Don’t yell across the room — Kelford Labs Daily

Imagine this:

You’re in a crowded room, packed with a mixture of strangers and friends. You’re wearing your nicest outfit, and you’re ready to shine and get noticed.

But as the pressure to find someone to talk to builds, you can feel the once-cold drink in your hand warming as your palm heats up and your forehead begins to dampen.

You need to find someone to talk to, but everyone’s already talking to someone else.

Suddenly, across the vast distance, you see, past the chandeliers and the linen-topped tables, someone who looks like they want to hear what you have to say, or could at least benefit from it.

So, do you scream at them from far away and yell your whole pitch?

Do you scrawl a marketing message on a napkin with a pen, ball it up in your fist, and throw it across the room toward them?

Or do you give them a gentle wave to get their attention, smile cheerfully, and try to draw them closer to you? (Or even meet them halfway?)

It’s obvious, right?

At this distance, all you can do is get their attention and let them know you have something valuable for them to hear. Trying to actually deliver that value across this distance would be ineffective at best, and a waste of breath and credibility at worst.

So why, when we go to do marketing, is it so tempting to try to get the attention of people far away, and to figuratively yell our pitch at them from a distance?

Why do we expect people who’ve only just noticed us to be ready to buy from us?

Wouldn’t it be better, more effective, and, frankly, easier to just help them get one step closer?

To gently inform them of our point of view, and to encourage them to learn more by engaging with us in a longer conversation?

Wouldn’t that work?

Shouldn’t our marketing do that, then?

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

Kelford Inc. shows communicators the way to always knowing what to say.