A few years into my PR career, I heard a story of an agency that got hired and then promptly fired for getting its client coverage in the Financial Times.
The problem was that the client knew FT coverage would have little impact on their business goals, while the agency thought gaining a top-tier national hit was a great success.
It resulted from the agency not understanding the client’s actual goals. While perhaps an extreme example of when things go wrong, miscommunications in our industry are surprisingly common.
The trouble, according to author and businessman Stephen R Covey, is that “most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.”
As communicators, we’re keenly focused on pushing stuff out – messages, content, and creative assets. But there is always the risk this comes at the expense of listening to clients and their needs.
Of course, we’re eager to impress and show off how creative and smart we are – to prove we’re worth our clients’ time and budgets (and admiration). But we’re also here to deliver. And doing that well means we must truly listen to understand.
As a side gig, I’m a nutrition coach, and active listening is essential for me to unpick a client’s true goals and what they really mean. Just as in business, people often find it difficult to articulate their feelings, concerns and priorities. Part of the value a good coach or consultant brings is helping people find the ideas and words to express them.
Active listening is about “hearing” not just words but a whole message by paying close attention and staying present – rather than preparing what you will say next.
“most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply.”
Stephen R Covey
Here are some of the active listening tools I use with my nutrition clients. These can be used in any situation and translate really well in a comms setting.
- Defining the goal: Some clients will cite fairly vague aims, like “I want to lose weight” or “go Keto”. But what does that look like for them individually? It often turns out their real goals are to feel more energised, be able to run around with their kids or get healthier to support them in later life. Similarly, when a comms client says they want top-tier coverage, what they really want is to influence their target audience. They’re focused on the mechanism, not the goal. Asking more open-ended questions (i.e. ones which you can’t answer with a yes or no) gets to the heart of the matter by getting them to think differently.
- Repeating back: Repeating and reflecting back the important things avoids miscommunication and misunderstandings. It also demonstrates you’ve heard what’s said. Clients respond positively when they feel heard.
- Matching language: Listening to hear where your client’s knowledge level is allows you to match your communication to theirs. This means you can balance technical/nutritional information so clients won’t feel overwhelmed – and fear their goals are unattainable. In comms, often the client will know more about their subject, but our industry moves fast, and new digital, social, and measurement lingo, for example, can easily confuse.
- Not jumping to conclusions: Playwright George Bernard Shaw said, “The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” As humans, we spend a lot of time in our heads, and much communication remains hidden and unheard by others, so we jump to conclusions based solely on what we think. In either setting, this can lead to clients receiving recommendations that miss the mark.
- Listening for what’s not being said: Non-verbal cues and starkly avoiding certain subjects can reveal much about a person and what they mean. Anything they don’t mention might be a clue you want to reflect on. Nodding and small affirming phrases – “uh-huh” – can be encouraging and demonstrate your interest.
Active listening translates into a better understanding of client needs and objectives, better audience engagement, and better outcomes. Not to mention better client relationships and trust.
Why not contact us now, so we can listen to you and see how we might help you improve your outbound communications.