When the business changes but the way you talk about it doesn’t.
I was talking recently with a business owner in the B2B (business-to-business) space. Let’s call him Michael. The conversation was familiar because I’ve had it many times with many business owners.
It goes something like this: “Jennifer, we need a new website.”
Michael owns a successful company that has been around for almost thirty years. It has grown steadily, mostly through reputation and referrals. They had loyal customers and experienced employees. They had survived the 2009 recession and several economic cycles, plus they had seen plenty of changes in their industry. Along the way, the company had become bigger and more capable than it had been when Michael started it.
He continued, “The website is just terrible. It’s embarrassing.”
So we pulled it up and looked at it together. It wasn’t terrible, but it was outdated and a bit crowded. The copy was adequate with just a few typos, but it had no brand personality. The photography looked sterile because it relied on stock photos instead of humanizing proprietary photography. I could tell the website had been added onto multiple times over the years as the company grew and new services were implemented. It felt much like a house that has had rooms and porches added on without the benefit of an architect to help make sense of how the added space was incorporated into the whole house. Nothing on the website quite fit together anymore, although everything on the site was technically true.
At this point, I asked the same questions I always ask: “What do you want the new website to do? What is the goal of the website? Is it a credibility site, a lead generation site or a sales conversion site?”
He said, “I guess a credibility site. I want a site that tells our story better.”
“What story?” I asked. He paused for just a second. “Who we are. What we do. Why we’re different.”
When I asked how they are different, I received a lengthy answer. They had been in business for decades. Their people were experienced and could handle complicated work. They were responsive. They had developed what they believed were the best ways to solve certain problems. Customers trusted them. They had people on staff with very specific expertise that was unusual in the industry. Clients had been with them for years and his team often took over jobs after someone else couldn’t get them right. And then he ended with, “And we really care about our customers.” Of course they did. Every business I talk to says the same thing. And for most good businesses it is true.
There was nothing memorable in what he shared. I asked him which of all those things mattered most. He responded, “Well, all of it.” And there it was. I hear some version of that answer all the time.
Everything matters, every capability matters, every customer type matters, every service has a reason for being there. There is always another piece of information someone feels must make it onto the website because a prospect might be looking for exactly that thing.
Michael remembered something else he hadn’t mentioned and started to explain it to me. I asked, “Of all the things you shared with me, what is the ONE thing you’re known for—or want to be known for?”
He explained that they did have a niche but didn’t want to leave anything out—no service, target audience or product. Even work they only did occasionally had to stay, because someone might hire them for it.
Now I understood why the website looked the way it did. The site had become a storage unit for the business. Every time the company added something, the website got another box. Nobody wanted to throw anything away.
I asked him to go back to the homepage and read it with me.
Experienced. Quality. Trusted. Solutions. Innovative. Customer-focused.
It sounded like something any of their competitors could say. I asked him to name a competitor, and we pulled up their website. It was another respectable, professional site but it had the same words and nothing memorable. We pulled up another competitor and had the same experience. Sure, different colors and different logos, but everyone was saying the same thing.
Michael laughed a little uncomfortably and said, “But we’re nothing like them.” Then he started telling me stories.
There was a process they had created internally because they kept encountering an issue and didn’t like the solutions available in the market. He also shared client success stories. And senior employees had become so trusted that customers asked for their recommendations whenever a problem arose.
Snippets of these stories appeared in the testimonials on the website. But would a prospect scroll through all the testimonials to find the ones related to his or her specific needs?
I asked him, “If somebody referred me to you, and I went home and looked at this website, would I understand any of what you just told me?” He shook his head no.
That is a difficult moment for a business owner, especially one who has built a successful company. The reality is the company had become more experienced, more sophisticated and more valuable over time. Its customers knew its people were experts in their field, but prospects didn’t know that yet. And the website didn’t clearly communicate a message compelling enough to earn a prospect’s trust and make them want to reach out.
I see this often with mature, successful companies. In their early years, the business is simpler and easier to explain. Then as customers start asking for other things, the company hires employees with the needed expertise to deliver them. One service naturally leads to another. The company may enter another market. Maybe it sees a customer problem and develops a better way to solve it. If a client asks, “Can you do this too?” the answer is a resounding yes. Then the capability gets built.
The business evolves, but the way it talks about itself only evolves by addition. No one steps back to rework the messaging as a whole. The company’s differentiator gets murky in all the clutter, making it hard for customers to digest. There is no one raising their hand saying, “Wait. Let’s make this company easier to understand.”
That was exactly what had happened to Michael’s company. He needed more than a new website. The website was simply the easiest place for a trained eye to spot the problem. It was also one of the company’s most visible assets, and it was turning away prospects who couldn’t make sense of it. Michael’s company had outgrown the way it talked about itself.
Every business—established or newly launched—periodically needs to revisit its brand.
Is this still what we want to be known for? How do we communicate that message? Then, how do we hardwire the delivery of that brand promise through our people and systems so that it is consistently experienced by our customers and prospects?
If brand strategy isn’t part of your strategic planning process, every new service, audience or capability will simply become another box in the storage unit.
Has your business outgrown the way you talk about it?
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