To get all the latest news from Waliq Factory, make sure you subscribe to our free RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
If you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur, you may think that communication plans are only useful for multinationals doing offshore drilling or for politicians caught in a prostitution scandal.
Well, I got some interesting news for you.
What if I told you that a well-designed communication plan could help you land more sales and recruit better employees?
The rationale is simple. Customers and employees tend to be more loyal to businesses that they respect and who provide them with good value. Obviously, we’re assuming here that you are managing your business well. Not 1980s management. We’re talking about 21st century management.
You’re selling innovative, reliable and safe products or services. No BS or thousands of pages of small prints. You take care of your customers before AND after the sales. You try to make your business as environmentally friendly as possible, etc.
Now let’s look at how a communication plan can get you more sales and help you recruit better employees.
Your Customers Care About You
What has become clear in the past decade is that consumers increasingly care about who they’re buying from. Most people are still looking for the lowest price, but more and more, they’re willing to make exceptions when they end up dealing with an ‘evil’ company. Take for instance the rise of fair trade. People are willing to pay more to support better business practices.
If you have a good communication plan, you’ll be able to build on that trend and establish your reputation as one of the companies who walk the talk. (If you don’t walk the talk, you need something else than a communication plan. But that’s another story on which I’ll get back in another post.)
If you don’t tell your customers that they can trust you, nobody will. Give them concrete examples so that they know you’re being transparent. Little by little, you’ll establish your reputation as an honest and caring company.
Doing business in a responsible manner will give you a competitive advantage. Letting people know that you do business in a responsible manner will land you more sales.
If They Know You, They’ll Recommend You
That one is obvious. Any good marketer will tell you to get recommendations. If you offer a great service and treat your customers AND the community well, people will recommend you without hesitation. That’s free advertisement. And in the longer term, that’s additional sales.
Offering good products and services alone won’t get you more recommendations. People have to know you. You don’t recommend someone you’ve just met. You usually need more information about them. You want to know their story.
The same applies to your business. Share your story.
More Respect = Better Employees
If you put the recession aside for a moment, you’ll notice that there’s a growing trend in the labor market. People generally want to work for a company that they respect and admire. Just look at how Google manages to attract new talents.
Employees play a big role in the success or failure of a business. Anybody who has managed employees knows that it requires work, patience, and commitment. Managing bad employees is even more time consuming.
You should then aim to become the employer of choice in your community. To borrow Seth Godin’s idea
To get there, they must know as much as possible about you and understand exactly what you stand for.
Do People Know the Real You?
We often say that action speaks louder than words. I know, I said it myself. But sometimes, action alone is not enough. How many entrepreneurs do amazing work but don’t get any credit for it?
You’ve probably felt it yourself one day… or many days. People don’t always know about all the efforts your investing and all the great projects you’re trying to develop. This can be extremely frustrating. There’s a way to turn that around: communication plan.
With a simple and well-targeted communication plan, you can make sure that the perception that people have of your business is as close as possible to the reality. In other words, you want to get the credit for all of your efforts.
How Do You Align Perception with Reality?
There are many strategies and tactics in communication. But to keep it simple, there’s one thing you have to do: Get out and tell your story.
Meet the people in your community, tell them about the way you do business, explain the kind of challenges that you face, and share some of your experiences.
The secret here is in the tone. Note that I used the verb “tell”, “explain”, and “share”. There’s a reason why I chose those terms over others like “promote”, “lobby”, and “brag about”. The objective is to spread the words, not make a sale or explain how magnanimous you are.
This can be a hard thing to do for entrepreneurs or small business owners who are often operating in “marketing mode” almost 24/7.
If you’re on of those, here is an easy trip. Imagine that you’re having dinner with friends you trust and that they’re asking about how your business is going? You’d probably focus on the facts, tell them the issues you’ve had recently and mention some ideas you are considering implementing. You wouldn’t make a sales pitch, would you? No, you would have a normal conversation. That’s what you want to do with your communication plan.
If you don’t know where to start or need help to develop your communication plan, let us know. We’ll be glad to help.
What’s Your Plan?
Do you have communication plan for your business? Let us know in the comments below if you’ve ever implemented one and if you’ve seen any impact on your sales or workforce.
If you enjoyed this post, do not hesitate to share it by hitting that Twitter, Facebook or any other button below. Thanks!
Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link, although it’s there, first and foremost because it’s a great book!
Other Posts You Will Enjoy
