What are the most important qualities required in a student specialising in marketing in a management programme? In a discussion at a meeting last week, an administrator of a management college argued vehemently that communication skills were the most important thing for a marketer as he or she needed to convince the client to buy something.
The consensus, among academics and managements in local management colleges, seems to be that this — have communication skills and success is yours — is especially true for a salesman.
An interaction with the students drove home the point that it is indeed communication skills that needs to be the forte of all salesmen. Taking it forward, all that a management institute needs to create a good marketing professional is to impart good communication skills in a student. This seems to be the reason for which many students join the MBA programme. Such fallacies could account for our graduates seeming to be considered unemployable by industry. True, communication skills are necessary for a marketer, but is it that only thing which makes a good marketer?
Imagine this scene: you are asked to speak about something for a couple of minutes. On which topic will you deliver the lecture? The answer, in most of the cases, will be a topic that is close to your heart. Examine further and you will know that you have selected the topic simply because you are comfortable with the knowledge that you have about it. You are most comfortable with the topic because you know it thoroughly and have studied it well.
Transpose this to the marketing domain. If you have to convince somebody of the genuineness of a product, you need to first get convinced about that yourself. For that, you need to understand the product yourself, which requires original thinking or at least some logical thinking that will make you understand the critical things about the product.
People who have only communication skills and are not strong in logical thought process will be readily lapped up by companies that do emotional selling rather than rational selling. A classic example can be the insurance industry. Look at the recruitment profile in the local business schools and these companies will dominate the recruitment numbers there. But to go up the ladder, you need to sell your work to your superiors who do not buy arguments on an emotional basis. This will result in a stalemate in those people's careers and frustration starts to creep in.
Communication skills are a shortcut to the first job for many an MBA graduate, but the real essence of one's career will be the reasoning ability which needs to be the core of a manager's repertoire. Students would do well if they understand this and approach the MBA course as a whole rather than look at it as a mere communication skills course and institutes would do well if they recognise this and impart the right mix of higher order skills and communication skills rather than do an eyewash using the communication skills platform unless that is the requirement of the day.
Co-author
Kengcyclopedia
