In the last sixty days, I have conducted about 30 discovery interviews with several clients. The goal of the work is to understand how internal or external stakeholders feel about products, services, and activities associated with their brands. My goal in conducting these conversations isn’t to become an expert in data and information – but to absorb, interpret and experience how these folks feel. By shutting up during the conversation, I learned so much.
In other words, I’m trying to measure feelings and emotions, and my tools are somewhat imprecise.
By asking an open-ended question and shutting up, I can listen for three critical things:
- What are they saying that is in their tone but not in their words?
- How do they feel that expressed through their engagement with me?
- Why do they believe what they believe? I keep asking them why or how they know something is true?
Silence is one of the best techniques for interviewing someone because it gives the person you are speaking with the chance to take the conversation in places that matter to them. They may quickly respond to your question but want to the discussion to go somewhere else. When you follow the path they wander, you learn a lot.
Going from Good to Great
One client organizes events that they believe may be getting stale and needs some reimagination.
What they do is very good, but they want to be even better. In my discovery interviews, I work hard at getting people to share personal stories and to understand their experiences from an empathetic viewpoint, not just a data-centric approach.
The facts are useful, but the feelings are invaluable.
I’ll ask about their expectations coming to the event. I’ll probe to ask what the feeling is like when they leave. I’ll ask them to describe a recent experience like being on a roller coaster or sitting quietly on a beach?
When the event ends, are they let down or elated? Do they feel energized or enervated?
I hear the music of Bob Dylan in my head from Like A Rolling Stone – “How does it feel?”
Data matters. So, Do Feelings.
If you are trying to gain insight into how to sell more products or services or to improve your product, you have to understand how people feel after engaging with your product or service.
You may be focusing your marketing on features like faster speeds on a gear shaft or slow-brewed flavor when what customers want is a feeling of security or sacredness. Emotions are the by-product or end-state of buying or engaging with you. What emotional job do they want with your product to provide?
Ask these questions when you talk to customers:
- How would you describe your experience to your friend?
- How did it make you feel? Were you let down or did it lift you up?
- If you can change something about your experience, what would be different about how you felt at the end?
As a marketer, I prefer to understand how people feel when they buy from me. I want to reinforce their search for their emotional need.
That’s where the magic happens.
Need marketing advice, coaching or help? You can set up a time to chat using my calendar. The conversation is free and we can explore if working together makes sense. Or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me at 919 720 0995.
Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash
