By now you can tell that I like the letter “W” – what can I say…it’s my way of building my own “WOW” – clear, concise, compelling words that start with “W”.
Here’s a simple test to see if your own company story is clear, concise, compelling (yah, I like “C’s too!). Easy stuff, since you get to use all 26 letters of the alphabet!
Try this:
Pull out one of these:
- Your corporate PowerPoint presentation
- One of your investor documents
- Your business plan (might be a bit bulky to start with)
- The home page of your web site
- Your product brochure
- Something similar to any of the documents above.
Pull out a marker and look for the words that describe the following elements:
- Category – what market space are you in? Have you anchored your audience in the specific category you compete in? There should be 2 words that define this.
- Customer – have you used 2-3 words to describe your customer segment?
- Competition – have you used 2 words to clearly position your sustainable competitive edge?
- Company – what 2 words do you want them to takeaway about your company?
Now, check to see how often these words are repeated in the document. There should be less than 10 words above and these should ALWAYS be repeated in the same way throughout the document – repetition breeds retention.
Try this and be brutally honest.
It's natural you won't find your 10 words right away, but putting the elbow grease into shaping/defining these words will pay you big dividends in clarity for customers, investors, business partners, and others.
Post a comment and let me know if you've got other WOW ideas!
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