Make Your Input Positive

Because when you talk about what's possible you have a better likelihood that:

1) you'll be given more opportunities not just to talk about it, but to make it happen, and
2) your input will be sought after.

Actually this is the best way to stop being someone people look to only for output, and start being seen as someone who provides valuable input to move forward, or break through. When you change your internal conversation, all that stuff on personal branding (value, positioning, etc.) then just falls into place.

I was reminded of the difference and impact while reading a post by Doc Searls about building better markets, not just better marketing. In it, he writes that his company, The Searls Group started "helping clients understand and engage their markets, rather than helping them craft and send messages to those markets." See the difference?

I pretty much love what he's saying in this post. Those are the ideas I've been engaged with ever since I read The Cluetrain Manifesto. Customers and markets expressing demand, and providing input is where we should be headed.

As individuals we do own our own data, and companies would do so much better if they allowed us to indicate through permission, privacy settings, and preferences, how we'd like them to deal with us. Doc Searls calls himself a builder. We need builders.

Personalization would be so much more personal if it wasn't driven by the seller who guesses what the buyer wants. Even the most powerful lead gen tools are still guessing as to what someone wanted when they were downloading that article or clicking on that button.

The question still remains as to whether customers want anyone to help them. And of course, we're all still grappling with becoming better listeners.

***

Conversation is a gift, a way for us to provide input - not just output. I'll be traveling in the next couple of weeks. As customary during my vacation, I invited professionals from my network to guest post at Conversation Agent.

Content-wise, they represent the lenses I'm researching at the moment. And I will collect their thoughts and your best input from the comments, in a leave-behind eBook next month. People-wise, I like that we find ways to debate issues from differing points of view, positively.

I love learning from them, and I hope you will, too.

[image by mdezemery]

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Thierry Lhôte]

Great post, Owen, you've just convinced me to change my ways of interacting now.

[Akash Sharma]

Whatever we talk about SEO, social search and social media, all these things are secondary because all the businesses are not based on these but on people what they think or like.
Conversation is the most powerful tool to understand what they want and input our thinking on the basis of there random thoughts.
I think i need to read the blog post from Doc Searls to get more detailed overview about this.
Thanks a lot for igniting the topic Valeria...

[edward boches]

Positive is good. We do, finally, seem to be living in an age when more of us are rooting for each other, and succeeding by helping others succeed. (not succeeding only if a competitor fails). Clearly learning and teaching to engage and contribute, rather than message or dictate is the way to go. I think that Pepsi's new declared experiment is interesting, also all the new tools to crowdsource. More and more it will be about opting in re everything, just look at tools like Kachingle, which may be a precursor of things to come. Even the new Dominos admission of problems past and an attempt to truly listen and respond bode well for both consumers and brands. Another great post and reminder to think and experiment in the new consumer oriented way.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Thierry - thank you for stopping by. Maybe we'll meet Owen together.

@Akash - glad the post invited you to read Doc's thoughts. And you're quite correct, at the end of the day, it's about people.

@Edward - I also like reinforcing constructive behavior. I did see your post about Pepsi's investment. That is quite intriguing and I'll be curious to see how it develops. I don't use myself as a barometer for customers, I tend to be ahead of the times when it comes to opt in - I've been immune to push messages for years. But I see that now people are catching on. I agree with you and am thrilled this is happening. It will be a good way to finally have a good conversation on marketing when the traditional marketers are done with mass approaches, push/shove, and indifference.

[Andrew @ WeBuildYourBlog.com]

It would be good if customers would be able to express what they want because if that happens then we can absolutely provide better service to them.