The battle between marketers and designers is as old as dirt. Whether you’re dealing with a large team or one-one-one, the struggle is very real for most companies. However, if teams want to be more productive and achieve the goals set in front of them, they need to put down their swords and learn how to work better together. And the best way we think you can improve this is to learn from a third role… sales.
In his book, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, Dan Pink discusses how everyone is in a selling role now. Even if you aren’t slinging deals and serving in a traditional sales capacity, you are very much a seller. Whether you’re negotiating for someone’s time, pitching a new design experience, or persuading someone to support your marketing campaign, you are selling. And according to Pink, if you want to learn how to sell, you need to focus on three things: attunement, buoyancy, and clarity.
He breaks down these three factors in his book and shows you how to get what you want from a customer, colleague, friend or partner. But what we love about these elements is that they are so fitting for the relationship between designers and marketers. Every conversation, every critique and every single chat session involves some level of selling. But when both roles aren’t trained in the art, it can lead to a frustrating pattern of disagreements and disdain for communication.
So if you want to bring the peace and foster a better relationship, start with these three areas:
1. Attunement
Attunement is defined as the act of “bringing into accord, harmony, or sympathetic relationship.” This is a key piece in developing the connection between two people who have very different roles, goals, and success metrics. A deeper level of sympathy for their responsibilities and expectations is important in building trust and working as a unit.
Start with their personal goals.
Nowadays, so much of what we accomplish in the office is a reflection of what we want to achieve in our personal lives. If you can know a designer colleague wants to be creative director, perhaps you can offer advice on management skills they need. Or maybe the marketer you’re working with has dreams of running her own company, there could be an opportunity to talk about the brand. There is always more under the surface and when you take time to discover those things, you often have a greater respect for the person you work with, which leads to more patience and trust.
Tip: If you’re too nervous to ask them about their personal life, open up about yours first. Most times, people find an easier time sharing their own passions if you start the conversation with yours. Ask them for help on something related to their skill set and create an opportunity for them to teach you something.
Share your sensitivities.
We all have those red hot buttons that set us off in seconds. At best they’re mildly distracting, and at worst, they set us in a tailspin, paralyzing our ability to think clearly. Get to know these things and communicate them. Admitting them doesn’t mean you’re making excuses, it means you’re human. And most times, if you share the little things that bug you, others will confess theirs as well. This is a challenging starting point, but can be the biggest catalyst to building trust.
Find opportunities in your differences.
Everyone has something to teach, and you better believe that we all have something to learn. Even if you think your colleague is an imbecile who can’t think past conversions and engagement rates, there is something she is doing that will make you a better, more informed designer. Instead of reeling over differences, find ways to make those differences useful — for you and the company.
Tip: This method also helps when you are selling a new idea. The more you learn from someone else, the more you are exposed to how they internalize things. Use this information to guide how you pitch a new design or give feedback on a campaign they share.
“The purpose of a pitch isn’t necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.”
― Daniel H. Pink
2. Buoyancy
In his book, Pink refers to “buoyancy” as the ability to bounce back from the hundreds of “no’s” a sales person gets every day. This also applies to the little pitches and negotiations we make every day as designers and marketers. No matter what occurs, the relationship has to bounce back for you to be productive and create great work for the company.
Don’t take things personally. (But also, never say this.)
Saying this to people rarely goes over well, mainly because it’s said when emotions are already running high. But at the end of the day, there will be times your work doesn’t fit the business case, and it simply has to be scrapped. Focus on the overall picture and use these moments as an opportunity to learn for the future.
If you are attempting to give feedback, you can avoid making things personal by focusing on the project’s goal. Point to something separate from you two as individuals, and use that as a way to talk objectively about the work. It takes practice, but it’s a good way to avoid tension.
Say you’re sorry when you mess up.
The phrase “I’m sorry,” is often the most obvious, yet most avoided phrase in a workplace. Sometimes we just don’t like to admit we’re at fault, but other times, we just don’t have the perspective to see that we are.
Below is a chart from a Hubspot Creatives vs. Marketers Infographic. It shows the inevitable gaps in self-perception between the two roles. Of course we always like to think we’re right and that we are the ones trying harder to improve a relationship, but it’s clear that everyone can benefit from a little self-awareness.
Look at this chart, and internalize it. Everyone messes up and no one is always right. Plus, nothing can eat away at a good working relationship faster than being unaware of your own faults. If you notice you came on hard during a feedback meeting or snapped about someone’s opinion, just apologize.
3. Clarity
Beyond attunement and buoyancy, seeking clarity in a relationship between marketer and designer can be the toughest of all. Clarity requires speaking the same language, it requires perspective. And in most cases, it requires dedicated time and intention, which most people don’t make room for. But so much of understanding one another is your ability to clarify what you want and need. So buckle down, and follow these steps.
Document everything.
This is hands-down the biggest missed opportunity people make in an organization. So much can be avoided if you simply write things down. If you have a goal, a creative brief, a direction, write them down. If you have a sense of who your audience is, type it up and share it. Document as much as you can and get approval. This will hold people accountable who tend to shift direction, and it gives everyone a clear sense of what the original intent of the project was. Above all, it gives you a document to point to as opposed to pointing fingers at each other.
Communicate your process up front.
Regardless of the project goals and process, everyone has their own unique way of doing things. The best way to assure a smooth working relationship is to simply ask, “How do you like to work?” If you prefer to get feedback in a certain way or at a certain time, communicate that. If you find certain feedback helpful and others simply distracting, tell your team. It is much easier to set those expectations up front as opposed to fumbling through them later, when you’re neck deep in a project and no one gives a damn about “your process”.
Don’t dismiss ideas. Ask questions.
It is so easy to jump on someone’s case when they suggest something — especially if it is counter to what you’ve communicated in the past. Here’s a piece of advice that can go a long way: always assume positive intent. Dismissing a colleague is the fastest way to burn a bridge. If someone is jumping to conclusions about a marketing strategy or someone is using the wrong language to describe a design, don’t shut them down immediately. Instead, ask questions and allow them to unpack where they’re coming from. Use this as an opportunity to show you are here to listen, learn and if possible, teach.
No matter what techniques you use to build a better relationship with a colleague, it’s always best to communicate your intention. If you want things to be better, tell them that! Share this blog with them and commit to these steps together. Selling the idea doesn’t make you weak or communicate that you’re willing to give up on your convictions; it just means you care and want to a more harmonious working environment. (Now if they deny it and don’t want to try, well then we’ll have to write a whole new post for how to deal with that very special kind of human. 😬)
Ready to build a better relationship with your design team? Try Wake! It was designed to fit seamlessly into a designer’s workflow to encourage fast and frequent sharing throughout the entire design process.
