Shawn Strawser on Turning Customer Conversations Into Better Marketing

Some of the best marketing research does not happen inside analytics software. 

It happens in conversations. 

My name is Shawn Strawser, and because much of my career began in direct sales, I spent years talking with business owners, customers, prospects, and decision-makers. 

Those conversations taught me something I still rely on as a marketing strategist today: 

Customers will often tell you how to market to them if you are willing to listen. 

They tell you what matters. 

They tell you what confuses them. 

They tell you what they are afraid of. 

They tell you why they buy. 

They tell you why they do not buy. 

And they usually explain all of that using language that is more useful than anything created in a conference room. 

Marketers Need to Hear Real Customer Language 

Companies naturally develop their own vocabulary. 

They use product names. 

Industry terminology. 

Internal phrases. 

Technical descriptions. 

Customers may describe the exact same thing completely differently. 

That difference is important. 

If customers consistently use one phrase when describing a problem, that phrase may belong in your marketing. 

If they repeatedly ask the same question, that question probably belongs on your website. 

If they struggle to understand the way you describe a service, the problem may not be the customer. 

The messaging may need to change. 

Salespeople Hear What Marketers Need to Know 

Sales teams have direct access to customer insight every day. 

They hear: 

• Objections 

• Questions 

• Pain points 

• Competitor comparisons 

• Budget concerns 

• Timing issues 

• Decision criteria 

• Customer priorities 

That information is extremely valuable. 

Unfortunately, many organizations allow it to stay inside individual sales conversations. 

It never reaches the marketing team. 

That is a missed opportunity. 

Repeated Questions Should Become Content 

One of the simplest ways to create useful content is to pay attention to what customers keep asking. 

If you answer the same question every week, there is probably a blog post hiding inside it. 

Maybe it should become: 

• A FAQ 

• A landing page 

• An email 

• A video 

• A guide 

• A sales resource 

• A social post 

Good content often begins with a real question from a real customer. 

That makes it useful by design. 

Objections Can Improve Your Marketing 

Salespeople sometimes think of objections as something to overcome. 

Marketers should also view them as information. 

If prospects repeatedly say: 

“I don’t understand how this works.” 

Your explanation may need improvement. 

If they say: 

“I don’t know why this is different.” 

Your positioning may be weak. 

If they say: 

“I don’t know if I can trust this company.” 

Your credibility signals may need work. 

If they say: 

“It seems too complicated.” 

Your customer journey may contain too much friction. 

An objection tells you where confidence is breaking down. 

Marketing can help address that earlier in the process. 

The Words Customers Use Matter 

One of the biggest mistakes in marketing is writing for the company instead of writing for the customer. 

Companies often describe what they do in terms of features. 

Customers often describe what they want in terms of outcomes. 

A company might say: 

“Integrated multichannel marketing solution.” 

The customer may simply want: 

“More qualified leads.” 

Those are very different ways of describing value. 

Customer conversations help marketers translate features into outcomes people actually care about. 

Listen for Emotional Language 

Not every buying decision is purely logical. 

Customers often reveal emotional motivations during conversations. 

They may be frustrated. 

Overwhelmed. 

Uncertain. 

Excited. 

Concerned. 

Tired of wasting time. 

Ready for something easier. 

Those emotions matter. 

You do not need manipulative marketing. 

You do need marketing that acknowledges how people actually feel. 

A message becomes more relevant when the customer recognizes their own situation in it. 

Ask Customers Why They Chose You 

Businesses spend a lot of time guessing what makes them different. 

Customers may already know. 

Ask them. 

Why did you choose us? 

What mattered most? 

What almost stopped you? 

What surprised you? 

What did we do better than you expected? 

The answers can reveal positioning opportunities you may not have noticed internally. 

Lost Sales Are Valuable Research 

Wins are useful. 

Losses can sometimes teach you more. 

Why did the prospect choose someone else? 

Was it price? 

Timing? 

Trust? 

Features? 

Communication? 

Speed? 

Confusion? 

A lost opportunity should not simply disappear from the CRM. 

Patterns across lost deals can show where marketing, sales, or the offer itself needs improvement. 

Customer Conversations Can Improve SEO 

This also applies to search engine optimization. 

People often search Google using the same natural language they use when asking a salesperson a question. 

That makes customer conversations useful keyword research. 

What phrases do customers use? 

What questions do they ask? 

What problems are they trying to solve? 

Those insights can influence: 

• Page titles 

• Blog topics 

• FAQs 

• Service pages 

• Local pages 

• Search campaigns 

• Website copy 

SEO works better when content reflects real search intent. 

Customer conversations help reveal that intent. 

Analytics Tells You What Happened. Conversations Can Tell You Why. 

I value data. 

Marketing decisions should be measured. 

Analytics can tell us: 

How many people visited. 

Where they came from. 

Which page they viewed. 

What they clicked. 

Whether they converted. 

But analytics cannot always explain why. 

A customer conversation may reveal that instantly. 

“I could not understand the pricing.” 

“I wasn’t sure whether this was for businesses like mine.” 

“I wanted to talk with someone before buying.” 

“I could not find the information I needed.” 

That context can make the data much more useful. 

My Sales Career Made Me a Better Marketer 

I believe my years in direct sales gave me an advantage when I moved deeper into marketing strategy. 

Sales teaches you to pay attention to the customer. 

You cannot hide behind metrics when someone is sitting across from you telling you exactly what they think. 

You hear the reaction immediately. 

You learn which messages create interest. 

You learn what creates confusion. 

You learn what makes people hesitate. 

That experience still influences how I approach marketing today. 

Create a Feedback Loop Between Sales and Marketing 

Organizations should create a simple way for customer insight to move from sales into marketing. 

It does not have to be complicated. 

Regularly ask: 

What questions are coming up? 

What objections are we hearing? 

What language are customers using? 

What are prospects confused about? 

Why are people choosing us? 

Why are we losing opportunities? 

Then use those answers to improve marketing. 

That creates a feedback loop. 

Marketing generates conversations. 

Conversations create insight. 

Insight improves marketing. 

Customer Service Has Insights Too 

Sales is not the only source. 

Customer service teams may know even more about what customers struggle with. 

They hear complaints. 

Questions. 

Confusion. 

Requests. 

Recurring problems. 

That feedback can identify opportunities to improve: 

• Onboarding 

• Website content 

• Product descriptions 

• FAQs 

• Email communication 

• Expectations 

Customer-facing teams should be part of the marketing intelligence system. 

Better Marketing Often Starts With Better Listening 

Businesses sometimes search for complicated solutions when the information they need is already available. 

Talk to the customer. 

Listen to the sales team. 

Read reviews. 

Study support questions. 

Look at emails. 

Pay attention to repeated patterns. 

There is an enormous amount of marketing insight sitting inside everyday conversations. 

What Shawn Strawser Looks for in Customer Conversations 

When I listen to customer feedback, I am usually paying attention to several things: 

What problem are they actually trying to solve? 

What language do they use to describe it? 

What outcome matters? 

What creates uncertainty? 

What causes them to act? 

What prevents them from acting? 

Those questions help turn individual conversations into broader marketing insights. 

The Bottom Line 

Good marketing requires data. 

But it also requires listening. 

A dashboard can tell you what people did. 

A customer can tell you what they were thinking. 

The strongest marketing strategies use both. 

That is why I believe one of the best things a marketer can do is stay close to the customer. 

Talk to people. 

Listen carefully. 

Find the patterns. 

Then turn those insights into better messaging, better content, better campaigns, and better customer experiences. 

About Shawn Strawser 

Shawn Strawser is a marketing strategist and sales professional with more than 20 years of experience in advertising, new account development, digital marketing, outside sales, business development, and growth strategy. 

His career includes bringing in more than 300 new accounts within six months and becoming the only Marketing Consultant at SEPI in more than 40 years to exceed $500,000 in annual sales. 

Today, Shawn Strawser applies lessons from direct sales and customer conversations to marketing strategy, digital growth, business development, and customer acquisition.