Doug DavidoffLast year, I presented a proposal to a prospect, who is now one of my favorite clients. The conversation got around to messaging and my prospective client told me cynically that he did not believe that a ‘fresh message’ could be created in his industry. He told me that everything that could be promised had been promised. Today, his company has a message that he is very excited about.
The mistake my client made is a typical one people make in marketing circles. For a message to be effective, it must be fully integrated into every aspect of a company’s culture, processes and actions. Messaging is a strategic exercise that literally impacts every facet of an organization. The key to making your message work is to ensure that there is complete alignment behind it.
For example, if you tell people that you take an innovative approach to solving your customers’ problems; and the first interaction a potential client has with you is no different from any other company they’ve come in contact with – how likely is it that the customer will believe your message? If your Value Proposition Foundation is Customer Intimacy, yet your salespeople sell as if every prospect is the same, the reality is that your customers will not trust you or believe your message.
The challenge businesses face is that alignment is a fragile thing. A slight difference between your message, your actions and your processes thrusts you into the trap of commoditization. So, take a look at what you are telling people makes you so great and ask yourself – are we completely aligned behind it?