With the marketplace bouncing, business owners struggle for answers.
One client nailed it when he confessed, “In the good times Chris, we burned a lot of leads. You had to be tenacious to even get our attention! Now we need every enquiry we can get”.
Times are tougher, but this holds a great opportunity for you.
‘Crack the code’ on how to get leads and sales flowing for your business in the current environment, and own your market at the other end of the tunnel.
Today, I’m going to give you one simple insight that could help you crack part of that code:
Your market doesn’t know what you do, nearly as well as you may think they do. In fact, they don’t even know that they DON’T know. And therefore, they don’t care.
OK, you may have heard that before. But what does it mean for your industry? It should be a call to action for even the most astute and switched on companies.
Unearthing an opportunity
I canvassed this issue with a client of one of those very switched on companies. In fact, I workshopped the question with his whole team of some 30 people. First up, I asked them what the PERCEPTION of their industry was out in the market place. The industry at large.
The responses came thick and fast as I struggled to keep up writing on the butcher’s paper…
Pushy, untrustworthy, misleading, expensive, nasty surprises, lack of knowledge, promises that aren’t kept, a nightmare experience, no follow up, unhelpful, disinterested, …
Boy, THIS industry had serious perception problems! Can you guess the industry? Actually, it really doesn’t matter. Do this exercise with ANY industry and chances are you’ll get feedback like this.
But here’s the kicker. We then did the same exercise on their perception of THEIR company. Again, the responses came thick and fast, but very different:
We care, ethical, integrity, we listen, team spirit, systemised, deliver on our promises, industry respect, family values, welcoming, professional …
Now, I hasten to add that this company actually DOES deliver on these things. In fact, part of the reason I agreed to work with them was because they are quite extraordinary in their systems, performance standards, and all those other things.
BUT … and it’s a big but …
I then challenged them with this question: “YOU know you do these things, and why they’re important … but how much of this does your market know?”
They simply weren’t COMMUNICATING the very things that should set them apart from the ‘chaff’.
Out of that exercise came a whole new strategy. We’ve now worked with this company to help them encapsulate their extraordinary story. To make ‘the invisible visible’.
Their ‘magic story’ is articulated in every piece of collateral, every letter, every proposal, every brochure, in the way their people position themselves with their clients, in the website, in a corporate video, in new TV commercials …
I can’t stress this enough. The big thing missing for them, and for almost all potentially great companies, is COMMUNICATION.
Your collateral has to tell your story in terms that the marketplace understands, and will get excited about, and will rave to others about. It’s not hard. It just needs to be done ...
It doesn't matter if you’re a large financial institution, a trade business, a professional adviser, a wholesaler, retailer, butcher, baker or candlestick maker for that matter … IF YOU’RE NOT TELLING YOUR STORY COMPELLINGLY, if you’re assuming your market KNOWS or CARES, you’re losing out on huge sales opportunities.
Finally, let me share an email I received …
This client supplies high end industrial pump solutions … the $5,000 to $50,000 variety … to sewerage works, pump stations, refineries, etc. We’d helped him articulate his magic story through a series of very specific white papers.
He wrote (paraphrased):
One client nailed it when he confessed, “In the good times Chris, we burned a lot of leads. You had to be tenacious to even get our attention! Now we need every enquiry we can get”. Times are tougher, but this holds a great opportunity for you.
‘Crack the code’ on how to get leads and sales flowing for your business in the current environment, and own your market at the other end of the tunnel.
Today, I’m going to give you one simple insight that could help you crack part of that code:
Your market doesn’t know what you do, nearly as well as you may think they do. In fact, they don’t even know that they DON’T know. And therefore, they don’t care.
OK, you may have heard that before. But what does it mean for your industry? It should be a call to action for even the most astute and switched on companies.
Unearthing an opportunity
I canvassed this issue with a client of one of those very switched on companies. In fact, I workshopped the question with his whole team of some 30 people. First up, I asked them what the PERCEPTION of their industry was out in the market place. The industry at large.
The responses came thick and fast as I struggled to keep up writing on the butcher’s paper…
Pushy, untrustworthy, misleading, expensive, nasty surprises, lack of knowledge, promises that aren’t kept, a nightmare experience, no follow up, unhelpful, disinterested, …
Boy, THIS industry had serious perception problems! Can you guess the industry? Actually, it really doesn’t matter. Do this exercise with ANY industry and chances are you’ll get feedback like this.
But here’s the kicker. We then did the same exercise on their perception of THEIR company. Again, the responses came thick and fast, but very different:
We care, ethical, integrity, we listen, team spirit, systemised, deliver on our promises, industry respect, family values, welcoming, professional …
Now, I hasten to add that this company actually DOES deliver on these things. In fact, part of the reason I agreed to work with them was because they are quite extraordinary in their systems, performance standards, and all those other things.
BUT … and it’s a big but …
I then challenged them with this question: “YOU know you do these things, and why they’re important … but how much of this does your market know?”
They simply weren’t COMMUNICATING the very things that should set them apart from the ‘chaff’.
Out of that exercise came a whole new strategy. We’ve now worked with this company to help them encapsulate their extraordinary story. To make ‘the invisible visible’.
Their ‘magic story’ is articulated in every piece of collateral, every letter, every proposal, every brochure, in the way their people position themselves with their clients, in the website, in a corporate video, in new TV commercials …
I can’t stress this enough. The big thing missing for them, and for almost all potentially great companies, is COMMUNICATION.
Your collateral has to tell your story in terms that the marketplace understands, and will get excited about, and will rave to others about. It’s not hard. It just needs to be done ...
It doesn't matter if you’re a large financial institution, a trade business, a professional adviser, a wholesaler, retailer, butcher, baker or candlestick maker for that matter … IF YOU’RE NOT TELLING YOUR STORY COMPELLINGLY, if you’re assuming your market KNOWS or CARES, you’re losing out on huge sales opportunities.
Finally, let me share an email I received …
This client supplies high end industrial pump solutions … the $5,000 to $50,000 variety … to sewerage works, pump stations, refineries, etc. We’d helped him articulate his magic story through a series of very specific white papers.
He wrote (paraphrased):
“One of our resellers was having a squabble over pricing of an $8,000 pump with a prospect, and just couldn’t get the sale across the line. However, then the customer got hold of one of our white papers and liked what he read. Now he is buying not only pumps, but motors, valves and piping. And here’s the good bit …
- We did not compete against any other supplier. No quotes were called.
- We were past price now, simply providing a solution …”
Your market doesn’t know what you do. And they don’t know that they don’t know.
