid saying Yes or No.  ( I did the homework for you- "Yes or No")

Who's got a problem? Everyone!

I had a marketing operations professor in college named Dr. McDermott (brilliant man) that would always challenge his students to up their critical thinking skills.  We would always talk about successful companies like Virgin, Apple, Nike, and others.  In these conversations we didn't talk about what made them successful.

We had conversations on what marketing challenges would they expect to have.

Salespeople that sell marketing services deliver a pitch and hear "We're good. Not interested."

They aren't perfect.  Every company is facing a challenge that they can't quite figure out. Young companies want to figure out how to grow.  Mature companies worry about how to maintain on top, and everyone in the middle is just trying to stay afloat.  Why are some companies blind to their challenges?  The question of worth often gets in the way.

"If I ask for help, does that mean I'm not good at my job?

No.  It means you care enough about the business that you want to find ways to stop challenges before they happen.  Having a marketing plan is a no brainer, but how often do you change that plan?

The Harvard Business Review had an article dating back 1969 highlighting business executives and the fear to change.  Executives know there's a problem, it's whether that problem affects them personally in some way.  Maybe if it's technology, it could mean it removes something valuable from your every day operations.

It's amazing when you can admit, see, and be comfortable with being vulnerable to what your company needs to be stronger.

Content-we love a villain

I love reading original blog posts.  I really do.  Like a TV show, there's various villains that pop up on your posts and content.

I love when there's a passionate discussion going on within a specific post.  I've been on teams where people worry about when a poster disagrees with what the copywriter created.  I really enjoy when that happens.  It's not because I'm combative.  It tells me that people actually care about what is being written.

I've always believed it's better to be disliked or liked than someone having no opinion or feeling about you.   There's a villain for every hero-It's generated billions of dollars at movie box offices.  Why can't there be a "villain" for a copywriter.  Trust me when I say, a villain is not the troll that you see on random posts from people.  That villain does quite a bit of things.

They solidify our target 

Everybody writes.  Everybody has a voice.  Not everybody knows who their target is suppose to be. Target market means more than just gender and age-there's psychographics involved in it.  When you post content for review,  the villain creates dissension and that helps identify who our target could be.  There has to be a conflict and disagreement.  From there, we can actually find out more about the people that respond to our villain.

 They challenge us

Villain's challenge our views and how we write.  They help us become better because they offer a perspective that's foreign from our own.   As writers, we tend to look at what we write and sometimes forget how to make people feel and react.  The villain sparks that emotion in themselves and fuses it toward others.  Suddenly, our post that only received 5 comments, now has 50 with a serious internal debate going on.  If it weren't for the villain, that wouldn't have happened.  Every time someone disagrees with my content, I feel like I have gotten better writing and understanding people.

They help us "kill with kindness."

When people disagree with you about something passionate, it's hard to just smile and carry on.  There's always a villain who simply just wants you to slip up and lose your credibility.  Being diplomatic is a life skill that is also an invaluable work skill.    The way you respond to villains via your content responses shows how genuine and sharp you are to participants.  If the villain has a valid statement, there's no reason they shouldn't be heard and acknowledged. 

Whether marketing and sales respect expectations

Have you ever seen the movie "The Weatherman" with Nicholas Cage?  It was not intended to be a sales movie, but it follows life lessons that can relate to being a salesperson or marketer.  Cage plays a Chicago weatherman that is successful, yet constantly deals with problems outside of his work profession.  He's so immersed in his work that he becomes estranged from his daughter and father, who is dying of cancer.  He then takes an archery class and it becomes his therapy to cope with stress.

We've all had a "weather" moment.  In marketing, we make predictions on trends and we try to anticipate what the results will look like.  When the results aren't what people expect, we face criticism and credibility trust issues. Much like a meteorologist who's wrong,  there's various relationships that need to weather the storm.

Sales vs. Marketing

Scenario: Sales is upset with you.  You provide them "crappy" leads and the wrong collateral that won't get them the deal.  There's a strain between these departments and part of it is the perception each department has on the other.  You're ability to research leads that are warm help reduce the amount of "cold" they receive.  It's not the Sales departments job to understand the various challenges you face, they just want leads and collateral now.  Sales has an argument in that they are revenue generating and keep the lights on for your business.  You need them and they need you.

Advice to Sales: Be patient with marketing.  Don't be a fair weather fan.  They consistently have the attention of several departments and clients.  They are listening but tend to get caught up in campaigns and a deliverable that must be measured.  They may not face the monthly quotas you have but they have the pressure of consistently being consistent with brand messaging and ensuring campaigns are run without major hiccups. When you have a minute, talk with one of them to understand what goes on in their world.  At my company now, we have a scrum meeting where salespeople are able to talk with marketing on what they need to succeed.  

Advice to Marketing:  Remove the stigma you have of sales professionals.  They are not all jocks and reckless.  All the secondary research you analyze can pale in comparison to what your salespeople can say about specific customer targets.  Leverage the sales departments ability to talk to prospects and figure out what challenges you are not privy to know.  Communicating with your company's sales team will help in audience persona, inbound lead nurturing campaigns, and also cohesiveness.  

"Being a weatherperson"

Sometimes when it rains, it pours.  Sometimes, it's a dry spell.  Leads come and go.  It's a rinse and repeat process.  Sales and marketing need each other to weather the storm.  Campaigns are learning experiences and both sides should become better after every single one.  Let's not be fair weather fans.