The title is not meant to be rude. It is meant to get your attention. In all of the marketing courses I currently teach or have taught, not to mention the countless projects I have worked on as a consultant, I have provided to everyone the same three steps for the absolutely best marketing research in the world, usable across any border.  These three steps are easy to remember, often underrated, and always available.  These three steps are overlooked regularly and add up to the title of a book I am currently writing called Sit Down, Shut Up, and LISTEN!

A recent project I worked on as a consultant involved a Swedish manufacturer in the medical supply business and makes for a good case study: The manufacturer wanted to find out how it was doing in the minds of its customers. The people involved told me that they wanted to do a survey and wanted to know what I thought of this. Their customers were other companies who worked as sales agents for the Swedish firm’s product line and came from a wide range of countries in North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. Due to growth within this industry, this small Swedish firm was suddenly moving in markets all over the world.

I asked my contact at the Swedish company to sit down. I then asked him to listen to a very important question: “Do you want to know how YOU are doing, or do you want to know how the CUSTOMER is feeling?” I asked. “It’s an important difference,” I told him. “Do you want the focus to be you—i.e., your company—or the customer?” He then understood what I was after.  His answer was, of course, the customer. We then set out to find out the best way to gauge how the customers felt about their relationship with this Swedish supplier. Though a survey often tells us what people are thinking, it does not usually allow us to dig deeper and find out how and why (as well as why not) they feel that way. Because of the geographic dispersion of the customers, my wish for a focus group or face-to-face interviews was out.  Focus groups, I told my contact, are a wonderful choice when you want to have an idea of what, but also how and why. So we set out to design a survey that allowed for both quantitative data, and some qualitative explanations to go along with it. The results provided patterns for the supplier, both positive and negative, regarding before, during, and most importantly, after the sale. It showed the supplier the value of listening and opened the door to becoming proactive in the company’s relationships with the customers, rather than only reactive.  In fact, the survey was the beginning of the listening process for the selling firm, a great place to start in any relationship.

We speak of relationship marketing today as if it is something new. It is only new because we have forgotten how to listen. What all relationships need, both personally and professionally, is for someone to look the other person in the eye, and ask, “How are things? How do you feel?” Actually, when was the last time you did this at work with a colleague? Your employees? Your customers? Other stakeholders in the value chain? In the end, the best way to truly understand one another, the best way to create true value at home or abroad, is via the simplest but most underused method of them all:  Sit down, shut up, and LISTEN!

		Tim Foster is a lifelong resident of East Lansing and has spent a large portion of his adult life obtaining his education and working as a consultant all over the world.  He will soon complete a PhD in marketing from a Swedish university and hopes to someday return to his alma mater (MSU) to teach.  Go Green!  Tim can be reached at his e-mail, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .