TALENT VS. SKILL
Notice I used the word talent rather than skill. A skill is a set of physical or mental activities that can be learned. Talent is a God-given ability. True, talent must be developed to realize its potential. Practical experience, alert observation, and purposeful study all develop awareness, feel, and reflexes that become an almost intuitive sense of what to do and when to do it.
In the process of developing talent, one must identify, learn, and refine the set of skills necessary to play the game. Hard work on the essential skills is a prerequisite for a player to reach his full potential. Some fail because they do not pay that price, but dedication alone is not the only differentiator. There are many youngsters who spend hour after hour dribbling and shooting a basketball, but there’s only one Michael Jordon. Both talent and skill are required to generate star quality that is so difficult to define yet so easy to recognize.
If the ability to grasp the political process is a fundamental talent, then what are the complimentary skills for our game of marketing professional services? This fusion of skills and talents make a potent combination:
* Listening--a well tuned ear can hear the combination for the lock to the client’s heart, as well as his mind.
* Verbal skills--the ability to articulate an understanding of the client’s agenda and persuasively convey a solution to each item of concern.
* Empathy- the capacity to empathize us to think and feel as the client might.
* Strategic Insight--thinking about the information presented and projecting it into future opportunities.
With the advent of technological changes, presentation skills, both oral and written--are essential to a marketer’s success. Today, verbal skills are barren without graphics, or at least an imagination about how graphics can add impact and clarity. If one is to stay competitive, the marketer must possess at least basic graphics and conceptualization skills.
The “Stepford Marketer” also needs sales skills to get appointments, handle objections, sell unsolicited services, negotiate contracts, and close deals. Of course, computer skills for communications, word processing, graphics, and data management, along with adeptness at organizing and managing multiple tasks, are essential.
As if this was not enough to make your head spin, the 21st Century marketer also requires professional skills and knowledge in the disciplines he is selling. Clients are increasingly probing for insights into the challenges and issues they face. The marketer who cannot provide information of value is in jeopardy of losing credibility. By offering fresh perspectives and proposing new approaches, you will gain the kind of advantage that comes when a client has confidence that they have found a source for solutions.
One would think that this could only be a mythical creature who has such an array of skills, except that every now and then I get a networking call from a headhunter who has been assigned the task of finding such a person by a firm that thinks one actually exists. Perhaps someone who possesses this myriad of skills does inhabit this universe--after all, Michael Jordon exists. (Now that I think of it, there was this bionic marketer named Diane Creel.)
Notice I used the word talent rather than skill. A skill is a set of physical or mental activities that can be learned. Talent is a God-given ability. True, talent must be developed to realize its potential. Practical experience, alert observation, and purposeful study all develop awareness, feel, and reflexes that become an almost intuitive sense of what to do and when to do it.
In the process of developing talent, one must identify, learn, and refine the set of skills necessary to play the game. Hard work on the essential skills is a prerequisite for a player to reach his full potential. Some fail because they do not pay that price, but dedication alone is not the only differentiator. There are many youngsters who spend hour after hour dribbling and shooting a basketball, but there’s only one Michael Jordon. Both talent and skill are required to generate star quality that is so difficult to define yet so easy to recognize.
If the ability to grasp the political process is a fundamental talent, then what are the complimentary skills for our game of marketing professional services? This fusion of skills and talents make a potent combination:
* Listening--a well tuned ear can hear the combination for the lock to the client’s heart, as well as his mind.
* Verbal skills--the ability to articulate an understanding of the client’s agenda and persuasively convey a solution to each item of concern.
* Empathy- the capacity to empathize us to think and feel as the client might.
* Strategic Insight--thinking about the information presented and projecting it into future opportunities.
With the advent of technological changes, presentation skills, both oral and written--are essential to a marketer’s success. Today, verbal skills are barren without graphics, or at least an imagination about how graphics can add impact and clarity. If one is to stay competitive, the marketer must possess at least basic graphics and conceptualization skills.
The “Stepford Marketer” also needs sales skills to get appointments, handle objections, sell unsolicited services, negotiate contracts, and close deals. Of course, computer skills for communications, word processing, graphics, and data management, along with adeptness at organizing and managing multiple tasks, are essential.
As if this was not enough to make your head spin, the 21st Century marketer also requires professional skills and knowledge in the disciplines he is selling. Clients are increasingly probing for insights into the challenges and issues they face. The marketer who cannot provide information of value is in jeopardy of losing credibility. By offering fresh perspectives and proposing new approaches, you will gain the kind of advantage that comes when a client has confidence that they have found a source for solutions.
One would think that this could only be a mythical creature who has such an array of skills, except that every now and then I get a networking call from a headhunter who has been assigned the task of finding such a person by a firm that thinks one actually exists. Perhaps someone who possesses this myriad of skills does inhabit this universe--after all, Michael Jordon exists. (Now that I think of it, there was this bionic marketer named Diane Creel.)
