When It Feels Like They’re Not Listening

When it feels like they’re not listening to you, they probably aren’t. This isn’t necessarily because your message is bad, or that you’re not providing value.

It may also not be because they’re not interested.

They could be very interested!

They just don’t speak your language – or more accurately – you’re not speaking their language (this is your responsibility after all).

If you want to do business in France, I’d suggest you learn French, or hire a contact who does. The same goes if you’re interested in starting a new venture in India, who’s population speaks 780 different languages (Reuters)

But these same rules apply for doing business locally, even as locally as your hometown.

While the spoken language may be the same, how and where it’s used is a completely different game.

It doesn’t make sense to try to reach a demographic that doesn’t watch TV by speaking TV (with TV ads).

It also doesn’t make sense to take out newspaper after newspaper ad to target a group that doesn’t speak newspaper (or read), and it doesn’t make sense to not speak digital, and ignore online marketing channels that more and more people are not just speaking, but becoming fluent in.

Sometimes speaking the wrong language is simple misunderstanding, and sometimes it’s simply the frustration of not knowing what to do.

If you’ve done a little bit of homework and you think there may be a chance that newspaper, radio, television, online, social media, direct mail, content marketing, etc, may work, then by all means try it, but don’t forget to track and measure as best as these tools allow.

As Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” so if your results are less impressive than you believe is possible, it may be wise to step back and see if anybody’s listening.