I have a friend who I affectionately call the “most connected man in Chicago.” It doesn’t matter who I need to reach or what question I need answered, Bob Jordon knows who to call. And if you ever see him at a business reception, you can see why. He knows how to work a room. If you slide up close and listen to his conversation, you begin to understand his methodology. He asks great questions. He’s not networking to sell himself, he’s using the venue as a way to meet new people, learn their background, and pick up clues and insights. It’s all being filed away in his cranial database to be processed and accessed when needed to solve somebody’s problem. He’s building both the breadth and depth of his network.
The interesting thing about Relationship Marketing is that we can do the same thing online. Unlike most one-way marketing that is primarily used to build brand awareness, Relationship Marketing provides the ability to entertain a response from the customer. In fact, the best RM is the kind that prompts a response. That means the customer is somehow engaged. Now they might be irritated, but better to know that than not, right?
So if we accept the fact that RM can be two-way, then why not be thoughtful about the kinds of responses we get so that we learn about their opinions and pick up clues and insights? If we use this marketing channel to not only deliver our message but to ask great questions, then we are building the depth of our network.
An Information Strategy is simply an intentional approach to determining what kinds of questions we should ask. As we get more scientific about it, we will discover the most important or effective questions to ask that will give us the best information and insight into our customers so we can serve them better. We call these high-value questions, or my favorite term, Golden Questions.
Over time, if we ask the right Golden Questions, then we may be able to boast that we’re “the most connected brand in the industry.”