Are you guilty of serious underselling? The first in a monthly series of top tips from Sussex Exclusive Commissioning Editor and international bestselling marketing author, Dee Blick FCIM
Times are tough for consumers and businesses. There has never been a more important time to fly the flag for your business and to build your brand: business and personal. It’s time to be noticed by the people that are in the running to buy from you, recommend you and advocate for you. And when you’re not in the room, you’re still being talked about!
I love the passion and abundant energy of many business owners and entrepreneurs. They talk with real enthusiasm about their business. But they fail to bring this level of passion and commitment to marketing. And in the current climate, this closed-door mentality will trip them up.
These are the signs a business is slacking on the marketing front:
- Their company website is impersonal, often out of date. The text is lacking life, passion and a compelling brand story. Or maybe it’s had a new lease of life thanks to the overuse of AI generated text. Remove the company name from their web pages and they could belong to a competitor. There’s no story; no concept of what makes the business so different and how this difference benefits clients. Any news is out of date. The website has become an often expensive, afterthought.
- Despite continually improving their products and services and building their expertise, this has not been brought into any marketing communications. Customers and prospects are basing buying decisions on out-of-date and incomplete information.
- Customers are in the main happy, but often unaware of other products or services the company offers, simply because they have not been told about them. The risk is that they go elsewhere for their other needs. This happens. I have case studies aplenty.
- The adverts, online and printed material are little more than a shopping list of services. Or the person responsible for marketing has lifted the text from a brochure and tacked on a few images. It is as far removed from the brand voice and brand story as you can get. A crude and clumsy approach lacking thought, charm and often, relevance.
- The business has won awards and accreditations, but you’ll not find mention of these anywhere. Their growing expertise and success are a secret to everyone outside the business. They are not building on the magnetic part of their brand. In fact, they’re hiding it.
Now, if you identify with any of this, breathe a sigh of relief. You can make improvements where the biggest investment is time over money. This is at the heart of the marketing on a shoestring philosophy I pioneered decades ago.
Start by promoting your business with passion and enthusiasm
Undertake a benefit stock take of your business – jotting down every benefit you offer using the following headings to guide you:
- Our client service from first enquiry to onboarding and after-care.
- The small extra touches we include at no charge.
- How we deliver value for what we charge.
- The benefits of our products/services.
- The training I/my team have undergone; the awards we’ve won, accreditations we’ve gained.
- Our story – why we started, our mission and our vision for the future.
Then contrast these answers with your website content, sales communications, even customer service training. Are there gaps?
Involve your clients
Ask them why they came to you, why they stay with you, and why they recommend you. Add their comments to your benefit stock take. It should make for tantalising testimonial and compelling case studies. But do ask for permission.
Involve your team and any associates you work with
You may struggle with documenting the brilliance of your business. Don’t let modesty stop you! You’re probably surrounded by competitors that by comparison, do not hold a candle to you, but they’re more than happy to talk about their own expertise. Spend 3-4 hours minimum on this exercise, breaking it into manageable sections of 30 minutes if time is tight.
Keep it updated
Every time you improve or introduce a new service or product, gain an accreditation, win an award, upgrade your service, it should be added to this benefit document. Keep your story up to date!
Benefit audit complete, it’s time to put it into action
Start by reviewing your website, sales communications and adverts. How many of the benefits documented are missing from these communications? I completed this exercise with a family-owned business. They specialise in selling high-quality valves, which are distributed globally. After we had composed 4 pages of benefits, the directors realised they had not been effective in marketing their business and telling their story. And they were losing sales. I asked them why they had been underselling themselves.
Their answer…
“It’s obvious to us what we offer. We’ve never looked at our business through the eyes of customers.”
Clients and prospects must have compelling and credible reasons to choose you instead of a competitor. It’s vital you share with them at the start and indeed throughout the journey why they should choose you, stay with you and recommend you.
Your action plan
This is the start of your action plan towards becoming a magnetic brand where prospects seek you out, having heard great things about you. It starts with you crafting and shaping the brand story, ensuring that you never lose sight of the people who stand to benefit significantly from choosing you or recommending you.
Make a list of improvements you need to make on the back of this exercise. It should encompass all your communications, staff training and your PR activities. Because you cannot afford to be guilty of serious underselling. Having read this article, have you arrived at the conclusion that improvements to your marketing are long overdue? Act with haste. Your business deserves to shine, so step into that spotlight!
If you want to discover more Dee magic
You can buy her latest book, You’re the Best! How to Build an Authentic and Magnetic Personal Brand, and The 15 Essential Marketing Masterclasses For Your Small Business. Currently, 6 five-star reviews on Amazon, none written by her husband or sons… You can buy Dee’s book on Amazon and contact her at dee@themarketinggym.org
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