The issue is, “Are you saying what you want to say?”

To answer that question you have to know what you want to say, as a company. This issue is complex.

People often put a great deal of thought into the broadcast statements (advertising, brochures and sales material) they make.

Then, what they say or don’t say in follow up comes off the cuff. Or, you say something that makes sense in the context of the moment, but that contradicts the larger messages you’re trying to send.

For example, with every conflict or disappointment that arises around your execution, a new interpretation of your value proposition or your brand arises. People talk.

Customers talk to potential customers. Customers talk to competitors. Competitors talk to potential customers.

In short, a counter message is now floating through the marketplace. How many of those counter stories are now out there living lives of their own?

How many of those stories are calling your broadcast messages into question? As a leader, you have to tend to just how vigorously you and your people work to correct those messages.

The solution isn’t just to impersonally broadcast more messages.

Rather, the best course is for you and your people to seek to clarify misconceptions personally, or to address those conflicts as soon as you become aware of them.

To do that you’ll have to invite people to talk with you and then listen to what they’re saying.

Opening a dialogue is the best way to tend your story, to keep it accurate, to ensure that you’re saying what you’re doing and doing what it is that you are saying.

One other consideration; your story is more than advertising copy. That story explains your value proposition in its most powerful way.

Like any story, it plays best when it is intriguing, logically consistent and clearly understandable to the listeners.

Deliberately using your brand promise as a reference to organize and present your story as compellingly as possible requires a deliberate, concerted effort for as long as you are in business. How can you do less and not undercut yourself?

Your Public Orientation – Whom Do You Serve?

Of course, you’re in business to make a profit and to serve your enterprise. Everyone knows that.

The issue is whether you’re seen as operating at the expense of the customer or making profits as a result of the advantage that you provide for them.

At a deeper level, it’s about the perception that every customer takes away as a result of every interaction that s/he has with your company/product.

The worse case scenario is when you intend to take care of your customers but your organization doesn’t deliver, regardless of your intentions.

In this section, the challenge is to walk the walk, rather than to merely talk the talk.

Here are some questions to help you to consider your company’s replies in response to customers’ experience of who you are:

• Do you only initiate customer contact when you want to make a sale?

• Do you seek their feedback on an ongoing basis – beyond the normal sales rep/ customer contacts?

• Do you have a demonstrable process for ensuring customer satisfaction?

• Do you include customers in your effort to plan, develop initiatives and gather intelligence?

• Do you (your people) obviously work to understand how your offerings can anticipate customers’ evolving expectations?

• Do you (your people) obviously work to understand how your offerings can anticipate how customers can use your offerings to better effect in the future than in the past?

Trumpeting Your Unique Value-Added:

Any plan to seize the initiative for your brand includes trumpeting your competitive advantage---from your customer's points of view.

This seems too obvious to have to put into words. This unique value lies at the heart of why people should do business with you instead of your competitors.

It has to be current, not just what your traditional advantage has been.

It has to ring true; it can’t be something you think that you do when, in fact, you don’t.

It can’t be an internal advantage that you have over a competitor but which is invisible to your customers. You have to know it, but that alone is insufficient.

Your people have to know it, intimately, and they need to work to ensure and to improve it (see section 4).

Too many family businesses and privately held companies simply don’t do this as well as they can.

Perhaps it comes from a reluctance to be boastful about yourself, when the business is so intimately connected with who you are.

One way or the other, a surprising number of businesses say little and simply hope that customers will discover what makes them special. Others don’t seem to think about it at all.

Many who do think about it say innocuous things about their unique value-added, such as, “We care.” To which competitors say, “We Care More Than They Do.”

You know what happens when your advantage is low price. You can quickly cannibalize your margins to the point where you could make a better return by liquidating your business and putting the money into you local bank’s passbook savings accounts.

Another common claim is that the concept of family extends between our customers and us. That’s inadequate. Be specific.

So what is it that gives your offering a value that can’t be found anywhere else? Focus groups might help to surface it. Good intuitions (yours and your senior people’s) might help to identify it.

Continued, careful observation of competitors can also help you to put what makes you different into better relief. Yet, it is your suppliers and customers who can give you the richness that you need to proclaim your advantage boldly. Gather their stories.

Suppliers have a view of what others are doing. They also have ongoing experience with well-run and well-focused companies who also roam in your ecosystem. They can give you insights from their unique perspectives. Customers can share stories and anecdotes about your company and provide a different perspective on competitors.

However, you have to have invested in creating the relationships with suppliers and customers that set the stage for honest, collaborative conversations.

Having worked through the exercises on your business idea, your business history, and your brand promise, you will be in position to sit with your people and define a unique value that is substantive and attractive.

34. Creating The Business Review Conversation With Your Customers

Tool Preview: A structured guide for identifying the essential elements that you want to include in your continuing conversations with your customers, as well as the action steps you’ll take to make it happen. [Read Now]

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