How do you get your business communication right

How do you get your business communication right -- this article has to be great from a business point of view and rehashed to be be personal point of view.

What is your business communication? And how do you get it right.

What does the world make of you. How do they form an opinion about what you do and indirectly who you are depends on the signals you send out to the people who are watching you. Whether you are a single person who trains people or a motivational speaker or a company your  signal is the message you send out to your customers and your potential clients. The message is sent out in many ways. Your  name, your logo that includes the colours you choose. Your adverting, your information, your packaging. The interaction with your customers on social media, phone and in person. Not only your customer care but also the people who deliver your products. The package design. I would go as far as saying everything a customer or potential customer can see about you is your message. 

There are many aspects of your message that you can control directly and we will start with your vision about what you do or what you want to do.

Remember that your brand persona should be one of a friend that adds value to your customers life.

A lot of existing businesses and startups do not bother with their vision. They believe that a vision statement is just cosmetic adornment on the website or brochure. No. It is not. You need to be very clear what value your business is bringing to the consumers table. It has been amply proven that people are not loyal to products but to personas they would like to be associated with. Simon Sinek who is he said "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Nobody recommends a product that doesn't evoke any emotion. 

"Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion." - Jack Welch 

A vision is not just for the consumer, but it is also for you and your employees. As I stated earlier you should understand for yourself what value you want to give to the customer and where you see your company in the long run. Write down your thoughts on a piece of paper and look at it from your customers point of view it as yourself as a customer. Would you like what you've written? Honestly, it doesn't have to be likeable because it is more of a driver for you than for your customer but certainly it shouldn't be blatantly Hitler-ish. But let's look at some vision and mission statements. 

Amazon

"Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Amazon was not always an online marketplace for everything under the sun. It used to sell books at one time. Today we all know Amazon as a global phenomenon tinkering with the idea of same day delivery through drones. Was this what they thought of when Jeff bezos started the company? Probably not. However, their mission statement is certainly a big dream for a startup. So dream big when you think of the future of the company. It certainly will make the investors happy. At the same time vision statements don't change over time. Nobody's putting a gun to your head, but it's nice to have a long term vision and start low then to have a low vision and keep changing it after every milestone.

Another online marketplace eBay has a vision statement that stated sometime ago:

At eBay, our mission is to provide a global online marketplace where practically anyone can trade practically anything, enabling economic opportunity around the world." 

They changed their vision to this:

Our mission is to be the world’s favorite destination for discovering great value and unique selection.

As I said nobody's putting a gun to your head. You write down your vision as if it is written in stone. However, down the years you believe that your vision needs an eye check go ahead and do it. Don't however wait to get down your vision statement. 

Now that it's amply clear that your vision statement need not be a small target but should be a long term goal that you dream to achieve. Once you have that jotted down, you start planning the how. 

The how is is a step by step plan to achieve your dream.

This is well illustrated with the soft drink giant coca Cola's vision.

What about a well known consumer product

Coca cola..

The Coca Cola Company Mission

Our mission is:

To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit

To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions

To create value and make a difference.

The Coca Cola Company Vision

To achieve our mission, we have developed a set of goals, which we will work with our bottlers to deliver:

People: Inspiring each other to be the best we can be by providing a great place to work

Portfolio: Offering the world a portfolio of drinks brands that anticipate and satisfy people's desires and needs

Partners: Nurturing a winning network of partners and building mutual loyalty

Planet: Being a responsible global citizen that makes a difference by helping to build and support sustainable communities

Profit: Maximising long-term return to shareholders, while being mindful of our overall responsibilities

Productivity: Being a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organisation.

The Coca Cola Company Values

Our shared values guide our actions and describe how we behave in the world:

Leadership: The courage to shape a better future

Collaboration: Leverage collective genius

Integrity: Be real

Accountability: If it is to be, it's up to me

Passion: Committed in heart and mind

Diversity: As inclusive as our brands

Quality: What we do, we do well

 

Or Nike .

It is quite possible you use one of the brands given above. If you have had a good experience with the brand you may even have liked the statement it makes, but if you had a bad experience with anyone of those brands then you may have muttered 'yeh right' under your breath. At this time you should know that your personal experience doesn't make a difference to the thousands of satisfied customers of those brands. And there are bound to be goof-ups along the way. Unless you are making more mistakes than doing the right thing then you can even make small goof ups work in your favour.

Let's take the example of a niche product like Chanel

The purpose of your vision is not just to show the world that you are committed to your cause and they need to believe that you are committed if you want people to join you but it is also like a reminder to you to remind you what you need to achieve. When you are getting down and unmotivated this is what should get you out of bed on a bad day. Navjot Singh Sidhu the Indian cricketer and two times MP talks about a time when he was kicked out of the Indian cricket team. There was an article in the Indian express by Rajan Bala calling him a stroke less wonder. Sidhu a famous celebrity now after a successful career in cricket says he put the article on his cupboard to remind him to get back into the team. After a lot of hard work and pain his reward was he was known as a stroke master and the same journalist praising his improved form years later.

Not everyone has a vision let alone a vision statement. And that's why most people go through life without making a mark on the timeline. Write down your vision statement today and once you have done that plan how you will achieve it. Make it a life statement for you look at it everyday and work towards achieving your goal milestone by milestone. Best of luck. Stay focused