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Number
47: April 7, 2004
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This week in Katydid:
Declare
Your Manifesto
Entrepreneurs pose an interesting challenge for marketers. Most
companies are built around one person or a few people with a marketable
idea. One good idea is usually enough for most people. For an
entrepreneur, that is generally just a start.
Entrepreneurs may create a series of companies. They are artists of
business itself rather than a particular field. They often have a great
sense for what sells, a drive to succeed, and a variety of skills to
help them achieve their goals.
When you build a company around an entrepreneur, that versatility can
play against you because the entrepreneur is hard to pin down. The
entrepreneur wants to leave nothing on the table. They can do most
anything well and when they fail (if they fail) it is often because they
take on too much.
All new companies struggle with identity. Entrepreneurial companies
struggle more because it is hard to separate the company's identity from
that of the entrepreneur's. It is critical to do so because brands
evolve more slowly than people do. As a marketer, it will be a challenge
for you to keep up with the evolving interests of the entrepreneur. Your
customers and clients may struggle to keep up as well.
So, step one is to get them out of the process. Just as a writer
shouldn't proof their own work, an entrepreneur shouldn't try to analyze
their personality. And when I say get 'them' out of the process, I don't
mean you should prevent their participation, I mean you have to get
their personalities out. Define the business on its own terms.
You must work in short phases that you can complete quickly. New
companies develop in rapid cycles. If you wait to get the messaging
perfect, new information will arise that will make you want to change
everything.
Additionally, new companies have to urge to take any project that
brings in revenue. If you let these projects define your identity, you
risk losing the long-term potential for sake of short-term gain. Take
the projects by all means, but find a way to put them into context of
your long-term goals. For example, if your long-term goals involve
projects with large companies, then take projects with smaller
companies, but make sure your work will build credibility with large
companies through case studies or testimonials.
Working in short phases means you shouldn't start with a brochure or
web site. Start really small. Write a manifesto. You'd be surprised how
many companies have business plans that don't define what the company
will do. They will be very detailed on what they will build, the pricing
structure, the rollout schedule, even a marketing plan; but they will be
focused more on what the company is and not what it does – for the
customer.
"We are a leading technology solution provider." This
statement might be meaningful for your industry segment, but it doesn't
communicate value to the customer. It does not say what you will do in
plain language. Writing a manifesto helps to put you into action mode.
What you do should be a verb rather than a noun.
The manifesto sounds pretentious and it's meant to take you over the
edge a little bit to take the pressure off being perfect. It's simply a
list of sentences beginning with "We want to…" or "I
want to…" For example, "We want to help customers become
more profitable" or "We want to make it easier for people to
find the right jobs." This takes you away from how you're going to
achieve those goals, or what kind of company you need to create.
Because the entrepreneur is very good at knowing how to get things
done and because they have the authority to make it happen, companies
often move toward the deliverables before working out the value
propositions. You might find you have to do exercises like the manifesto
to essentially backfill the mission and objectives of the company from
the customer's point of view.
Since the customer won't see the manifesto and because it is short,
you can obtain buy-in faster. Because the manifesto is verb oriented,
it's easy to turn it into positive value statements and a company
mission. Since you already have buy-in on the manifesto, it will be
easier to get approval on the mission and values.
Now, entrepreneurial companies are not alone in skipping steps on the
way to launch. Enthusiasm is no replacement for solid groundwork.
Unfortunately, because the marketer is charged with getting the message
across, it puts additional pressure on you to make sure no steps get
skipped. Rarely do you have weeks to put together research, but simple
tactics such as the manifesto will help get you in the right frame of
mind and ask the right questions.
Tomorrow you can write the brochures, the web site, and if there's
still time, roll out an advertising campaign.
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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