I wanted to share one of my wife’s favorite stories about me from architecture school. It actually turned out to be one of my classmates’ favorites as well – at my expense unfortunately.
I was in Professional Practice, the class that was supposed to expose us to life as a practicing architect. During that one class we were reading an article about urban redevelopment written by some pretty well-revered Chicago area architects. The article was interesting enough at first, but as I read on, the language started to get a little more “fluffy” from my perspective. The piece went from a useful essay to a flowery case study.
As our professor called on us to all stop reading and start sharing our opinions, she opened with “So, does anyone have any thoughts on the piece?”
I’ve never been one to hold my tongue, so I jump-started the class discussion with “Blah, blah, blah!” (literally, that’s what I said)
The professor was a bit taken aback and asked me to explain. I expressed my frustration with the almost transcendentalist writing, which was supposed to be about a relatively practical topic in a practical class…not quite so politely probably.
I was at about my fourth sentence when one of my best friends flipped to the back page of the article and quietly pointed to the authors’ names. Who else would they be, but my professor AND her husband.
Foot. In. Mouth.
I learned something very important that day. Use whatever information is given to you…ALL the information given to you, before you enter into a discussion. As a marketer these days, that is still one of the most important lessons I’ve learned.
It means learning everything you can about a potential client before your first meeting.
It means using and applying market research to sell a marketing plan up the chain of command.
It means having the most well-rounded view possible of a client before presenting them with branding recommendations.
It means tracking, analyzing and reporting on pretty much everything you do so you have a strong understanding of what works and what doesn’t before proposing new efforts.
And of course, it means reading the byline before you start bashing an article unknowingly written by your professor.