Using poker skills in the business world

Reading clients' non-verbal clues

 

I play poker. I'm working on a novel that involves poker. I even watch poker on TV. Don’t judge me. 

One of the segments they showed during the World Series of Poker last year utilized a retired FBI agent named Joe Navarro to break down the clues he saw to determine whether or not the player was bluffing. 

In addition to his segment on reading hands, Navarro has been hired by some of the top poker players to help them with their game. Reading non-verbal clues is vital to their success.

He pointed out details of their body language, facial expression and even voice clues to analyze the strength of each hand. Amazingly, he had a very good read on each player.

I found it incredibly interesting because I realized that this is something that I can use in my professional life. I think back to those meetings where the client said they liked what we'd produced, but for some reason, we just couldn’t close the sale. 

How many times have you heard "We'll get back to you," only never to hear back. The reason is simple: People are basically nice and don’t want to hurt your feelings.

There are several pieces of non-verbal information you should look for when talking to clients to gauge if they’re interested in what you’re showing them.

Eye contact

Are they making good eye contact throughout the conversation? Or are they looking around to avoid your gaze? Even if they are telling you that they’re interested, if they’re not making eye contact, it’s probably not completely true. You might be better off taking another tack and bringing up another campaign idea if you have one, even if it's not polished.

Arm movement

Look at their arms. If they’re folded, they are probably not really interested. However, tucked behind their back indicates a significant level of interest. If their arms are moving a lot, they’re either very interested or very upset. That's a call you'll have to make.

Posture

Take a look at your client's posture. Are they slouched? That indicates boredom. If they're sitting bolt upright, it's a good indicator that they’re taking everything in.

Voice

Listen to their inflection. If their voice raises a bit and they speak quickly, chances are they’re interested and they like what they see. If their voice is even and quiet, it indicates they’d probably rather see something else.

Most people think poker is a card game played with people. Really successful players will tell you it’s a people game played with cards. If you get a chance, check out Joe Navarro’s books about poker tells to help you improve your ability to tune into non-verbal clues.

Open mouth, insert foots

I'll make this quick. I hate when people take credit for something and you know there's NO FREAKING WAY they did what they say they did.

I found this statement ironic. It's from a conversation on LinkedIn regarding the existence of a "copywriter's code of ethics."

This guy claims credit for a sweeping change affecting copywriters in advertising and writers the world over, for that matter. In some way, it also stemmed the tide of journalistic sexism.

While I can't say who was responsible for the change, I'm sure it's not this guy. The example doesn't make sense at all. That statement - "If customers want a mobile solution, we can help him." - would never make it into an ad. Latent sexism has nothing to do with it.

Any copywriter worth their salt (see what I did there?) would change it to "them." It's grammatically correct, chucklehead. Always has been. Always will be.

OK, I feel better now. Stepping down from the soapbox...

Does badvertising sell?

As painful as it is, I’m contemplating an issue I never thought I would.

Can bad advertising (or “badvertising” as we coined it back in college) be a good strategy? After all, if people are talking about the brand, if a bad jingle is memorable, if I’m including a link to one of the worst ads in recent memory in this blog, does it ultimately prove that badvertising works?

The spot drawing my ire is actually one the company brought back. Subway's Five... Five Dollar Footlong, which almost caused me to contemplate pulling a Van Gogh two years ago, is back. Much to my dismay.

The spots are horrible. There's damn little creativity involved. Just a jingle which sticks with the unsuspecting victim. The spots are in heavy rotation during the baseball playoffs, as part of Subway's Anytober Promotion.

I can't wait for Halloween. And I hate Halloween.

The first commercial that sparked the badvertising debate played repeatedly during early round NCAA tournament games. It was overdone. It was poorly acted. Though the song was terrible, it was infectious.

Kinda like the plague, but without all the death.

If you haven’t figured out which spot it is, you don’t watch much basketball. If you do, I don’t know how you missed it.

During our discussion, not one person said they liked it. In fact, the level of hatred spewed by everyone involved in the conversation led me to believe it was money badly spent. A quick cruise around Twitter proved it.

I mean, someone had to green-light the spot without thinking, “This is the best spot that we could produce.” Someone had to go out of their way to produce a memorably bad spot. That had to be the goal. It had to be strategy. Right?

I think no one would purposefully produce a horrible commercial, with a more horrible jingle. (I certainly wouldn’t.) It just isn’t effective. Or so I thought until a few admitted to having the song stuck in their heads.

Which leads to my conundrum: If you remember the jingle, and more importantly, the brand, does that mean the ad is effective?

I don’t think so. But I think that’s the risk when your goal is to create badvertising: losing customers. I didn't eat Pringles for years because of their ads. The question remains: Will someone avoid a brand simply because the commercials are bad?

Or just me?