One ear’s ignoring your lecture on gardening.
The other one’s listening for signs of Carrot.
Your work is your passion. You’ve devoted your life to it. You know just about everything there is about the product or service you sell. And sometimes it feels like none of it matters.
You can explain all the technical reasons why your product or service is better than all your competitors until the sun grows cold…but it doesn’t mean people will actually listen.
It’s not that the details don’t matter. They do. But the feeling your product or service gives and how customers connect to it is what they’ll remember.
They got folks to listen
Composer John Adams (not the 2nd president or his son Quincy) is the closest thing American music has to a successor to Aaron Copland (whose music you might remember from the “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner” ads). Adams wrote a piece called “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” that crams the thrill of a sports car joyride into the musical language of a symphony orchestra. Give it a listen and see for yourself.
Meet John Adams, John Adams, and—uh—John Adams.
The thing is, “Short Ride” is art music. It’s technically complex, difficult to perform, and utilizes a number of advanced musical devices. That makes it fun for music nerds, but the audience couldn’t care less. “Short Ride” is effective because it delivers all the cinematic excitement of driving a fast car while being really fun to listen to. You can connect emotionally to the music without understanding the engine running under the hood.
Being good at your job is one thing. Being likable and memorable is another. You need both to grow to your full potential.
What they want to hear may surprise you
Apple computers used to be open-format, highly modifiable devices beloved by hobbyists. You could rig an Apple I or II to do just about anything you wanted if you had the right technical knowhow. Then Steve Jobs reimagined them as locked-up machines with expensive, high end parts and little customizability. Instead of letting people do whatever they wanted with his machines, he gave them fewer options that, admittedly, just about never crashed or broke.
Then he developed a whole advertising campaign that these new machines were for people who think different. He continued this philosophy with all the new product lines: iMac, MacBooks, iPhones, and so on. These new, less customizable products were seen as more individualistic by their customers. Apple became the brand of everybody from artists to activists to folks who just wanted their gadgets to work without thinking about it. He told people what they wanted to hear about their electronic devices.
Advertising is all about translating who you are and what you do into a language that your customers care about. That means you can both do remarkable work and be the company people think of first and feel best about.
When you talk about what folks actually care about and connect with them emotionally, they’ll trust you when you say you can help them. All you have to do then is follow through and actually deliver a remarkable product or service.
If you do amazing work but can’t get folks to listen, we can help. Reach out to start the conversation.