Stop selling the “what.”
People don’t connect with what you do, they can only connect with why you do it.
This is why storytelling is such powerful marketing. Stories allow us to use our imagination, it allows us to identify with the characters, it allows us to take sides and pick who we want to win and lose.
There is more noise out there than ever. There are more choices than ever. Unless you find a way to build a bond with your customer and enroll them in an idea that they can identify with, you will forever be chasing new customers, forever competing in the noisy, crowded space.
If you want to differentiate yourself–for now–talk about why you do what you do.
What do you believe?
Is your mission statement on your website? Is you philosophy or purpose? Do you even know WHY you do what you do?
Step one is to identify why you do what you do. And if the answer is “to create shareholder value,” you are already lost.
In a hyper-connected world, customers expect businesses to turn a profit, but they yearn for something deeper. And sometime, at the beginning, before IPOs, analyst predictions and real time stock tickers, all companies started with an idea bigger than money.
Here’s why we do what we do
We believe that the world is changing.
We see the world getting faster and more connected, and consequently smaller.
People are using technology more and more.
They find information from one another, rather than from traditional institutions.
These changes in behavior have far-reaching implications.
The world of business changing.
There are more freelancers than ever.
A new hub-n-spokes model of business fueled by 10-99 subcontractors is quick, nimble, and able to undercut bigger, more centralized companies, while providing comparable–and in some cases superior–products and services.
Partnerships have made a resurgence as cautious businesses realize that it is easier to travel with a “buddy” in this uncertain, rapidly changing environment.
Why we started our company.
We are as fascinated by the changes in human behavior as we are by the technology.
We don’t see a scary, uncertain future; we see a bright, new future fueled by all of us, sharing information and creating a decentralized repository of human experiences, perspectives, information and knowledge.
The internet has forever altered the human experience and our purpose is to help companies embrace these changes and benefit through understanding.
We want to help companies navigate the next decade, because it is nothing like the previous ones. By changing the tools and cultures of businesses to be more open, transparent, collaborative, responsive, humble, and nimble, we change the world.
Why does your company do what it does?