I have a close friend, a CEO, who gets so many pitches and unsolicited emails for business that he doesn’t have time, or the inclination, to open them. And for that matter, neither does his assistant. She hits delete, sight unseen. That’s a pretty discouraging anecdote, but also a telling one. The fact is that as we live an breathe in the 21st Century, nobody cares about your business, except for you.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. You have the ability and the capability to make others care about what you do, what you sell and how you do it. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but you can do it, and we’ll get to all of it in this series of posts. First, it’s important to take a look and to understand the reasons why nobody cares about your business.
- Do You Like Drinking From a Fire Hose? Whenever I open my emails first thing in the morning it’s like I’m trying to drink from a fire hose. The flow of solicitations, news and just plain garbage is unrelenting and continues all day long. I realize that I may be missing something, but I have no choice other than to tune out.
- Do I KnowYou? If you’re sending me an unsolicited pitch or email the chances are that I don’t know you. I may not even have heard of you. I’ve probably also received 14 other emails from people just like you. What are you doing to break through the clutter?
- Why You? If I do open an email or click on an ad, there’s often something missing. Why are you or why is your company different from everything else out there? Why should I care? Why do I need what you’re selling? It’s not enough just to let me know that you exist. Everybody exists online.
- Are You Looking At the Bigger Picture? You may be certain that you are the best in the business and that you deserve to be noticed and hired. The chances are that all of your competitors think pretty much the same thing. You’re also assuming that I’m actively seeking what you’re selling. In an age of highly targeted advertising that may be the case, but it just as well may not be. More about that later.
- Do You Have a Plan? You may be spending a lot of time and money playing the law of averages. If you put enough stuff out there some of it will stick, people will notice, right? Yes, they might notice, but they also might be annoyed and irritated. The result could be worse than not caring about your business. They might actively go out of their way not to hire you.
In the days ahead we’ll look at some of the ways that you can get people not only to care about your business, but to take the next step and to actually hire you. Stay tuned!