As the mother of a four-year-old, I’ve become aware of a series of books that help parents deal with common, yet annoying, preschooler behavior. The books, such as “Hands Are Not for Hitting” and “Tails Are Not for Pulling” are the work of author Martine Agassi, and they have inspired me to take a look at an adult behavior that is also both common, yet annoying.
The most frequent complaint I hear from business owners and marketing directors about agencies is “They didn’t listen to us.”
If you’ve experienced this type of frustration, you’ve likely had an unfortunate encounter with an agency so concerned with proving their knowledge and value, they simply forgot to listen to you. Instead they result to telling you what you need, without really taking into consideration what you want.
It’s true, sometimes clients need to hear what they do not want to hear. They may be focused on the wrong problem, or misguided about the solution. As the agency, this is the time to exercise our expertise and deliver the hard truth.
But you and your business deserve a marketing partner that understands and appreciates the value of your knowledge. This type of shared expertise is the perfect combination to first diagnose, and then solve, the real problem.
When our agency is fortunate enough to receive a compliment from a client who feels we really listened to what they were saying, we know we closed our mouths long enough to use our ears. It is these types of partnerships that undoubtedly continue to utilize candid and two-way communication to foster unfathomable success.
