VISION
Can You See It?
I like asking business owners about their visions and what makes their companies better than their competition. Competitive advantage can only come from positive differentiation, so you can learn a lot from the way an owner describes his edge.
Too often, the owner will offer a canned set of platitudes that could apply to any company anywhere. As soon as they start talking about exceeding expectations, creating partnerships and providing solutions, I know they’ve missed the point. They’ve opted to sound like everyone by using the generic marketing language. It’s an absolute waste of time and dollars.
So I was encouraged by the response from one owner at a recent exhibition. Offering technology services, he said his company excelled at anticipating problems and addressing them with customers in advance. Not bad. If I’m a client, I’d appreciate a fast response when the network is down, but I’d like it even more if the network didn’t crash at all.
Intrigued, I checked out the marketing materials at his display, including his website, and….his competitive edge was not mentioned anywhere. As a result, the face of his company looked pretty much like the image of every competitor in the hall. The factor that might separate him from the pack was clear to him, but he wasn’t making it clear to his audience.
Vision is a powerful driver, but there is no impact until that vision is recognized and valued by the audience. Too often, the guys at the top sign off on a program, but never check into the results. (Pretty much everyone reading this thinks I’m talking about somebody else. Right.)
Just for giggles, try this test.
- Ask someone to cut and paste text from your website, or your brochure, along with text from your competitors’ offerings.
- With brand names or other identifiers removed, try to separate your text from the others.
- When—if—you’ve identified your own text, does it make you excited about your company or does it sound like Mediocrity, Inc?
If you review your public face and you can’t find your vision, you’d be very safe in concluding that customers and prospects won’t find it, either. After all, you knew what to look for, but they don’t have a clue.
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As always, we’re happy to discuss any of the points raised in this and other posts, and to help you benefit from increased focus on the matters that matter. Reach us by emailing Michael@quadrantfivefocus.com or calling 312 582 4470.
About Michael Rosenbaum
Quadrant Five founder Michael Rosenbaum has walked the walk when it comes to building a business, so he can be a confidant and compatriot—not just an advisor—for clients. Rosenbaum worked his way up to president of a $35 million company with 300 people and 600 clients. Along the way, he managed operations, HR, IT, and marketing, and advised CEOS and CFOs at more than 200 companies.
Beginning as a newspaper reporter, he developed a specialization in business journalism and earned an MBA on his way to a 30-year consulting career. Representing both angel-backed startups and Fortune 100 giants, Rosenbaum identified the patterns and processes that drive success across a wide range of industries and business cycles.
He is well regarded for designing each performance-improvement process around specific client needs, capabilities, and culture, rather than pushing a pre-fab set of rules for clients to follow. He brings a unique set of skills to each engagement, including experiences as a company president, financial journalist, marketer, IR advisor, non-profit founder, author, and public speaker. Items of note include:
• Received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2015 for non-profit work
• Honored for the Best Business Biography of 2012 for his fifth book, Six Tires, No Plan
• Frequent speaker on customer relationship value
• Sales instructor for Certified Value Growth Advisor certification program.
• Regional Communications Chair, YPO Gold
• Marketing Chair, AMAA’s Mid-Market Alliance
• Former Chicago Chapter Chair, National Association of Corporate Directors
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