Miami Ad School: Monday Night Lecture
via ky_olsen
Every Monday night at MAS we have a new guest speaker(s) from the industry. Some speakers tend to focus on the work their agency has done, while others spend more time talking about ad careers, develop skills and/or current industry trends.
My favorite presentation so far was this past Wednesday night. The speakers were:
Mat Zucker, VP, Executive Creative Director at Agency.com
Bryan Fuhr, Director of Strategy at AKQA
The main topic of the evening was listening, and how it is so essential for effective communication. I used to be terrible at this – I would constantly talk over people because I was more interested in telling them what I knew than paying attention to what they knew. What I’ve realized over the past few years and what Mat and Bryan discussed Monday night is that some of the best communicators also listen very intently.
I think when two people speak at the same time it’s like two cars driving towards each other on the same side of the road. One eventually HAS to step aside otherwise you arrive at an impasse where neither will arrive at the desired destination.
It’s the same with conversations. There needs to be a constant and healthy rapport back and forth.
When I worked in sales I learned that it’s actually the person that ASKS the questions that has control of the conversation and the sale, NOT the person speaking. I used the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, so I would only speak and ask questions for about 20% of the conversation. The rest of the time I was listening to uncover my client’s needs and understand the situation.
In “Perfect Pitch,” author Jon Steel says that the most important lesson he learned making new business presentations and in life in general was this:
“…successful communication and persuasion is not, as most people think, about being good at talking, having the gift of the gab. No, the best communicators, the best persuaders, are the best at what they do because invariably they are good listeners.”
Moving on, here’s the slides from Monday night’s lectures. Thanks to Bryan Fuhr for allowing me to share these.
