I’m often involved in conversations with small business owners regarding their marketing materials, and lately I’ve notice a disturbing trend. There’s an increasing gap between companies who hold integrity dear, and their competitors. A prospect has to dig pretty deep to know who’s good for what, and you’re left with two large responsibilities – business ethics and conveying them so a customer has a clear choice.
When you provide a service or product that exceeds client expectation, you increase your competitive edge by a wide margin. When they can see it coming because of the way you present yourself, you do even better. Knowing how the ‘dark side’ does things helps you stay above the fray and show others what to avoid, too.
If you haven’t taken the time to update your service or products online, and then market them to the best of your ability, you cheat both your customer and your company. They should easily be able to see what you sell currently, and it should look good. It should be the clear choice, based on what you know is the best.
I recently learned the IT staffing business has the same trouble, too. Getting your audience to understand your message is the key. Not just ‘putting it out there’ by using the right words and phrases, but also taking that extra step to ensure your potential client ‘gets it.’ That actually involves quite a bit of internal communication to accomplish.
I was talking to Mike Hanes, President of ProVisionTech Group , about this just the other day. He stands strong against unethical business practices in the IT professional staffing circuit.
In an effort to boost quota, many recruiting/staffing agencies will pass along unqualified candidates for IT positions. Looking the other way is fairly common within the IT staffing community because:
- There are fewer and fewer qualified professionals to choose from, and
- Filling positions accurately depends on every member of the recruiting team understanding the same evolving language.
Mike and I bonded over that element. We both feel our companies operate with integrity and fill a lacking need – effective communication both internally (between co-workers), and externally (from our services to our client base). We agree that one of the largest barriers to serving our respective communities exists when the people we know we can help, have been burned by previous experiences.
How do your potential customers/clients know they can trust you?
Make sure your clients know exactly what you stand for through your presentation. If as a nation we’re ever going to re-establish trust in the marketplace, we’d better make sure we’re holding fast to ethical business practices, and we’d better make sure our clients know it!
Photo Credit: eeekay’s photography on flickr
Leave a Reply