what everybody already knows

July 7th, 2010 • posts i've written

Plenty of people in marketing promote themselves as gurus. They’re Sherlock Holmes to your bumbling Watson. They’re the cool hunters, the trend spotters, the social media experts, the advertising whizzes, and the charming prodigies. You hire them, ostensibly, because they’re the only ones who know what they know.

It’s nice work if you can get it. But I suspect they’re often better at marketing themselves than your products.

Most of my time isn’t spent revealing the magic word that makes Facebook users fan your brand’s page (it’s farmville, btw), most of my time is spent rooting out the little communal truths floating out in the open – what everybody already knows.

The ROI on listening to what everybody already knows is huge. Absolutely gigantic. Bigger than Farmville.

Everybody already knows that agency so and so charges way too much and hasn’t delivered in years. Everybody already knows that product x, y, and z are dogs that need to be put down like Ol’ Yeller. Everybody already knows that media is being wasted on ________. Everybody already knows that this is just a vanity project for what’s his name.

The challenge is cultural.

There are cultural barriers, within the company, that stop the organization from capitalizing on the intelligence of their own employees. At my best, I can stem the tide for a moment; bringing in disparate internal audiences into neutral territory, teasing what they already know out of them, and getting everyone in the room to nod their heads in agreement.

As they say, recognizing you have a problem is the first step. Companies that do something about what everybody already knows win. Companies that don’t, tend to lose in my experience.

You already see where I’m going. Quit looking for the gurus. Start listening to what everybody already knows. You don’t even need me to do it for you.

If you make listening to what everybody already knows a stated objective for your organization, the cultural barriers will fall all by themselves. Fiefdoms aren’t sustainable when everyone is accountable for the truth.

Bucket Brigade Update: we’ve crossed $6k in funding, with more than 30 members of the Editorial Board and 14 days still left to raise funds. There’s no limit to the number of Editorial Board Members (people who will help participate in the book’s creation, production, and distribution) or Official Sponsors (people who will have their name and URL in the book), so if you’re inclined, visit the Kickstarter page and back the project. I promise that every dollar raised will go directly to the book’s development, and every additional dollar means more money to conduct interviews, pay an editor, consult a designer, produce and distribute the book.

Related posts:

1. you did it!
2. the bucket brigade, a collaborative publishing project
3. public libraries are too easy to ignore, one idea

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