At LG+ marketing agency, we are always working hand-in-hand with our clients to achieve their business goals. This could mean helping with launching a product, building a go-to-market strategy, or engaging with the media to bring more awareness to your brand and technology. From our experience with our clients, we’ve learned that communication is always the start of everything. Whether it is day one during our introductory consultation or months into our working partnership, we believe that good communication is the bridge between client success and our agency of marketing experts.

Each year, the LG+ team gets together to celebrate our accomplishments, learn from each other, and continue to build our professional toolkit to better serve our clients. This year, we were fortunate enough to have Georgette Pascale as a guest speaker to the team. Georgette has over three decades of experience in PR, marketing, communications, entrepreneurship, and leadership across multiple industries. She is recognized for her authentic, motivational, inclusive and nimble style, emphasizing action over ideas in business. Georgette has the unique perspective of building a successful virtual communications and social media agency – embracing that where you work doesn’t impact your quality of work well before the pandemic – selling this agency, and kickstarting her next entrepreneurial chapter.

During our session with Georgette, the LG+ team wanted to focus on what communications means – not only as an agency working with different clients who can have very different needs, but as a team. As part of our initial conversations, we discussed what communication means to each of us professionally and personally, and worked through different exercises to identify our own communication style and how certain verbal or non-verbal cues may help us better identify the communication style of our clients.

Communication is the tool we all use to share our thoughts, information, and connect with other people. In the workplace there are four major styles of communication, first identified by New York Times bestselling author, Mark Murphy – analytical, functional, intuitive, and personal. Being able to identify your communication style, along with that of your clients, will reduce confusion and bring actionable information to the forefront.

Analytical Communicator: The analytical communication style focuses primarily on analysis – as the name would suggest. Think data, hard numbers, statistics. These communicators are fact-driven, often leaned on to flesh out ideas or strategies with facts and figures.

An example of this would be a client who wants to invest more into inbound marketing strategies and our analytical communicator reviewing all inbound channels for leads and percentage conversions to sales rather than relying on the marketing team’s intuition.

Functional Communicator: Functional communicators find comfort in order and clarity – build a step-by-step process or workflow so they can easily follow and they are infinitely happy. In some cases, this communication style can resist change or updates to a process, but the key with working with functional communicators is to bridge this discomfort with a process-model that clearly, and in some cases visually, shows the shift or adoption of a new system or process.

Intuitive Communicator: In contrast to both Analytical and Functional communicators, Intuitive communicators can easily visualize the big picture. For example, this may be the CEO or executive who has an ultimate business goal or objective in mind and doesn’t always care about the small print behind reaching this goal. Many leaders are known to be intuitive communicators leaning into their ability to motivate the team, remind us of our goals and value the company, technology, or product will bring to society as a whole.

Personal Communicator: People who identify as personal communicators are known to emphasize diplomacy and have a keen interpersonal awareness. These communicators double down on team cohesion and harmony, working through multiple opinions and points of view so goals can be achieved. Many times personal communicators are found in project management or task management roles since they know exactly where other team members may excel or struggle within the breadth of a project based on skills and insights.

1. When Communicating – Be Specific: According to Georgette, in her three decades of experience so many issues can be avoided upfront if teams have clear communication. For example, if someone says “call me anytime to discuss,” rarely does this mean that they will accept phone calls anytime during the day or night to discuss. Instead of using vague, open-ended promises of time, discuss specific parameters of how you plan to communicate with the team or client. This can also extend to how you communicate with your client or team. If someone doesn’t like the phone, or prefers emails, lean into this preference, use the mechanism that best works to share information, updates, or pivots so momentum doesn’t slip because of a missed call.

2. Ask for Feedback: People want to be heard, that is one of the reasons why there are so many communication styles trying to share different thoughts and opinions. While working with clients or other team members, don’t forget to ask for feedback, either through a monthly survey, check in, or form – giving your client the space to tell you how they feel, what is working, or what they may need more of, builds rapport and trust. This feedback loop also allows you to learn what clients prefer, what they are spending their energy on, and what information best helps them make decisions for the business moving forward.

3. Acknowledge and Show Appreciation: When a client or someone is complaining and upset, many times it can raise our defenses. Georgette advises a different approach when it comes to hearing criticism or complaints. She says the first thing should be to acknowledge and thank the client or customer for taking the time to bring this to your attention. Georgette also emphasized the importance of showing appreciation, not only for good feedback, but also for any criticism that could be turned into a lesson learned. And appreciation does not always mean swag – sometimes it can be a handwritten note, in-person meeting, or voice note.

Whether you are part of an agency working with clients or a contributor on any team, you can use these diverse communication styles and baseline tactics to build a client’s dream team. Your team will be able to call on these communication superpowers to view projects holistically, with balance and respect to all perspectives, not only putting goals into action but building a well-balanced working relationship.

For more information about Georgette Pascale, follow her on Instagram or LinkedIN.

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