managing through change

Top 5 Tips for Managing Through Change Or What I Learned While Attempting to Surf

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There was a time in the not-so-distant past when executives had a simple goal for their organizations: stability. But market transparency, instantaneous communications, labor mobility, and global capital flows have swept this comfortable scenario out to sea. In most industries and in almost all companies—from giants to micro-enterprises—heightened competition from new markets have forced management to concentrate on something they happily avoided in the past: change.

Companies today need to figure out how they can capitalize on uncertainty. Success in this era means managing through change. A solid, static plan just won’t cut it. So rather than trying to plan for the inevitable and manage the change, leaders should turn their attention to managing through change.

What does managing through change look like?

Good question. I was recently thinking about this idea while on vacation—as one does. While it’s tough to come up with a one-size-fits-all methodology that fits every organization, perhaps a metaphor is a useful place to start.

Surfing and Change

My husband is a surfer. While he doesn’t get to surf as much as he’d like in D.C., we often spend vacations on the water. He surfs. I attempt to surf and spend a lot of time watching surfers and thinking about business metaphors.

On a recent trip, while I was bobbing in the ocean waiting for a wave (okay, more honestly, I was trying to catch my breath after falling and paddling back out for the hundredth time), I got to thinking about how surfing is like managing through change.

The best surfers are masters at riding the big waves. They know better than to try to manage the waves (I’m not even sure what that would look like). They don’t spend a lot of time hoping they’ll be able to stand up or planning to use the very best technique to balance on the board. They feel the flow of the ocean way more than they manage or hope or plan.

In broad terms, this is what it’s like to manage through change. Instead of bracing for the bump, skilled leaders accept that rough waters are coming, learn to embrace the change, and engage their entire organizations.

managing through change

Now let’s try to move past mere metaphor, shall we? Rather than offering a single methodology here, what follows is a “Top 5” list of best practices and guiding principles that can be adapted to fit a variety of situations calling for managing through the change.

1. Watch the sets come in.

In surf lingo, “set waves” refers to a group of larger waves. There’s a rhythm to the ocean on any given day or time of day. As you keep an eye on the horizon and watch these sets coming through, you start to get a feel for the rhythm and begin to prepare to catch a ride.

There’s also a rhythm to markets and if you watch the trends, you will get a feel for it. Managing through change means anticipating market trends and developing flexible strategies to prepare your team for what’s coming. In a highly competitive environment, that means going deeper than your competitors. Is there an untapped resource, you’ve had your eye on for some time? Perhaps it’s time to bring in that consultant or find another way to infuse fresh ideas.

In addition to being prepared for market trends, set your expectations. There are times when pulling back and being a bit more conservative is the right move. But this can be a hard pill to swallow, especially for highly competitive leaders and teams. So set the expectation from the outset: choose a date (or other benchmark) by which time to make a decision. Until then, maintain awareness, anticipate what you can, and prepare.

2. Be in position to catch that wave.

Sometimes the waves in business and on the ocean roll in more slowly than you would like. The “hurry up and wait” cycle can get old. So, make sure you are taking advantage of the waiting periods to understand where you are, what the wave (AKA change) looks like, and where you want to be at the end of your ride (i.e., you want to avoid being smashed into the rocks!).

Knowing your goal and having your exit strategy is just as important as riding that big wave as far as it wants to take you. Get in position by creating a game plan that’s flexible enough for your purposes:

  • Define success carefully. Consider the ideal goal, but also what, at a minimum, will count as a win. Be generous.
  • Do your market research. Don’t skimp on this step! Rushing into a big change without doing the right research sets everyone up for failure.
  • Understand your strengths and weaknesses. Transformation affects every level of your organization. Make sure you identify leaders early in the process and give them the tools they need to execute their specific missions. Also, look for any gaps in communication across departments. Strategize about how to create more cooperation.

3. It takes more work than you think to catch that wave.

Paddle harder (or, as my husband says/yells, “paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle!”). Once you know you are in the right position and ready to catch the wave, the real work begins. You have to dig deep and do the work to catch that wave, so you can jump up on that board. Then you have to dig deep again to maintain your balance and ride that wave.

We know all too well that market forces shift. So even if you brilliantly complete the first two steps above, the market can suddenly leave you stranded alone on a deserted island. Alternatively, if those market forces do hold in just the way you were hoping, you’ll likely run into others surfing the same wave. So you need to be ready to adjust to markets shifting AND to competition shifting.

4. Waves don’t always do what you want them to do—be ready to adapt.

Change projects, like big waves, pick up momentum as they build. If you aren’t prepared to adapt, things can get out of control quickly. This means leaders at all levels of the organization must be empowered to rapidly adapt.

Successful startups are often successful because they have mastered the art of managing through change in precisely this way. Their agility gives them a huge advantage over large competitors in a market that rewards adaptability. But even giants can adopt and modify plays from the startup playbook.

For example, what is the status of your innovation pipeline? Is there an effective process for employees at all levels to introduce ideas up the chain? Is the culture such that employees feel motivated, heard, and supported in suggesting innovations?

5. Enjoy the ride and watch the view—you earned it.

In the midst of all this, don’t forget to savor the moment. Even if you only manage to ride the wave for a short time, take pleasure in the fact that it was your hard work that helped you see this new vista. And, appreciate the hard work that it took to get there. Going through the process has given you insights that you can use in the future too.

Finally, get ready to do it all again. Change, like waves, keeps coming.

While the Audacia Strategies team can’t promise to teach you how to surf Banzai Pipeline, we are experts at helping firms of all sizes manage through big waves of business transformation. Hey, we’ll take our inspiration wherever we can get it! If you’re looking for a bold team to help you build your way through change, contact us and let’s set up a consultation.

Photo Credit: IKO / 123RF Stock Photo

strategic narrative

Stuck on Your Messaging? Start With Your Strategic Narrative

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You’ve probably heard that a brand is not a logo. A brand is also not a website. It’s not even the unique value proposition (please forgive the “marketing geek” lingo) of your primary product or service. Rather, your brand is a strategic narrative communicated through your marketing message.

Successful companies focus on figuring out their strategic narrative—that big-picture story that grounds the work they do—and then look for innovative ways to express their message. Beyond this, they weave crucial talking points throughout their internal communications so that authentic messaging becomes embedded in the culture.

In other words, successful companies see marketing as more than a department occupying office space somewhere. Marketing done right expresses the heart and soul of what makes your business unique. What this means, though, is this strategic narrative actually precedes your marketing message.

So, let’s talk about that strategic narrative, shall we?

Developing Your Strategic Narrative

If your head is spinning a bit right now, don’t panic! Your marketing department can help you develop your strategic narrative. I simply want you to consider the difference between a strategic narrative and a marketing message.

Your strategic narrative is your company’s story:

  • It has a beginning (your company’s “origin story”),
  • A middle (where we are and what we stand for now), and
  • A vision for the future (where we’re headed and how we’ll get there).

The narrative also explains what matters to the company. Your company values propel the story forward together with what’s unique about the organization and how those values support to customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

When employees and leaders understand each other, they unite around this common strategic narrative. Ideally, at every level, everyone involved should want to be a part of the story and help to write chapters through their experiences.

For example, here’s part of the strategic narrative for Audacia Strategies: we help firms take bold (and audacious!) steps to transform their businesses. And because we know that asking our clients to come up with bold communications often means stepping outside of their comfort zones, we promise to be there every step of the way. We want to be known as the team that isn’t afraid to roll up our sleeves and jump into the ring with you.

In addition, the narrative represents more than one particular version of the story. A robust corporate narrative helps employees and managers understand their roles. When changes are necessary, the narrative explains those changes. When faced with a crisis, the narrative should guide the response.

So how do you develop a strategic narrative?

Start with key questions.

You have to be able to answer these or…well, maybe this isn’t the right business for you:

  • What customer or market problem do we solve? And why?
  • What customer or market pain do we alleviate?
  • How is our solution or service better than anyone else’s at addressing #1, #2?
  • No really. Be honest. What makes you truly different from your competitors?
    • Note: If your answer here sounds at all like what your competitors say (check out their website, talk to them at events, do other kinds of reconnaissance), start again.
  • Gut check: If your ideal customer heard your message and your closest competitor’s message side-by-side could she tell the difference?
    • Note: We’ve slipped into discussing the marketing message here because that’s how you communicate your narrative. But here’s precisely where the narrative is useful. When you have a clear corporate story to tell, it is an excellent resource for developing your unique value proposition and messaging.

Bonus round: What do you stand for? Why are you in business? What motivates or drives your organization? Remember, your narrative doesn’t have to involve “motherhood and apple pie” to be significant, but it should speak to a more profound answer to why you are in business.

Exercise: What are the one or two words or simple phrases (no more than three words) that you want to define your organization? Think about what you would want happy clients to tell others about your business. Keep it simple.

Keep your audience in mind.

It’s natural when working on a marketing message to consider our target audience and ideal customer personas. But it’s easy, especially in the early stages of developing your strategic narrative, to forget about the audience and just tell your story. Even though you will want your story to be able to be shared from different perspectives, those perspectives all should speak to your primary audience, the client (AKA the hero of your narrative).  

Who is your target market? Get super clear here. Divide your audience into as many different segments as makes sense based on their unique problems, challenges, and pains. Think about brands you respect and their corporate stories. Do you deliver a lower price and greater convenience (e.g., Walmart)? Do you offer high quality and luxury (e.g., Aston-Martin)?

When you’ve figured out who you want your narrative to engage with, make your ideal client the star of the show. It doesn’t hurt to literally tell your story like a fairy tale. Seriously. Don’t spare the “Once upon a time’s” or “Happily ever after’s.” These can be left out of marketing copy.

Once you have your narrative—you need an elevator pitch.

To get into character here, imagine this scenario: you have 30 seconds in an elevator with your dream client—what do you say?

Start with a generic version of your elevator pitch, but then plan to tailor your message to different audiences (think of this like your LinkedIn Summary or a cover letter for your resume—is that even a thing anymore?).

The basics:

  • Introduce yourself (your name and title, if appropriate).
  • Introduce your business and why it’s unique.
  • Give one quick, meaningful statistic (e.g., we save our customers over 10% per year on average), bonus points for putting that key statistic in context.
  • Make an ask (offer your business card, suggest a follow-up meeting, etc.).

Make sure your elevator pitch aligns with your strategic narrative. Think of the story as inspiration or a jumping-off point. This works for online introductions as well!

Final Thoughts

Companies sometimes make the mistake of tasking the marketing and communications department with messaging before coming up with a strategic narrative. The result?—An inauthentic marketing message with a disjointed company culture.

Successful companies understand that messaging grows out of the narrative. If your organization keeps returning to this question: What’s our message? It may be time to think harder about your strategic narrative. The loveable marketing geeks at Audacia Strategies are happy to discuss the art of the corporate narrative. Are you in?

Photo credit: tsyhun / 123RF Stock Photo

murder board

Murder Board—It’s Not As Bad As It Sounds. How to Use Criticism to Prepare Your Team

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When you have what seems like a game-changing idea, what do you do? You probably start by doing some low-stakes, crowdsourced testing. You tell trusted friends and family before taking the idea to friendly colleagues. Eventually, you get around to proposing the idea to those who can help you implement it.

When you go through this early testing phase, you’re looking mostly for validation. This can bolster your confidence, which is great if you’ve hit on a truly great idea. But how often have you watched an idea fizzle and die a slow death all the while wishing you had killed it sooner? This is one reason to seek not only validation, but criticism in the early stages.

In the investor relations and corporate communications world, we have a name for doing this in a formal setting: Murder Board. What is it and how does it work?

Murder Board in Context

The term murder board originated in the U.S. military, specifically from the Pentagon, but is also used in academic, journalistic, government appointment, and business contexts.

Here are a few recent examples:

Political Hearings: As soon as Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee, Ronny Jackson, was scheduled to go before Congress for his confirmation hearing, officials began intense preparations, including murder board sessions. Reportedly, these sessions went on pretty aggressively during the past few weeks, but have probably slowed a bit now that the Senate has postponed the hearing.

PR Crises: When Mark Zuckerburg went on his recent apology tour after agreeing to testify in front of Congress, he was put through the wringer by a team of lawyers and outside consultants. In addition to a “crash course” in charm, Zuckerberg received a real grilling during murder board sessions. Essentially, his team created as identical an environment as possible and went through a series of real run-throughs of what’s likely to occur. These lengthy sessions were strictly private and videotaped for review and critique.

Also, known as a “red team,” the murder board team’s main job is to poke holes. In the military, the red team tries to penetrate your defenses. In the high tech world, the red team tries to hack into your system. In short, the murder board finds the problems, risks, and bugs that the insiders miss. In high stakes situations, murder board sessions can save you from making a terrible mistake.

Why Is It important?

Murder board sessions might seem like overkill. It’s easy, especially for less experienced spokespeople, to believe that they are prepared for Q&A. But until they have practiced responding to questions under pressure, your preparation is not complete. So, make sure you impress upon your team the importance of setting up a murder board.

1. Prepares you for real-world experience and Q&A.

It’s helpful to consider worse-case scenarios before facing one in real life, so you can strategize as a team. Otherwise, you risk your spokesperson going off script and saying something that makes matters worse. I want my executives and clients to face the toughest questions for the first time in the room with me, not in front of an investor, a client, or a camera. The preparation will remind your spokesperson to focus on the facts and not speculation.

2. Stress tests company-held beliefs.

When pitching an idea or trying out new messaging, It’s always hard to be objective. This is as true of individuals as it is of teams. When you really want to step outside of the echo-chamber of your firm, a murder board with external voices can help.

Use a murder board to test beliefs about:

  • Company preparedness—especially good for crisis communications
  • Messaging—Is your message really resonating?
  • Customer relations—What do we actually know about our customer?
  • The organization—Does our message really hang together? Where are the confusing parts?

3. Stress tests your sales team and sales message.

Role play scenarios with your sales team ahead of a high-stakes pitch. Ask questions such as: How could the meeting go off the rails? What are the toughest questions the client could ask? What are the worst responses to our message we could imagine? Murder board sessions will ensure your team arrives prepared and ready to keep the meeting productive.

4. Gets you away from group think.

The most important part of the murder board process is bringing in a fresh perspective, often that of the client or stakeholder. Forcing a team to consider worst case scenarios requires them to think critically and figure out how to defend their position. Alternatively, forcing them to consider the client or stakeholder view, helps identify any gaps or missing angles that need strengthening.

Murder board sessions are simply the most powerful way to ensure that your media relations, investor relations, or sales team are ready for high stakes interactions. If any of these teams are “winging” high stakes meetings, their lack of preparation could put the whole firm at risk. So, let’s talk about when and how to use a murder board.

When to Use a Murder Board

A murder board can be used for any written or oral communications. It’s all about ideas and messaging. Here are three areas where a murder board can be most beneficial for improving communications.

1. Preparing for crisis situations.

If your firm has never had to deal with a full-on crisis, consider yourself fortunate. But also realize that your big crisis could be lurking just around the corner. It’s always a good idea to have a plan for dealing with a crisis and murder board sessions can play an important role in such a plan.

Assemble your damage control murder board and have them begin identifying issues and vulnerabilities within the company. It’s best if you can assemble a team who understands both the media and your firm’s weak spot. Next, have the team work on questions and ideal answers. These should be the toughest questions they can come up with and the best possible answers based on the facts. Finally, refine the answers and work to prep spokespeople.

2. Preparing for investors.

Murder boards are also great prep for analyst meetings, especially one-on-one meetings where executives need to be on top of their game. Here you’ll want to focus on both the message as well as recalling key company metrics.

For this one you’ll want to call in your toughest internal financial analysts and encourage them to live out their wildest inner Shark Tank dreams. Assemble your investor relations murder board and have them begin coming up with “tricky” questions regarding different angles on the numbers.

For example, suppose your firm calls for 10% year-to-year growth with sounds amazing, unless your biggest competitor comes out with an expected 15% growth rate. Now you’re behind in the investor’s eyes. What does it mean for your business and key competitive differentiators?

3. Preparing for customers.

Customers can be one of the toughest audiences. Murder board sessions are great training for sales teams. Use these sessions to prep them for their sales calls, a big pitch, or proposal presentation.

Assemble your customer relations murder board by having sales people role play with each other. Have newer salespeople play the “customer” role first to test the more experienced team members. Besides the benefits of being prepared for hard questions, this kind of exercise forces salespeople to put themselves in their customer’s shoes.

Final Thoughts

A murder board is an effective way to test your firm’s communications skills in a close to real-world situation. For high stakes interactions, there is no better preparation. Remind your team, though, that this is NOT a hazing experiment designed to throw off another team member. The point is to prepare your team, better understand your messaging, and better relate to key stakeholders.

One way to ensure that you get an objective perspective is to bring in an expert from outside your firm. Audacia Strategies can be that expert voice. We’ve prepared teams for investor meetings, crisis communications, and high stakes business transformations. We’ll help you put on your game face!

Photo credit: racorn / 123RF Stock Photo

building business relationships

4 Powerful Tactics for Building Business Relationships with Real ROI

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There are lots of useful articles out there about building external relationships in business. There’s this one about building strong customer relationships by being authentic. And this one about how you’ve got to give to get. And this one reminding us that mutual trust is key to building business relationships.  

This is all to the good. Cultivating strong relationships outside of your organization is certainly part of a solid communications strategy. And don’t get me wrong—I love talking strategy over a cup of coffee with experienced professionals!

But with all of this focus on building business relationships outside of your organization, the importance of building strong internal relationships gets lost. So let’s talk about how building business relationships within your company can have real ROI and tactics for building these relationships across your organization.

Why Tactics for Building Internal Business Relationships?

At first glance, it might not be immediately obvious how building business relationships within your organization can contribute to developing messaging aimed at customers, investors, and other stakeholders. Isn’t communications the marketing department’s territory? But if we continue to think about external communications as belonging exclusively to marketing or PR departments, we miss out on a lot.

On a practical level, all employees are an important piece of your PR strategy. Strong, transparent internal communications tends to produce happier employees who are more likely to paint their employers in a positive light when talking to those outside of your organization.

powerful tacticsHow many times have you listened to a friend complain about not feeling heard at work? Or a family member express frustration about a supervisor not taking the time to ask for his team’s perspective on a project? How does it make you feel about the company he or she works for?

Not only can strong internal communication help keep employees satisfied and speaking positively about your brand, but it also supports short- and long-term crisis management. When you make a conscious effort to develop a culture of open communication, everyone, not just c-level executives, feel empowered and motivated to contribute to managing any crisis that could arise.

In addition, there is so much institutional knowledge within our own organizations that not promoting stronger internal relationships is like leaving money on the table. This really is one of the saddest aspects of the kind of siloing I see in many firms. The next time your department faces a seemingly intractable challenge, why not bring it up with others outside of your department. You might be surprised by the insights you gain from introducing a new perspective.

One word of caution though, if you pay lip service to the idea of building business relationships internally simply to make others “feel heard,” your employees will see right through to your true motives. Instead, you’ll want to develop an authentic internal communications strategy.

Here are 4 powerful tactics for authentically connecting across your organization:

1. Get out.

Get out of the office and get into the field. Yes, even if you are the VP of finance. Why? Building relationships across and down in the organization helps you better understand how your business works, key drivers, customer relationships, and competitive sensitivities from those who know it most closely.

Even if you feel that you have been doing well enough communicating with your immediate team and meeting benchmarks, there’s no substitute for getting your hands dirty. So plan to visit your main supplier and learn about their process. Sit in on a sales meeting. Schedule a tour of your top distribution facility and talk to the men and women who do the physical work to bring your product to market.

While you may be receiving feedback now from some of these individuals through other channels, how sure are you that the information isn’t distilled or even distorted by those serving as gatekeepers? Valuable information that can increase productivity and increase customer loyalty may be just a conversation away. So, get out into the field!

2. Bring gifts.

When you get out into the field, bring gifts. I’m not talking about corporate swag here. By gifts, I mean information and insight. Put yourself in the shoes of employees on the frontlines. Why should they care about what you do?

Remember that often those you need to connect with view the corporate office as the “ivory tower.” They see corporate as not being directly responsible for driving revenue and profit. Whether these perceptions are accurate or not, there is no doubt that the pressures they face are very different from the pressures you face. Showing sensitivity to these differences will be well received.

Here are some specific insights I’ve found useful:

  • If you’re publicly traded, give a presentation about how the market views your firm and how what they (the field team) do makes a difference to that perception. Tell them about how the corporate financials come together, why it’s important to have accurate financial planning, and how each business unit can play a role in the planning process.
  • If your firm is not publicly traded, bring competitive intelligence. Give a review of current corporate positioning and key market drivers. Often at the field level you have specialists and employees working shoulder to shoulder with the customer. They don’t see the forest. They are in the trees. So, bring the “forest” to them.

3. Tag Team/shadow.

In addition to sending executives out into the field, consider informally or formally bringing in others from across the organization to participate in traditional “corporate” activities. Pitch these as invitations to work on special projects and opportunities to learn a new side of the business.

For instance, either informally or formally, bring in someone different to shadow and participate in the development of your quarterly earnings process or the preparation for a large event. Ideally, they would be a part of the information gathering, materials development, executive prep, and final event (e.g., sitting in on an earnings call, traveling to an investor conference with you and your executive team, or attending the corporate event/trade show/etc.).

4. Widen the circle.

Develop relationships across the organization, for example, in other offices, sites, and functional areas. By the way, this tactic applies to all sizes of businesses in any industry. Open lines of internal communication by reaching out and offering to speak with their teams about your role or share what you see from the investor relations side.

To be a valued advisor in your role, no matter where you sit in the organization, it’s critical to understand how your organization works. This means having a sense for how the numbers come together; how services and products are delivered; how you, as an organization, engage with potential and current customers; how you manage the external view of the company, etc.

If you approach the above tactics with the goal of better understanding your organization and how the various moving parts come together to deliver high-quality results, you will come across as genuine. Your employees will respond to you in kind and your brand identity will come across as more cohesive.

At Audacia Strategies, we love the art and science of building business relationships. We know how to build a comprehensive communications strategy that combines external communications, such as grassroots social media efforts, with internal communications that lay the foundation for long lasting customer and employee loyalty. Our philosophy is that companies shouldn’t let any valuable resources go to waste.

Let our team help your organization with a strategy for building winning relationships that reward your time and effort. Schedule a mutually beneficial consultation today and let’s start building this relationship!

Photo credit: rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo

successful business growth strategy

Hindsight is 20/20!—Don’t Strategize for 2018 Without Revisiting the Lessons of 2017.

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It’s a New Year, so we’re all busily strategizing for what’s to come. But to develop a truly successful business growth strategy, it’s also important to recognize the value of reflecting on the past. The wisdom here is captured by Henry Ford, when he says, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

I’ve always tended toward action more than reflection both in life and in business. This is both a strength and a weakness. It means that I have to remind myself not to jump into a new “shiny” project just because my enthusiasm for a current project is waning. So with all the exciting ideas bubbling up at the beginning of the year, it’s crucial for me to keep myself grounded.

And I discovered that the best way to stay grounded and focused in my successful business growth strategy for 2018 is to start with the lessons 2017 have taught me.

If you’re anything like me, this approach could help you too. Start by writing down the big lessons of the past year and then go back to your 2018 goals with the clarity of hindsight. You’ll be amazed at what you see!

Key Lessons of 2017

Here’s what I’ve learned and how some of these lessons are shaping my plans for 2018:

1. Preparation Counts.

I worked with several clients in 2017 who were ready to Fire. Shoot. And then, Aim. For companies poised to grow, this is always tempting. But 2017 confirmed for me that doing the legwork to develop a plan and identifying your target market, goals, and objectives really pays off. Rather than simply spraying your resources around and hoping that something “sticks,” this measured approach works so much better.

The clients who took the time to do the work saw results that aligned with their goals, whether that was introducing a new CEO, launching a new line of business, or even determining that it was NOT the time to move forward with a new marketing strategy.

That said, give yourself a break. Know that you do have to move forward and make decisions. Not every plan needs to be 50 pages, single-spaced with cross-referenced research. Yes, planning is key, but don’t let the perfect be the enemy of good enough. Sometimes we hide behind planning and we never get to the doing. Here’s where my tendency for action is a real benefit.

How do you know when it’s enough? When do you have enough in place to make the first step, the first decision, the first statement? Always remember that no plan is etched in stone. There’s something to be said about failing quickly, so get out there. Do a pilot, A/B test your message, make your colleague listen to that sales pitch. Take action!

hindsight2. Add Strategy to Your Schedule.

This is one important lesson I learned in 2017 and one thing I’m focusing on in 2018. My business coach, Kimby Berger, President of HerCorner, first brought this to my attention when she asked, “Is your strategy in your schedule?” That question has been echoing in my mind ever since.

Building time to strategize into your weekly schedule is one of the best investments in the long-term growth of your business you can make. Whether that means blocking time for competitive analysis every week, reviewing your Google analytics, updating your content calendar—whatever that is—put it into your schedule and protect it in the same way you protect client meetings.

Strategize with your clients too. Clients often resist “yet another weekly meeting”—I know the feeling! But the key is to make sure these meetings have a purpose. For instance, would it be beneficial to review benchmarking data, discuss social media strategy, make sure that everyone is on the same page with messaging around a new product? Going around the horn to hear from the team is important, but beyond that, make sure meetings have purpose relevant to a successful business growth strategy.

3. Say It!! Say It!!!

Fans of Back to School may recognize the reference to Sam Kinison, playing Professor Ferguson, yelling in the face of Rodney Dangerfield in the classroom. And while I certainly don’t recommend taking anything like that approach in a professional setting, we can all relate to the frustration of wanting someone to get to the point and just say what he means already.

The lesson then: say the right words at the right time in the right place. But not too many and not too flowery. Everyone can see through the B.S. So just say what you mean. Own who you are and what you are doing.

We are working with a great client who was trying too hard to be all things and to use all the buzzwords in their website. The result? It’s difficult to figure out who they are and what they do. Now we’re stripping it all down and taking it back to basics. Our mantra: Just say it!

This is part of the successful business growth strategy for Audacia Strategies too. In fact, it’s one of our core values: “Simple is Better.” You don’t get any extra points for using more words than your competitors. We say what we mean—simply, clearly. In business communications, straight talk is so much better than poetry.

4. Try New Things.

Another lesson from 2017 that is informing my 2018 plans, both in life and in business is a focus on stepping outside of my comfort zone to try new things—I’ve always been a yoga-pilates kind of gal, so I’m making an effort to try some boot camp-style classes. It’s not the least bit comfortable, but the mindset shift has been immediate.

If I can step outside of my comfort zone, you can too! Try some new tools and techniques. One of our clients is using short videos—think Carpool Karaoke—to introduce employees to key company initiatives in a fun way. It has been incredibly well received (hooray for fewer broadcast messages and more human discussions!).

Another client considered raising funds through an ICO (Initial Coin Offering)—they ended up not doing it, but they allowed themselves to go down that path before making the decision. In so doing, they received valuable feedback that has reshaped their successful business growth strategy.

If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know that I love numbers! So I know how hard it is to try new things when we don’t have strong data to back up the decisions we make, especially when we’ve got to convince other stakeholders to go along with us. And I know lesson #4 seems to contradict #1, but there’s nothing wrong with allowing some “unknown” into your plan. Identify your key “unknowns,” gather the data that you can, and just try. Without trying new things, you can’t open new channels, new markets, or even entertain new ideas.

Closing Thoughts…

The key to using the past to inform the future is to take the time to learn the right lessons and apply those in the right ways. Unfortunately, this is no easy task.

If you tried branching out into a different social media channel to build a new audience in 2017, for example, and you didn’t see the return you were hoping for, this doesn’t mean that social channel will never work for you. It may mean that this channel calls for a different strategy or a different technique for building your list. Before giving up on a strategy entirely, make sure you have fully vetted it. This could include consulting with relevant experts to check your conclusions against their experiences.

Creating a successful business growth strategy is a lot like cooking up a dish to impress your friends. When a dish doesn’t turn out quite right the first time, your conclusion probably shouldn’t be that the recipe is flawed. You’ll want to consider whether you followed the recipe exactly, whether you used the right ingredients, and you may even want to consult with the best cook you know before you abandon the recipe for good.

What lessons did 2017 teach you? Is a big business transformation on the menu for your team in 2018? Audacia Strategies can help you find the right recipe for staying on track with your successful business growth strategy all year long. Contact us today!

Photo credit: stockasso / 123RF Stock Photo

damaged goods

Damaged Goods: The Top Gun Problem and Crisis Communications

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If you’ve been following our blog series on damaged goods and crisis communications, you have considered how to handle a firm or your company during a crisis. Hopefully, the probing questions and recommendations have convinced you that you need a crisis communications plan both for assessing the damage and for controlling the damage.

And just for good measure, in this post, we discuss one type of damage that can arise from poorly managing a crisis—damaged credibility as a result of over-promising. Let’s look at some examples of damaged goods and consider how to avoid over-promising during a crisis.

Damage Caused by Over-promising

As a successful professional, you’ve heard about under-promising and over-delivering. While we understand this principle intellectually, during the chaos of a crisis, our fight or flight defense mechanisms (AKA the lizard brain) can takeover and we’ll do or say almost anything to to change the narrative.

Here’s why over-promising is a really bad idea whether or not your company is in the middle of a crisis:

damaged goodsThe Top Gun Problem: Consider what IR professionals like to call the Top Gun problem: “your ego is writing checks your body (or in this case, your business) can’t cash.” I received an analyst note the other day that should be exhibit A for companies that are considering over-promising and the long-term damage to credibility that can follow.

The analyst was discussing a new spin-off transaction lead by a CEO who recently completed another major spin-off in the same industry. Here’s what the analyst wrote:

“We think [Company A’s] management team set overly ambitious, inflated, and sometimes outright untrue targets during the separation…while [Company A’s SpinCo] is doing their best with the hand they were dealt, we think [Previous CEO of Company A] is setting up [the next SpinCo] and potential investors for a similarly hard road.”

Oof. Now that hurts.

In short, a reputation for over-promising can turn your company into damaged goods for future deals. Yes, this all goes back to the credibility issue we’ve talked about before. Keep in mind too that over-promising is one indicator that skilled analysts are looking for as they report back to investors. While it may not be a deal-breaker, over-promising can certainly impact your company’s perceived valuation.

How Not to Deal with Sucky Earnings: Or consider what might happen when a financial advisor, who after conducting several weeks or months of research finds a stock he believes is primed to deliver his clients tremendous gains. While he knows there are no guarantees in the stock market, all evidence points to nothing but growth, so his optimism is high.

If he tells his clients the stock should deliver 15 to 20 points of ROI over the next few months, but knows that 10 to 12 points is more realistic, he has over-promised. Now consider what happens if a crisis occurs and the stock only delivers 5 points or even drops because of an unanticipated supply chain issue. By over-promising he sets himself up for failure.

It can be really tempting in the case of sucky earnings to double-down and over-promise (again) in order to calm investors’ concerns. But over-promising in the first place has harmed your credibility and left the impression that your firm is damaged goods, so you risk digging yourself an even deeper hole if you continue down this path. Remember that nothing happens in a vacuum.

Of course, it’s important to recognize that we rarely have control over all aspects of a crisis situation. So there are cases where CEOs walk into a challenging situation and are forced to do the best they can with what they have. This is completely understandable. However, there is a difference between wittingly and unwittingly overpromising and this is precisely where honesty is a CEO’s best friend.

How to Avoid Over-promising During a Crisis

One of the best things you can do during a crisis is figure out how to avoid over-promising. If you keep the following 5 simple tips in mind, you’ll go a long way toward keeping that lizard brain in check.

1. Triage

During a crisis, not everything can be handled at the same time. Your credibility and how your company comes out on the other side depends on making crucial decisions about prioritizing different aspects of the crisis. When the building’s on fire, it does no good to worry about last month’s financial statements.

Over-promising can occur when teams try to fix an entire crisis by, for example, blaming the victim or scapegoating. Papa John’s recently found themselves in trouble for this when, during an earnings call, they blamed their slow earnings on the NFL’s controversial player protests. Essentially, Papa John’s was promising better earnings after all this “nonsense” ended—classic case of the Top Gun problem.

Triage is one area where hiring an investor relations professional with experience specific to crisis communications can make a huge difference. In the same way that medical professionals arriving on the scene of an emergency know exactly how to sort victims for the optimal outcome, the right professional can help you figure out which problems need immediate attention.

2. Be Transparent

Credibility hinges on performance. And during a crisis, your company needs to outperform expectations just to repair credibility and get back to zero. Repairing the damaged goods reputation is all about re-setting those expectations and re-building the perceptions that have been compromised during the crisis.

The perception of performance hinges on setting appropriate expectations. So, if investors are making demands that you know to be unreasonable, push back. It’s better to be honest from the get-go than to find your company in a jam later on.

Be honest and up-front about issues that you know could arise and get in the way of fulfilling your promise. This will allow you to control the narrative and address issues on your terms.

The goal here is to get to the point that you can set or reset rational expectations for corporate performance.

3. Continue to monitor the situation closely.

Once you have put out your official statement, the work of righting the ship is just beginning. Next you have to put the implementation plan in motion making sure that whatever promises were made actually are accomplished. The absolute worst outcome after a crisis is for a new crisis to develop as a result of mishandling the original crisis.

This is why it’s so important for your crisis communications team to continue to monitor the situation and make sure the promised milestones are being accomplished. If you run into roadblocks along the way, you’ll be in a good position to transparently (see #2) address issues and constantly adjust expectations.

4. Keep Internal Communications Open

This tip is key to making sure your staff or spokespeople don’t undercut you or each other. Unwitting over-promising can happen because well-meaning team members feel pressure to respond to questions from investors or media that they aren’t really qualified to answer. They may try to pass the buck to other departments or make promises on behalf of the whole company, which they don’t have the authority to offer.

It’s critical to maintain an open dialog within your company regarding what can and can’t be done, especially during a credibility crisis. CEOs also need to be mindful of making promises that put unnecessary stress on the entire team. Having strong internal communications is the biggest part of successful crisis communications.

Concluding Thoughts

When a brand experiences a hit to its credibility, there is a strong temptation to over-promise in an effort to deflect criticism or to repair its damaged goods reputation ASAP. But overcoming the appeal of over-promising and trusting your crisis communications plan is more likely to get you the results you’re after.

Follow the above recommendations and the only question left will be what to say when investors realize you’ve over delivered on your promises. Whatever you say, don’t leave the impression that you’re punching below your weight. Say that you always do your best and sometimes your best even surprises you. If you practice skilled crisis communications, your audience will remember how you delivered in the end and this final impression will replace the original crisis as the dominant perception.

Do you have a question about crisis communications? Want to get on our consultation schedule? We’re booking 2018 clients now. Start your year off right!

This is part 3 of our 3-part series on damaged goods and crisis communications. If you missed part 1 on damage assessment and part 2 on damage control, read them here and here. It totally counts as being productive!

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crisis communications

Damaged Goods: Control the Damage Before the Damage Controls You.

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This post is the latest in our series on crisis communications and “damaged goods.” If you missed our first article, take a look back at our tips for assessing the damage (don’t worry, I’ll wait). Once you know what type of crisis you’re dealing with and how deep it runs, you will be ready to figure out how to control, or at least contain, the damage.

Of course, we can’t emphasize enough the need for a strong crisis communications plan. Truly, this series was born out of hearing too many horror stories from IR and PR professionals. In listening to those stories, it becomes clear that one of the most toxic beliefs in the world of communications is the belief that a firm is “crisis-proof.”

damaged goodsWhat’s the first rule of crisis communications? As soon as you think you’ve got everything figured out, that’s exactly when a crisis hits.

Crisis Communications and Complacency

Immediately following the economic recession, many companies, especially in the financial sector, were motivated to develop easily deployable crisis strategies. Since then, an attitude of complacency has settled in though. Too many firms, especially smaller companies and startups, are unprepared for an incident that could harm their brand, reputation, public image, and earnings. Think of your crisis communications plan and implementation team as insurance against the worst case scenario.

In the digital age, every crisis demands rapid assessment and real-time engagement with consumers. Social media and the 24-hour news cycle means every minute that goes by without an official response will be filled with public speculation. While repairing the damage later is not impossible, it’s certainly true that the quicker you can issue a statement, the better chance you have of controlling the damage.

Use Digital Tools to Control the Damage

This atmosphere is challenging for companies in many ways, but especially when it comes to framing the story or managing the narrative during the early stages of a crisis. Still, the same tools used to spread the damaging information far and wide can be used to stay ahead of the damage.

Here are some ways in which social media tools can be used to control the damage during a crisis:

Enhanced Situational Awareness: Social media platforms can deliver decision makers invaluable information about unfolding events that would have previously taken hours or even days to filter through. The next time you witness a serious breaking news event, such as a fire or serious car accident, try searching for it on Twitter. It’s likely that you will find photos, videos, comments, etc. about the situation. This is the exact information, your company will want to use to guide your team as you craft preliminary messages to push out to stakeholders during a crisis. Use these types of events to design drills for training your crisis management team.

Enlisting the Help of Tech-Savvy Advocates: In addition to getting immediate, on-the-ground access to unfolding events, smart companies use social media to mobilize supporters. For example, suppose a competitor is engaging in a smear-campaign against your firm (I know! Perish the thought). If you have a way to quickly reach out to subject-matter experts with technical knowledge who can jump in and help you direct the conversation, you will have a great opportunity to regain control, while discrediting the dishonest party. Brainstorm with your team about this as part of your crisis strategy.

Allowing for a More Agile Response: Corporations and larger organizations are often slower to respond during a crisis than their small counterparts. Many levels of hierarchy, as well as external counsel, may have to weigh in before an official response can be released. The result is often a slow response, a muddled message, a failure to take responsibility, or an inability to control the conversation.

Simply consider a few of the crises on Forbes’ list of the biggest PR nightmares of 2017:

  • United Airlines’ Removal of a Passenger.
  • Fox’s Firing of Bill O’Reilly.
  • Pepsi’s ad featuring a model leaving a photoshoot to join a protest.

And this list was published in May. Since then, we’ve had the Experian credit breach, as well as several career-ending sexual harassment and sexual assault revelations. Anyone of these events would make for an excellent case study in how not to contain damage.

What all of these organizations have in common is that they ended up behind the curve and in many cases still have not recovered. Instead, have an army of advocates waiting in the wings who can issue well-planned talking points to buy you more time before the release of the official statement.

Just as these failures to control the narrative run rampant among corporations, there are also trends that show up across companies who consistently plan and manage crises well.

Responding Well During a Crisis

In addition to leveraging the above digital tools to control the damage during a crisis, companies that respond well have some or all of the following traits:

  • A dedicated crisis manager or team that owns crisis communications tasks.
  • An up-to-date plan including holding statements, other types of crucial messaging, internal communications processes, digital strategies, rehearsed scenarios, and an identified spokesperson(s).
  • An engaged CEO who is media aware (and ideally, media trained for crisis situations) and understands how to connect with communities, elected officials, regulators, and media influencers.
  • Established internal and external relationships.
  • An investor relations team, community relations team, and/or public relations team ready to be deployed whenever an incident happens.

Dealing with a crisis in a way that can control or contain any potential damage requires a strategy with strong and focused messaging that can evolve with the situation. Success also depends upon having an experienced spokesperson and other company contacts with crisis communications expertise. In addition, coming up with well-developed scenarios about anything that could go wrong with your company will help you and your team prepare.

As the clock ticks down on 2017, we’re all looking forward in anticipation of using what we’ve learned to make life and business go better. Ultimately, good crisis planning, preparation, and implementation is invaluable for your firm and your stakeholders. There’s no time like the present to set things straight.

At Audacia Strategies, we help our clients navigate crises from anticipated market turbulence to unexpected earnings drops and everything in between. We have experience prepping CEOs and spokespeople for on-the-fly communications during a crisis too. We’re here to be your port during the storm. Contact us today and together we’ll figure out how to control any actual or potential damage.

Reg FD

5 Ways to Prevent Unintended Disclosure From Ruining Your Firm’s Holiday Season

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As we head into the busy holiday season, it’s a good time for your annual reminder about Reg FD (i.e., the SEC’s Fair Disclosure Act). Take it from your friends at Audacia Strategies: You don’t want an offhand comment to your niece’s boyfriend over pumpkin pie to lead to a six-month cleanup for the legal team at your firm. Read on to understand smart preventive measures you can take.

Reg FD: Potential Liabilities

fair disclosureIf you’re reading this article and you work for or with a publicly traded company, you’re probably already aware of Reg FD, but you may not be aware of all the potential liabilities that could result from violations of the rule. Here are some basic points to keep in mind:

  • Regulation FD is a fair disclosure rule, not an anti-fraud rule. This means that only conduct that is intentional or reckless can be considered a violation.
  • Both companies and individual personnel can be held responsible and be subject to SEC enforcement actions.
  • Such enforcement actions can include injunctions, fines, and obligations to disclose the violation.

For more information about Reg FD and the SEC’s enforcement of the law, check out this list of frequently asked questions. But always remember that nothing you read online, including this article, is a substitute for qualified legal counsel.

To avoid liabilities resulting from an executive or other individual acting on behalf of your firm, there are some preventive measures you can take.

1. Understand the Federal Rules and Regulations.

Simply speaking, Reg FD prohibits companies from selectively disclosing material information to analysts, institutional investors, and others without at the same time making the information widely available to the public. This rule reflects the idea that all investors should have fair and equal access to information that could influence their investment choices.

For example, when the story broke in September about the cybersecurity breach at Equifax, there was a question about whether senior executives had unfairly traded away shares in the company because of insider information. The executives have since been exonerated. A special committee found that the executives pre-cleared their trades making them without prior knowledge of the security breach announcement.

It is important for executives and all employees to be aware of Reg FD as well how it applies to your industry, your company, and their specific positions within your organization. Even if employees are required to go through HR training around SEC rules and regulations, they may not truly understand their responsibilities under the law.

Given the influx of holiday mixers this time of year bringing together a variety of stakeholders (i.e., CEOs and other executives, brokers, analysts, and investors), the risk of a violation increases. Does it make sense to ask Legal to present some do’s and don’t’s during a company-wide meeting coming up? Think of the headaches it could save going into 2018.

2. Review Current Disclosure Policies.

Now is also a good time to review your firm’s current disclosure policy and write a policy if you don’t yet have one. What is your process for disclosing information to analysts, institutional investors, other shareholders, and the public?

Evaluate that policy in light of Reg FD. Are there any gaps? Do you see any potential issues? Does this assessment suggest any obvious changes?

Once you have identified any potential issues, prepare and start following a comprehensive disclosure policy. Make sure to emphasize the severity and potential consequences of Regulation FD violations. This policy should be made internally available to senior officials, investor relations personnel, and anyone else responsible for speaking with analysts or investors.

3. Make the Written Policy Publicly Available on Your Website.

Reg FD requires that companies make material disclosures available to the public. When the SEC first enacted the law, they had a more narrow view of what qualified as “public disclosure.” However, in 2008, the SEC stated that putting information on a company website could satisfy Reg FD under certain circumstances. We encourage you or your legal team to check into whether your firm falls under these circumstances.

But regardless of whether your firm uses a website to make public material disclosures, your company’s own disclosure policies ought to appear on your website. Transparency increases credibility with investors and other stakeholders. Making your policies available demonstrates an institutional commitment to keeping all interactions on the “up-and-up.”

4. Better Safe Than Sorry.

As for what counts as “material nonpublic information,” there is some disagreement among industry experts. But our advice when it comes to the SEC is always err on the side of caution. If you are tempted to talk about potentially material company gossip during the corporate dinner party, maybe find some juicy celebrity gossip to discuss instead.

If you want to really play it safe, take a “chaperone” with you whenever speaking to an analyst. This should be someone familiar with making determinations about materiality, who can listen for any unintentional disclosures that might trigger the need to prepare a Regulation FD disclosure and serve as a witness (for example, your Investor Relations Officer). Private meetings with analysts or institutional investors are particularly risky.

5. When in Doubt, Contact Finance and Legal.

If all else fails and you or someone on your team ends up disclosing something questionable, the next best action you can take is to talk to someone in finance and legal. The law itself is complex, so it’s wise to go over all possible violations with a lawyer specializing in SEC regulations.

Still, in many cases, the fix is simply to make the information in question publicly available within 24 hours or before the next opening of the market. Where you can get into more trouble is when someone tries to cover up a leak of information and it isn’t discovered until too late. This makes it especially important to ensure that your employees know the next best action to take if they happen to slip.

Now that you know the top 5 things you can do to prevent a Reg FD crisis at your next holiday party or Friendsgiving, you are free to enjoy the season! Want to know more about Regulation FD and how to speak your investors’ language? Schedule a consultation, contact us at info@audaciastrategies.com, or call us at 202-521-7917. We love to trade secrets over a mug of peppermint tea.

Photo credit: vadmary / 123RF Stock Photo

crisis communications

Damaged Goods: Don’t Let a Crisis Turn Into a PR Nightmare. Assess the Damage First.

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Getting crisis communications right requires coordinating several moving parts. And because managing a firm through a crisis is no small feat, we thought it would be beneficial to break down the major elements in a series of blog posts. What follows are our top recommendations for dealing with “damaged goods.”

In this post, we kick off our series by discussing how to assess the damage. Next, we’ll look at controlling the damage (or at least containing it). And finally, we’ll talk about the long-term damage that comes from overpromising. Of course, during any phase of a crisis, it’s always smart to consult lawyers and PR experts as needed, who can help steer you through the chaos. Very often that external perspective provides invaluable guidance for crisis communications. Let’s dig in.

damaged goodsFirst, Follow Your Plan: Don’t shoot first and ask questions later.

Remember that assessing the damage during the crisis is the first step in crisis communications that you can’t take in advance. This means that in a perfect world, you would already have a plan in place for managing a crisis…well, okay, in a perfect world, you wouldn’t need the plan because you wouldn’t be in a crisis situation at all. But if we’re assessing the damage, we’re already in crisis mode.

At this point, you need to work your crisis management plan. The most important reason to follow your plan is that you want to avoid reacting without having the right information. Your plan should give you a roadmap to ensure that your crisis management team gets the relevant information to assess the actual damage and come up with a response that addresses its causes.

So, once you have your crisis management team, spokespeople, and holding statements at the ready, it’s time to go through the process of assessing the damage.

What does the assessment process look like?

Get to the truth (or something close to the truth)—ASAP!

Your #1 goal in the assessment phase should be getting to the bottom of the crisis as quickly as possible so that you can respond and show the public that you are in control.

PR experience and theory both suggest that a successful crisis response can be summed up by the following: be quick, be accurate, and be consistent. While proper assessment is crucial for accuracy and consistency, if you don’t take action quickly enough, accuracy and consistency won’t matter.

The ultimate goal of crisis communications is to control the narrative during a crisis. So don’t let perfection be the enemy of a speedy response. You should be ready with a statement within an hour after the crisis occurs. That said, DO NOT SPECULATE. Your response should be informed by the what you know, but don’t wait to respond until you have absolutely all of the facts in front of you. Ask the following questions:

1. What kind of damage are we dealing with?

  • Public Safety Compromise: When the crisis is about public safety, the public needs to know what to do to protect themselves. Write a press release and post on social media to get the information out quickly. Make sure to acknowledge people’s concerns and questions. And rather than arguing in public, engage in a measured and meaningful way with those who are affected.
  • Brand Reputation Damage: Figure out how much of the brand is affected by the crisis. It’s important not to over or underestimate the damage. Hearing a CEO say, “I’ll look into it” doesn’t do anything to start the process of repairing the damage. But hearing her say, “I’m deeply saddened by what occurred and I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure this never happens again” can go a long way toward regaining public trust.
  • Missed Numbers: Most of the time, stakeholders and the general public will forgive honest mistakes or unanticipated dips in earnings. This is not to say they will be happy about missteps that cost money. However, what they can’t often forgive are financial mistakes that end up looking like intentional deceptions. Be transparent about the circumstances and explain policy changes or business model changes that will help to avoid future financial missteps.
  • Executive Credibility Damage: This type of damage can be the most complicated to assess and can throw the firm into chaos. It’s important to acknowledge the accusations, allow any legal processes to proceed, and identify and explain cultural changes that will result.

Have templates and holding statements ready for each type of damage that is relevant for your firm. While your company’s initial response may not have much “new” information because it’s clear that a full investigation is needed to get to the real truth, your early response will help position you as a credible source of information and give you the opportunity to begin to tell your side of the story.

2. What relationship bonus points can you cash in?

Make a list of every resource you can think of that could help you assess and control the damage. Then make it a priority to contact anyone with whom you can cash in those hard-earned relationship bonus points. Keep an eye out for these sometimes overlooked beneficial relationships:

  • Traditional media can be your friend: While you may be tempted to avoid the traditional media and control the narrative by relying exclusively on your social channels, if you have contacts in the news media, don’t hesitate to contact them. Traditional media still matters and they will cover the story. Better to be up front and accessible than appear to be dodging questions and hiding.
  • Listen to your team first: It can also be tempting to be reactive, especially when your firm’s brand and reputation are on the line. But rather than firing off a tweet storm, talk to your PR team. They’ve been monitoring the situation too and are likely ready with language that you can use immediately. Strong internal communications are key during a crisis.
  • Seek legal counsel: Having strong relationships with people who understand the relevant laws that govern your industry can be a lifesaver in crisis situations. If you have a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel, make it a point to engage with them. If you have external counsel, start building those relationships now.
  • Consider key stakeholders: Is your firm publicly traded? Make sure that you have a message for analysts and shareholders that is consistent with your media messages. Consider proactively reaching out to key shareholders and analysts to make sure that they have the appropriate public information. Could this event lead to regulatory or legislative inquiries? Make sure that your Government Relations team is engaged.

Every business, at some point, will have to deal with a crisis. Assessing the damage and using proven principles of crisis communications will determine the difference between a response that demonstrates your firm’s credibility or further damages your brand. Ultimately, when you know what went wrong, you can start the process of repairing the damage.

If you’re deep in the throes of crisis mode now, we wish you good fortune and hope to see you on the other side. Ideally though, if you see your firm on a collision course with a crisis, schedule a consultation with our team and let’s go to work to help you lessen or avoid the damage altogether. At Audacia Strategies, we use bold moves to conquer any crisis!

This is the first in a series of posts on crisis communications. Be sure to return to check out the rest of the series.

Photo credit: stockbroker / 123RF Stock Photo

value-based messaging

Want Increased Sales? Learn to Love Value-Based Messaging and Understand Your Customer Better.

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If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it 100 times: every company is in the communications business. And communications is key because successful businesses use strong communications to connect with prospects—enter: the concept of value-based messaging.

The benefits of value-based messaging are clear. The right message helps us connect more efficiently with potential clients and shortens our sales cycle. When you tell a consistent story and communicate your company’s values clearly, you attract prospects who identify with the problem you solve and value the solution you’re offering.

However, we’ve also seen companies make the mistake of focusing so much on articulating their own values that they forget to consider their customers’ needs. Without this all important “gut-check,” a brand’s messaging can feel at best, disconnected and at worst, downright narcissistic. Taking a broader understanding of value-based messaging reveals benefits far beyond connecting with prospects and making sales.

Follow the step-by-step process below to begin developing your brand’s identity, retain your most valuable clients, and become increasingly valuable the longer you work together.

Step-By-Step Process for Effective Value-Based Messaging

Value-based messaging is all about how well you understand your customer and her needs. Once you are clear about those elements, seeing your business grow is a matter of aligning your offerings with what your ideal customer needs and delivering on the promises you make.

So what is the most effective way to get to know your customers? It all starts with simply asking them.

increased salesStep 1. Discovery

During this stage in the process, your goal is to collect as much information as possible about your current customers, prospects, and competitors as possible. This critical step is the beginning of understanding your customer lifecycle and buying process. You will use these early conversations in building customer profiles.

  • Interview sales reps: Great sales reps know what questions to ask in order to get closer to closing a sale. Ask them about the easiest deals they have closed, as well as the ones that they struggled with. Ask them what message they think resonates with your customers. Ask them to list customers with whom they have the best relationships and who would be the best ambassadors for your product or serve.
  • Shadow sales calls to learn about prospects: Listening in on sales calls is a great way to gather information about potential customers. You can quickly learn about their challenges, what makes them buy, how they understand your product, as well as pinpoint their biggest sticking points.
  • Interview lost prospects and current customers: Interview your last 5 lost prospects, the last 5 customers you won, and 5 customers who have been using your product for at least a year. Send a quick email asking if they will spend 15 minutes on the phone chatting with you. If you need to offer an incentive, we’ve seen a $25 Amazon gift card do wonders.
  • Interview industry experts and analysts: Large corporations have access to full time marketing researchers who gather all kinds of useful data, which is hard for the rest of us to get our hands out. Our recommendation? Select a company who would be a great customer. Add them to your customer profiles. Positioning yourself as someone looking for expertise, reach out to them for an interview.

Step 2. Build Customer Profiles

When building customer profiles, industry, revenue, number of employees, and whether a company is publicly traded are important pieces to the puzzle. But when it comes to really understanding your customers in order to create a value-based messaging strategy, what you really need to know is what values and benefits individuals are looking for in a product or service like yours.

In order to get to the heart of the matter, create the following items for each customer profile:

  • List of daily activities
  • Goals and responsibilities
  • How does she measure success?
  • What are her biggest headaches or problems?
  • What role does she play in the buying process (decision-maker, influencer, user)?

Once this picture is clear, you can consider targeted companies and how your customer profile fits into the larger organization. Now you have your ideal customer profile. You want to understand the kind of companies you sell to, who uses and buys your product, what motivates them to buy, and what issues do they want to solve.

Step 3: Create Value Statements

Having gone through the first two steps above, you are in a great position to begin creating value propositions. Start with categories of values (or pillars), then create value statements for each category.

Example:

Value category: Revenues

Value statement: Reduce lost opportunities for increasing revenues by proactively monitoring website and email conversion rates.

The key when it comes to creating value propositions is to focus on actual values, not features of your products or services.

Step 4: Review

Once you have brainstormed value categories and value statements for each one, you are ready to review the messaging framework with your team. This can be a daunting task especially if you have dozens or even hundreds of individuals on your team. The easiest approach is to design a simple questionnaire to ensure that information remains consistent and well organized.

Here are some further tips for the review stage:

  • Identify the best members of each group from which you’re seeking feedback. For instance, if you have 30 inside sales reps, choose the best 5-7 to interview.
  • Create 2-3 rounds of interviews and make sure each round includes a representative from sales, from manufacturing, from sales engineering, and from the c-suite. After the first round, analyze and make adjustments to your questions if necessary, then again include representatives from each group.

This comprehensive approach allows you to get measured feedback across all departments. It helps you avoid interviewing your entire sales force. And it prevents you from making changes that are unacceptable to executives or won’t work with your product map or other strategies.

Benefits of Value-Based Messaging

Follow the above process and you will be in an excellent position to develop high quality, targeted messaging along the following lines:

1. Shape your value proposition to your customer’s needs.

When speaking with clients, investors, and other stakeholders, do you understand their challenges well enough to explain how you can help them? For example, suppose your firm sells consulting services, in addition to a software solution. How do you identify prospects who are in need of consulting services versus those in need of the software solution? Which current customers are likely to bite on a promotional offer for a service they aren’t buying from you now?

By shaping your value (or unique selling proposition) to your customers’ needs, you have essentially primed the pump for your sales team. If your sales reps understand how much it costs a prospect to adopt a new software product, they can shape the sale as a means of cost avoidance via reduced risk, lower long-term cost, 24/7 support vs. hiring another employee, etc.

2. Position your company as the expert in your industry.

The more often you help prospects and customers with problem-solving around their biggest challenges, the more likely your brand becomes synonymous with expertise in your industry. And after the research and interviews there is a good chance, you will have the goods to start creating valuable thought-leadership content.

Here’s another example: let’s say you work for a publicly traded company. How much does it cost (in time or dollars) your shareholders or potential shareholders to evaluate a new stock for their portfolios? If you understand their portfolio goals and evaluation process, you can explain easy ways to save them time in terms that will resonate.

3. Show how your product or service saves your client money.

Finally, understanding how much your customers spend on acquiring new clients or servicing existing clients, etc. will help you position your company as providing cost savings. If your product or service can save them money or help them increase the number of clients the acquire for the same amount of time or dollars, that’s a win and shows the value of their investment.

Keep in mind in all three situations above, while facts and figures can reinforce a point (we’ve posted about the virtues of numbers before), leading with them is rarely persuasive. If you want to connect with potential clients and investors, which is the whole point behind value-based messaging, it’s crucial to activate their emotions.

That being said, it’s also important to note that we’re not saying you need to be everything to everyone or that your broader strategic message should change when you speak to different customers. We’re suggesting simply that you understand their key challenges/goals and tailor your messaging accordingly.

At Audacia Strategies, we are masters at helping clients tailor their messages to resonate with key audiences. And you don’t need to worry about sounding like you’re pandering or fitting into a cookie-cutter mold of some company you never wanted to be. We are all about helping you find your strategic, authentic voice. Let’s discuss how we can collaborate with you.

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