The most underrated marketing skill isn’t what you think.
It’s not SEO. Not ad copy. Not even conversion funnels.
It’s listening.
Quiet, patient, inconvenient listening.
A few months ago, I was in a grocery store, just waiting for billing, with enough time to observe.
A woman stood at the rice shelf, phone in hand, slowly circling two brands.
Not one word spoken.
But her pauses, her body language, her second glance at the packaging it all said more than any survey could
What makes us trust one seller over another, when all else is the same?
Here’s what years of listening taught me (often without a word spoken):
– Hesitation reveals friction. When users pause before clicking, they’re not confused they’re unconvinced.
– Repeated complaints are roadmaps. If three customers say your WhatsApp flow is annoying, it probably is.
– What people skip is louder than what they engage with. Skipped sections on a website = irrelevance.
When I was working with a jewelry brand, we noticed many high-intent customers were dropping off after chatting with the CRM team.
Instead of throwing offers at them, I sat quietly on a few sales calls.
The issue wasn’t price.
It was timing.
The team was following up too soon, too frequently, before the bride had even finished her shortlisting.
We shifted to a slower, emotion-led drip.
Sales conversion improved.
More importantly, our Net Promoter Score went up.
Analytics tell you what happened.
Listening tells you why.
Tell me, what have you learned from a moment of deep listening?
Not from a survey. Not from a spreadsheet.
But from simply being there, watching, absorbing, understanding.
I’d love to hear. Sometimes the best insights come from the quietest moments.