There’s one recommendation I always make to business leaders:
Take the time to identify, prioritize and justify the stakeholders most important to your success — and do so with your team. Their input is worth its weight in gold if you want to communicate with relevance and authenticity.
It’s misguided to assume you know what your ideal stakeholders need and want from you to engage faithfully with your brand. Don’t assume. Ask them. And then ask them over and over again.
In the last week, I’ve had conversations with half a dozen CEOs centered on topics around key stakeholders, ideal customers, and product-market fit.
For two of them, asking questions in coffee shops, stores, or by using other “low-tech” ways turned out to be a winning strategy for gaining customer insights. Their focus on information-gathering in this way ultimately led them to multimillion-dollar acquisitions and lucrative exits.
It’s an important strategy for any business or nonprofit using a “one-size-fits-all approach” to communications.
The best way to get out of the various stages of struggle and confusion? Spend time considering who the key stakeholders should be, why they’re important, and how they can support the growth of the organization.
As I think about this critical component of communications planning, I wonder:
- What would happen if business leaders and their teams truly identified and understood the people ideally suited and most likely to buy from them?
- How might organizational messaging change if teams had deeper knowledge about the likes, dislikes, habits, and dreams of key stakeholders?
- What would shift if everyone were crystal clear about the customers and key stakeholders they needed to reach and how to always talk to them in a way that inspired and moved them to take a desired action (buy, give, support)?
The two CEOs who understood this deeply continued to engage with their customers long after their product or service launched.
The way this disciplined approach informed their businesses was a game-changer.
I’d love to know how you’re finding ways to gather insights from the people you believe are ideally suited for your products or services. Remember that even a small step is a step in the right direction. Reply and let me know.
I’m cheering you on!