That Meeting With The Chairman

I spent an hour last week talking to Matt Thompson from Best of Belfast podcast.

He’s pretty good when it comes to interviewing people and got me talking about a whole range of subjects.

One experience we discussed was about a time early in my career when I made a huge mistake and got a dressing down* from the Chairman.

*That’s a fancy term for a bollocking.

Andi Jarvis | Eximo Marketing | Belfast | Liverpool

I’d written off a huge income stream for the organisation because I thought it was in terminal decline and not worthy of my time and energy. I had more exciting tasks to do and more marketing awards to apply for. Hubris.

I’ll remember that meeting with the chairman for a long time.

Good came of it though. With a new focus, some consumer research and and a remodelled membership offer, we managed to buck the national trend and grow the revenue stream.

After talking to Matt (I’ll be on his podcast later in the summer) it got me thinking about the other horror shows I’ve had from my career.

We’ve all had them. Some are hilarious now, some still smint a little, but I realised they all have one thing in common.

Questions.

More specifically; a lack of questions.

Every time something I’ve been involved in has gone wrong, I can draw a straight line to me not asking enough questions (or the wrong questions) at the start of the process.

Those experiences have defined my career and helped me launch Eximo Marketing.

Now, clients bring me in to work with them because they want answers. They want answers about more customers, more revenue, more orders, more of everything usually… except costs.

And clients get answers. But not until I’ve asked a lot of questions.

I spent part of my MSc in Marketing developing a process just to make sure I ask the right questions at the right time.

What did I call the process? 7 Questions, of course!

What I realised during that research was that it’s not just asking questions that’s important, it’s not just asking the right questions that’s important…

It’s asking the right questions in the right order that’s really important.

And if you do that, the answers to your most pressing marketing problems are usually clear and obvious.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a question:

What difference would it make to the marketing of your business if you asked the right questions in the right order?

Andi

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Categories: Blog