Many small business owners try to hide their personality behind an edifice of professionalism. While this is brought about by good intentions, it only creates a stale and formulaic presentation of your business.
Your business may be really fun to work with because you and your employees have a great sense of humor and a casual approach. But if you have bought into the myth of professionalism, many prospects will never know that. Instead, they will see only the marketing that presents a staid, run-of-the-mill, here’s my bullet points type of business.
Marketing that removes all personality does nothing to present the dynamics that will make a customer fall in love with you. Likewise, demanding that sales reps and customer service personnel drop all signs of personality really only hinders your company. It is far better to embrace the personality of your business, which is brought about by the culture that you have created in your business. Of course, that culture may need a makeover.
You Can’t Control the Message
Politicians and CEOs spend a lot of time trying to control the message and create to proper spin. As a small business owner, you are doing the same thing when you seek to strip personality out of your marketing and customer interactions. Your bet is that a vanilla presentation is more professional, and therefore correct.
Well, the times are changing. People are looking for authenticity. Vanilla is being ignored. Via the internet, customers can easily find businesses that mesh with their personality. When they do, they are far more likely to give that company business than they are a faceless company.
The problem with being authentic is that you have to give up control. Its not just you giving the stamp of approval to how your business gets marketed any more. With social media, online reviews, YouTube, and more, everyone has a voice and can use it to promote or dis your business. In fact, its the voices of customers and fans that are going to get heard more than yours. You can’t tell customers what to say and what not to say. Your only hope is to embrace this and focus on building a dynamic culture in and around your business.
Every Employee is a Spokesperson
A good culture starts from the inside and works its way out. When you give up control of your message, you also need to start empowering your employees to speak on your behalf.
Don’t do this with training sessions and seminars. Instead, start by asking a lot of questions. Finding out what your employees think will help you shape your business culture and improve your business. In fact, as owner, your employee should be your first customer. In other words, make your employees happy, even at the expense of customers.
If you spend all of your energy on answering the needs of your employees, you will not have to worry about what message they will be spreading. Under a “professional” regime, they will be stymied and will not spread your approved message. However, when they are shown attention and care, employees will spread the message about how great your company is.
Your job is to create enthusiasm in your employees. This is done by caring, listening, and nurturing a positive culture inside your business. When you do this, that culture will spill out, as will honest marketing that connects with the right kind of customers.
Create an Attractive Culture
The culture you have within your company will spill over to your customers. You can’t control that. In fact, if you are trying hard to keep a tight lid on what your employees say and do, you probably have an issue with your culture. If people are coming to work for you just for the paycheck, you are in trouble.
You fix your culture by listening and caring, and by being willing to change. Once you start righting the ship, you need to let personality seep into your culture. Everyone who works at your business has a part to play in that. You can turn negative attitudes into positive ones if you give everyone a voice and room to be themselves. You need to build a happy family.
At the end of the day, you want to be the business that everyone would love to work at. This will not only help you recruit the best talent, it will also help you build a marketing machine based on honesty.
Culture can’t be hidden. A great culture attracts more than just employees. Your customers will benefit from working with a happy, interesting company. Let your employees be themselves and put your efforts into keeping them happy. Do this and people will be attracted to your company. You will find that you have fans. People who don’t buy from you themselves will even be recommending you to their friends, because they have heard such great things about you.
Here’s the truth. Honesty trumps spin. Personality trumps professionalism. If you are afraid to let customers see in to your business, its because you think you have something to hide. You don’t. You probably have something to fix. Start being more open. Let personality hang out in your interactions with customers. You may repel some, but you will attract more. And the word will spread faster and wider than you could ever accomplish with your controlled message.
