Authentic Connection, Not Marketing, Makes All the Difference.

Pre-pandemic, and before my higher ed pivot, I traveled the country on my clients’ dime for more days some months than I was home. It was not unusual for me to come home for a night, pack fresh clothes, and fly out in the morning. That was back before the world knew it could carry on with fiber optic, a web camera, and professional attire from the waist up.

I spent hours each night with people carefully recruited from a client-approved screener to represent target market segments. They were peppered with questions, shared their perspectives with others in the room, and frequently the sponsor of the research was not known until the big reveal at the end of the night. Behind the glass, observers would order off local menus, eat more M&Ms than they would like to admit, and on occasion even down a beer or two. Of course they did more than that, including change their own opinions on the topic at hand, solidify their point of view based on the feedback of only a handful of participants, or shoot the messenger on occasion, which I will write about another time.

What struck me as a facilitator of those conversations, beyond all that I was trained to observe from studying Krueger and gaining certification in the craft, is how authentic connections are everything. When people feel valued, heard, respected, and accepted, it is shocking what they will tell you; it is disarming how they want to help. Even more, it is striking how their feelings about your brand, cause, or organization could shift on a dime. It doesn’t hurt that they were paid for their time, of course.

I used to joke with my clients and marketing partners that they would not need marketing or public affairs campaigns if we had enough honest conversations with folks. I still believe this to be true. Marketing, like public opinion research, proliferated as our society became more complex and the distance between organizations and those they served (be it government and its citizens, stores and their customers, causes and their benefactors) grew.

All of the clutter, Google-dominated algorithms, noise, and proliferation of misinformation (not the democratization of information, also a conversation for another day) makes the tools of marketing and research even more relevant today. But, experience tells me they do not replace authentic connection with the people your organization serves. I believe the most valuable data you already have access to lives in your CRM (or should), at your call center (please do more with those recordings than use them from training purposes!), in social, with your sales team, and your front line employees.

Mine your data (!), and make sure the folks you have in these roles know how to listen, demonstrate empathy, and forge authentic connections.