Driving value creation
Jo Hands writes all about driving value creation. Value creation is a word that’s used a lot, but what does it mean? Creating value - customer, consumer and financial. When a company buys a business, they focus on value creation. The business case assumes that there is value to create. This value can be created by pulling either strategic or operational levers.
Value creation is a word that’s used a lot, but what does it mean? Creating value - customer, consumer and financial. When a company buys a business, they focus on value creation. The business case assumes that there is value to create.
Value can be created by pulling either strategic or operational levers:
Mergers and Acquisitions: Buy-and-build deals are where a Private Equity firm buys a company and aims to enhances that platform through add-on acquisitions.
Strategic Pricing: Strategic pricing incorporates best pricing practices and ensures that your pricing strategies, analytics and processes complement your business strategy. A product’s price is based on the value to the customer, or on competitive strategy, rather than on the cost of production. By creating strategic pricing policies, analytics, and processes, you can directly capture customer value and translate to shareholder value.
Distribution Strategy: Distribution strategy is a plan to make a product or a service available to the target customers through its supply chain - to make sure the it can reach the maximum potential customers at minimal or optimal distribution costs. A good distribution strategy can maximise your revenue and profits.
Geographic Expansion: With access to new markets, a business has the potential to build a new customer base.
Product Strategy: A product strategy outlines the desired outcomes to be achieved by the product including the end-to-end vision, and how it supports the company’s strategic objectives. The product strategy is brought to life through the product road map and can be used to support any tactical decisions that the company needs to make.
Product Innovation: Product innovation represents a new way of solving a problem a high number of consumers have:
There are no products on the market that address the problem statement - unexplored market spaces could potentially generate high profits or;
There may be other products on the market that address the problem but in a different way to your innovative solution
Digital Transformation: Digital transformation is the use of technology — software enabled, connected, transactions, and interactions, across all areas of a business. The goal of digital transformation is disrupting existing business models, improving customer experience, and creating operational efficiency to drive economic value creation.
Customer Segmentation: the benefits of customer segmentation include focus, competitiveness, expansion, retention, communications effectiveness and profitability.
Aftermarket Service Strategy: The concept of aftermarket service is as important as sales, the saying “it takes years to build a reputation but just moments to ruin it” addresses the importance of keeping a customer happy and satisfied. Aftermarket service does not generate any revenue for the company, but it increases the goodwill in the market and amongst the customers.
Data Strategy: Data strategy is a central, integrated concept that articulates how data will enable and inspire business strategy.
Pricing Optimisation: Price optimisation is the practice of using data from customers and the market to find the most effective price point for a product or service that maximizes value for customers and sales or profit for the company.
Sales Force Effectiveness: Sales force effectiveness is driven by the decisions, processes, systems and programmes that sales leaders are accountable. By managing sales force effectiveness drivers, companies can build high-quality sales teams that better meet customer needs, increase productivity and successful conversion, and consequently result in improved turnover and EBITDA margins.
Procurement & Managing Suppliers: Smart procurement practices are fundamental for companies across all industries to optimise operational efficiencies and improving EBITDA margin.
Product Portfolio Optimisation: Product portfolio optimisation helps managers assess their products’ current level of success - it provides a centralized view of an entire suite of products against the prevailing marketplace for those products. Effective product portfolio optimisation highlights future opportunities for improved resource allocation, greater returns, growth and profit, and reveals products that are generating a negative contribution.
Operational Efficiencies: Operational efficiency refers to a company’s ability to reduce waste in time, effort and materials as much as possible, while still producing a high-quality service or product. Financially, operational efficiency is the ratio between the input required to keep the company going and the output it provides. When improving operational efficiency, the output to input ratio improves. The greater the operational efficiency, the more profitable a company becomes as it can generate greater income or returns for the same or lower cost.
Cost to Serve: Cost to Serve focuses on aggregate analyses around a blend of cost drivers. The analysis exposes the variation in customer demands for different activities and has a different cost profile. Without understanding the cost to serve a customer, a company is unable to determine the value that customer is contributing to their business.
The value levers are a great way of prioritising what's important.
The levers that drive the biggest value result in an improved performance that leads to greater valuation.
If you are:
1. Getting your business ready for sale
Executing initiatives that drive value and can be in the run rate results will result in a higher sale price
2. Buying a business.
Your investment case is critical to drive the appropriate acquisition price. This will also drive what transformation program looks like once the business has been bought to ensure the business case is achieved/exceeded
3. Running your own business.
Driving value is what you do everyday but sometimes it's easy to miss the levers to pull to achieve the greatest success.
At any point of a business lifecycle it's imperative that driving value is something you focus on to drive consistent and stable earnings with a positive trend.
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Looking for more support? Download our Private Equity Playbook for the ultimate guide to value creation.
Looking to create value in your organisation? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business.
Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
The war is real...
Jo Hands writes all about the war on talent - and it’s no joke. This time last year (May 2020) companies were downsizing, reducing pays, making employee take annual leave and in survival mode. Employees were worried about the security of their jobs. The whole dynamic has shifted. It's an employee market. Why and what does this mean?
This time last year (May 2020) companies were downsizing, reducing pays, making employees take annual leave – in short, they were in survival mode. The result? Employees across the world were worried about the security of their jobs.
But now, the whole dynamic has shifted. It's an employee market.
So why and what does this mean?
The Why.
Companies are recruiting
Lack of international talent working in Australia
Employers are focused on getting people back to the office
The economy is going strong
People are looking for flexibility and more money
The What.
What does this shift mean for employers…
Companies
The recruitment market is hot and therefore companies need to position themselves to attract the right / best talent
Companies need to build a talent plan to retain good people - it needs to be different, new and tailored
Finding the right talent is critical for success of delivering the strategy for the organisations
Companies need to be clear on their point of difference for working for them
Staff / candidates want to understand what flexibility means - what are your policies and how it practically works
Companies might need to consider partnering to get the right capability if market tight
Building a positive culture has never been so important and critical to ensure you retain and attract amazing talent
Employees / Candidates
People are looking for a sea change, reassessing their priorities and rethinking how much they are working and where they work
People aren't looking for the normal perks as priorities have changed
It's an employee / candidate market - be clear on what you want from your job, position yourself right and look for the perfect company
Smile and enjoy the process and do your pros / cons to make a good decision about what company to you with
People play an important role in the success of your business. In fact, without them you wouldn't have a business a business at all. So be proactive to really think about the changes you are making to responding to the shift.
As a leader you need to lean in to ensure you understand where your team is up to and ensure you take a proactive approach.
The war is real, are you ready to fight?
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Looking to capitalise on these trends and plan your own people strategy? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
The New War For Talent - Get Ready in 2021
Are you ready for the new war on talent? Does your company have the capability it requires for the new post COVID world? Are you actively searching for the capability your business is missing. If not why not. Through 2020 companies have pivoting on strategy, priorities, reset targets and navigated the new uncertain environment that we now live in.
Are you ready for the new war on talent? Does your company have the capability it requires for the new post COVID world? Are you actively searching for the capability your business is missing. If not, why not?
2020 brought:
Headcount freezers
Salary reductions
Low or no bonus payments
Lack of job security
High unemployment rate
Increase in gig economy employees
Through 2020 companies have pivoting on strategy, priorities, reset targets and navigated the new uncertain environment that we now live in.
In light of these changes companies need to critically assess the capability of the business / teams to ensure that the organisation is set up for success in this new post COVID world.
As a leader making difficult people decisions is the hardest and most important part of your role. Looking at the overall capability of the team / business versus what is required to deliver on the strategy and priorities and hiring the right person / right level is critical.
If you lead a business or team have you reassessed the capability required for your new priorities and have you ensured the team is set up for success. It’s critical that you identify these areas early and ensure that you utilise a good recruitment firm that understands your business, your culture and understand what you need to be successful.
2021 is the year of the ‘new war’ on talent. There is talent in the marketplace that wouldn’t normally be there due to COVID, people are looking for new opportunities and change in priorities and it’s a really active market. Don’t miss the opportunity to get the right talent for your business.
Areas that are going to be hot in the market in 2021:
Process reengineering – being able to process improvement efficiencies across the business to drive overall reduction in costs and better customer experience
Transformation leads – to be able to help business execute changes to drive sustainable savings. These are unicorns to find people that can execute transformation and ensure savings can be realised
Data & analytics – do we really understand our customer, consumer trends and how this impacts their behaviour and using predictive analytics to drive operational and strategic decisions
Cashflow management – process, cashflow forecasting and tactical and strategic levers to maximise cashflow and minimise working capital management
Reporting – regular reporting and insights on key lead indicators to understand the performance of the company and ability to pivot where changes are required to be made
You are a leader of your organisation / team – make bold people decisions that drive the best outcome for your shareholders / members and ultimately your employees. Your decisions might not be popular but they should be strategic and focused on ensuring the organisation can maximise the outcome.
The biggest differentiator in any organisations results is the leadership team – right people, right structure and clarity on accountability between the key areas of the business. An open culture where the leaders are encouraged to challenge each other and put ideas and thoughts that focus on the strategy of the organisation. When Private Equity companies buy companies they assess the investment teams considering the strength of the management team and providing structure and incentives to drive the best behaviour. When a company is bought normally 65% of the leadership team are changed and CEO is removed in first 12 months. Private Equity companies understand the value of the right leadership team and the sooner they get this sorted the sooner they can focus on maximising the business outcomes.
Many leadership books talk about lessons learnt and many say – I shouldn’t have wasted time to make changes to the team, I should have moved earlier and wanting to be popular leader made me not want to make the changes that were required and ultimately didn’t generate the respect of the people in my team.
As a leader you have a massive responsibility to navigate and ensure the business is making the right business decisions – start with your people. If you haven’t got the right leadership team you can spend all the money in the world on transformation, system changes, processes etc but it won’t give you the outcome that is critical.
Don’t miss out on good talent that your business needs. 2021 is the year to be bold in business which means getting your leadership team right and ensuring that capability gaps are fixed with the perfect hire.
Keen to know what you think on the challenge on talent... Let us know on LinkedIn and tag us in discussions on #whiteark
2021 will bring:
New strategy
New priorities
New operating model
It’s the time to assess the capability in your own organisation. What capability does your company need? What are you missing?
Looking to capitalise on these trends and plan your own people strategy? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
A clearly defined playbook with value creation initiatives is critical for Private Equity firms
Revenue contribution to the Private Equity industry in Australia is forecast to decline 3.5% in 2020-21 due to Covid-19 disruptions, however, it is expected to grow 2.6% over the years through to 2025-26 to $725.3M. Private Equity firms need to consider the following four actions to ensure they can add value.
Revenue contribution to the Private Equity industry in Australia is forecast to decline 3.5% in 2020-21 due to Covid-19 disruptions, however, it is expected to grow 2.6% over the years through to 2025-26 to $725.3M.
Private Equity firms need to consider the following four actions to ensure they can add value to individual companies, outperform the market, and become an organisation that can confidently generate attractive returns:
Articulate a new, clear value proposition either through specialisation or economies of scale.
Achieve excellence in talent, governance, and organization.
Refine how to successfully originate and execute on deals.
Prepare for successful exits at least 18 months prior to a planned exit; allowing time for asset owners to shape a compelling equity story.
The pressure for Private Equity firms to achieve profitable returns is critical, even more so in today’s economic environment. In order to be certain they can achieve consistent returns in the fund they must focus on purchasing the investment at the right price and focusing on accelerating value creation initiatives to ensure that they can sell at a significant increase in multiple.
Private Equity firms must have a clearly defined playbook which contains value creation initiatives to support the investment thesis. This provides an advantage in knowing what to pay and the level of risk. The playbook should be refreshed and prioritised for each investment.
An asset’s full potential is realised through a holistic approach that optimising operational performance, enhancing strategic capabilities and effective capital management. The efficient use of capital is also a critical component of valuing an asset’s full potential. Capital deployment is an important foundation to support strategic and operational initiatives.
Strategic Levers
Drive Multiple
Transforms the Business Model
Mergers and acquisition
Geographic expansion
Customer segmentation
Strategic pricing
Product strategy and innovation
Aftermarket/service strategy
Distribution strategy
Digital transformation
Data strategy
Operational Levers
Drivers EBITDA Margin
Transforms Execution of the Business Model
Pricing optimisation
Sales force effectiveness
Product portfolio optimisation
Operational efficiencies through optimisation – manufacturing, distribution
Cost to serve
The business world is changing with the rapid evolution in technology, and in order for Private Equity firms to maximise the returns on their investment funds, a value creation focus in digital transformation is important.
The goal of digital transformation is disrupting existing business models, improving customer experience, and creating operational efficiency.
Strategic acquirers are more likely to pay higher multiples for successfully digitised companies, given that they are easier and faster to analyse and integrate.
Looking to create your own playbook? Let us help.
Whiteark is highly experienced in providing services to Private Equity firms and has had great success at driving an improvement in returns through involvement in portfolio transition and transformation projects. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Transforming your B2B Sales Team
B2B buying behaviour has become even more unpredictable with COVID-19 and as a result driving customer retention challenges for many organisations who have traditionally leveraged the sales function to manage high value accounts.
B2B buying behaviour has become even more unpredictable with Covid-19 and as a result driving customer retention challenges for many organisations who have traditionally leveraged the sales function to manage high value accounts. A multinational client shared with us that their frontline sales teams were now working remotely as their ability to generate face to face meetings with their clients had become near impossible.
Whilst this trend has been disrupting field sales for many years it has almost definitely been brought to a head and compounded by the pandemic this past year.
Our data and research suggests’ that today’s buyer wants to engage with suppliers through digital channels at least initially. To meet this omnichannel experience for the buyer sales functions will need to leverage new skills and learn to execute the new technologies at their disposal.
The future of sales has been permanently transformed and as a consequence companies that want to be relevant in a sales economy tomorrow need to ensure that their sales processes are bookended and supported by a ‘digital’ engagement will all customers.
Research* suggests that B2B customers are leveraging digital channels for information and guidance prior to engaging sales representatives. In many cases respondents suggested post acquiring the knowledge they needed to make their buying decision they opted away from any engagement at all with the sales rep.
Furthermore, as buyers move more towards digital platforms to help them navigate their decision making process, they are rewarding those companies that have invested in seamless omni channel experiences, hence from a selling perspective ensuring technology is underpinning the sales process has become more critical than ever in terms of revenue protection.
Despite the enormous rhetoric around data and its importance over the last decade research* also suggests that most sales led companies fail to leverage data and AI capabilities to capture customer and buyer behaviour hence enhancing the risk at a relationship level between the sales representative and the customer.
“Sales companies that plan to succeed moving forward must move their cultures towards being the leaders of the selling process as opposed to being the leaders of sellers. ”
That requires a shift in the strategy and focus away from sales professionals as the primary and predominant channel to market and a move towards digital sales channels that are supported by personal human engagement at the appropriate moment for the buyer. In this new world sellers’ decision making will be driven by data, analytics and AI, not on intuition and experience.
A key shift for organisations seeking to transform their sales functions will be their ability to pivot to a model whereby they can be ready to engage a customer in whatever channel they are seeking to be served whilst in parallel having an ability to execute effective selling.
Sales leaders have an opportunity as we move into this next chapter of selling to help navigate their organisations by creating a roadmap that is focused on aligning to their capabilities around customer buying behaviour.
Simple considerations for transformational roadmaps might include:
Position your salesforces as the facilitators of education in the buying cycle
In a world where it’s never been harder for the sales teams to engage and influence buying decisions sales needs to be focused on helping customers feel more confident in their assessment of data and ultimately their buying decisions.
Focus on increasing the digital capability of your sales team
By focusing on up-skilling your sales teams and increasing their digital competence, you will be able to enable your sales team to sell more effectively across various digital channels and in turn be able to be more visible and present to the customer and their buying pattern.
Reconsider your GTM channels so as they embrace more digital engagement points
Moving towards a customer centric channel approach will force your organisation to stop being so focused on your own products and will allow you to leverage your customer lifecycle or value stream to determine the right time to engage a customer based on their need or problem relative to the buying cycle. This shift towards the buyer is fundamental and requires you to focus operational efforts on ensuring all commercial channels are integrated around the customer needs not yours. Taking note and acknowledging customer engagement preferences for digital, sales and self-service channels will allow you to reprogram your efforts around the customer.
Leverage your technology assets to drive customer engagement
Ensure you are using whatever levels of technology to support as much automation of the customer journey as possible. For example, using AI to execute basic sales tasks such as preparation and insights, to detect buying signals and predict business outcomes will be useful for both your sales teams and your customers will be one.
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Never in our lifetime has the importance of revenue generation and profitability been greater yet failing to accept that technology and readily available data has driven the power to the astute buyer in the old sales process.
The new era of selling means that there can be no separation between your sales teams, technology, marketing communications, data and analytics and all of the operational functions that sit in between.
It’s time to transform to the new approach to selling where every move is driven by how well you leverage AI to command the entire sales process and all of those who serve it.
With change comes opportunity and be clear the possibilities are enormous; but will only benefit those sales leaders who are bold and progressive enough take action now and transform their sales functions.
Moving towards agile workflows and channels that can engage their customers wherever they want, whenever they want will only drive a great connection to the new millennial buyer and in turn a great share of wallet for your company.
Looking to capitalise on these trends and plan your own sales strategy? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
*Source: Gartner B2B Buying survey 2018
Taking Care of Sales
The hot topic for 2020 has been Covid and in particular what businesses should be doing to transform to this well-articulated new normal. At Whiteark we’ve been thinking specifically about the impact this unique year has had on B2B selling and specifically what your organisation may want to be considering.
The hot topic for 2020 has been COVID and in particular what businesses should be doing to transform to this well-articulated new normal. At Whiteark we’ve been thinking specifically about the impact this unique year has had on B2B selling and specifically what your organisation may want to be considering ensuring your sales team is set up to be successful over this coming year.
“Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of their clients.”
In a year where the conventional approach to B2B selling has been rewritten and now the new normal seems to be emails followed by zoom meetings and if you’re lucky another zoom meeting, how can we help our sales teams better serve their clients?
The B2B sales process has never needed to be more agile than it needs to be today. We are experiencing the constant introduction of new products and services in market as a result of digital software and technology that are challenging even the very best of value propositions in the marketplace.
We are hearing first-hand that even the very best sales organisations are upgrading their sales processes so as they can stay ahead of their competitors. As we move into the Christmas break many companies are planning their 2021 kick off activities with a view to energising their sales teams to meet the demands of the next cycle.
In a market where control is clearly geared towards the buyer, sales must respond to this power shift by ensuring they are able to meet the increased demands of this new process. High levels of personalisation are no longer appropriate for a select few customers who meet a given criteria, it will become a baseline expectation that every customer has some degree of account-based personalisation to meet their specific needs and problems.
Covid has driven the emergence of working from home and many buyers and decision makers will demand access to information that they will expect to be able to review and assess in their own time without a meeting face to face. They’ll use emails and video meetings to manage the selling process and only the greatest equipped salespeople will be able to match this game change.
Buyers will also be leveraging more than ever their peer groups for recommendations, referrals, and reviews of the sales proposals without any engagement or influence from the salesperson. The days where we could get by on ‘the buyer - seller’ relationship will now be tested, and we will need to help redefine the traditional sales tool kit to ensure our sales process maintains its integrity. Customers will now have access to information and will know a lot more about your company and its product, as well as your people than you might expect. They will be looking for partners that are authentic and genuine as a mere starting point before they hand over their trust.
Whilst the process might have shifted as a result of this unusual year the reality is that the sales process has always been underpinned by trust and the real focus for 2021 needs to be fuelled by continuous training and development.
In our opinion, it’s never been more important that the sales team has to be ready to change their game to win the trust and credibility of the new buyer. The bar for sales competence must be once again raised and those organisations that are able to measure and track sales skills, characteristics and abilities via specific dashboards and metrics will be able to use this data to ensure the needs of the customer are met.
Sales teams who have very clearly defined metrics will be most likely to succeed. Hence, sales management will be reliant on sales operations and support functions like never before as well as working with and ensuring their utilisation of technology is driving their sales process. Customers will want to be engaged on their terms and as such every channel will be equally critical to the success of the next sales campaign.
Whilst the sales - client relationships will still be critical, technology and use of emails, EDM, social will become critical tools in the sales communication cycle. Social selling is on the upward trend for sure, with businesses and employees following and commenting on LinkedIn about their companies and their brands. Therefore, engagement in these channels will be critical to sales outcomes and the content that your sales team is generating on this channel will need to be in alignment marketing as well as whatever was leveraged in email, SMS and whatever other channels you are engaging.
In any case as we embark on the new normal for our sales team, it is imperative to accept that everything matters. Remembering that there’s no such thing as ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ approach that will work in every situation all the time so working with the teams in an account-based methodology where ‘every’ customer matters will be critical to your 2021 sales strategy.
This coming year, the organisations that will win will be those who case best align their sales talent to their technology, broader support teams and work together as one to solve the problems of their potential buyers.
Driven by customer insight, behaviour and technology, the trend is moving towards account-based selling and digital transformation.
There’s never been a better time to take stock, conduct an honest self-assessment and to identify the elements that will lift your sales team to meet the needs of tomorrow.
Looking to capitalise on these trends and plan your own sales strategy? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
What's your story?
Stories make your business relatable and more importantly make you stand out from the crowd. Data alone can be overwhelming for some people being walked through presentations, reading articles, and listening to interviews. Stories instead, engage hearts and minds and allow watchers, readers and listeners to relax into the moment. Every great sale starts with a great story.
Stories make your business relatable and more importantly make you stand out from the crowd.
Data alone can be overwhelming for some people being walked through presentations, reading articles, and listening to interviews. Stories instead, engage hearts and minds and allow watchers, readers and listeners to relax into the moment.
Every great sale starts with a great story
In today’s competitive market offering a standout product or service isn’t enough. Every one of your competitors are trying to make more noise than you. But it’s not always noise that cuts through. It’s your story. Stories teach us about life and help us appreciate others and their different perspectives. A great story humanises a brand, allowing customers to feel some kind of connection and understanding. But crafting that story can be hard, especially when you’re so immersed in the detail.
Here are some tangible actions and questions to help clarify what you do and why, and to ultimately tell your business’s story in a genuine and engaging way.
Why do you exist?
When you decided to start your business there was story that went with it. This could have been related to a commercial problem you wanted to solve or for some personal reason. Revisit ‘why’ you exist and remind every member of your team, your customers and whoever will listen. This will deliver a holistic view of the background to your passion and why your purpose matters so much.
Stories make your business relatable and more importantly articulate the problem your product or service is trying to solve for them. To be authentic the story must have context for the audience otherwise it becomes a sermon and you’re back to old school selling by telling.
Action: Write down why you started doing what you do and why it matters?
How does your story silence your competitors?
Your customers, like you, are exposed to many narratives and messages, so having a story that will elevate your company from the rest is so important. It gives you an edge and more importantly ensures your customers’ choice becomes an emotional one.
Action: Check that your marketing messages reinforce the story of why you do what you do. Create consistency across your social media, website and employee sales collateral. Your story should be everywhere!
Your staff are your story tellers
Ensuring your staff understand the reason why you exist is important. They also need to be clear on their role and importance in the story. Put simply, if they believe and connect your story’s meaning for themselves, their motivation will naturally resonate when they share that with customers.
Action: Ask your staff to share their pitch of your story? Is it compelling?
Customers that care are the best ones
Your story is a chance to create an emotional connection and perhaps even make customers feel good about a particular problem or opportunity they may have. If you want someone to trust you with their hard earned dollars you need to engage in a way that entices understanding and meaning.
Action: How does my story help customers feel good or solve a problem?
Stories drive choices
There’s a gap in the market when it comes to businesses sharing their own unique, organic, human stories to drive a connection with customers on an emotional level. This is one of the key reasons we started Whiteark.
Stories give us life and your brand deserves the most awesome story ever.
I hope you have some fun creating your story, there’s no time like now…
