Did you know that the key to great marketing is to communicate your inside reality to the outside?
This blog is all about your inside reality versus outside perception.
Have you ever thought about why people choose your business over another? Have you ever really given serious thought as to the purpose of marketing?
If you’ve thought about the former, you’ll probably say things like we give superior service or our products are better, or we’ve spent a long time building up a great relationship, or even, our prices are better than the competition, but is any of this the real reason?
The thing is that there are two sides to any business, these are:-
- The Inside Reality: This is what you are and how well you do things (or your business is and does things) and
- The Outside Perception of your business: This is how your business is perceived by the outside world away from your business. It’s how customers and prospects perceive you and your business.
To answer the 2nd part of the question in the opening paragraph, if you’ve ever thought about the purpose of marketing. Marketing’s purpose is to get prospects and customers to know, like, trust, buy and refer you. The first element of this is the know part, but what do we want them to know? Ideally, we want them to know that our business:-
- Exists in the first place.
- Can solve their problems, or that we have a solution that they’re looking for.
- That we offer the best value available.
This is the outside perception that we’d like our customers and prospects to see… and ideally, it completely reflects our inside reality.
Unfortunately, I find that these two sides of a business are rarely aligned.
In fact, I’d venture to say that the crux of all marketing problems including yours can be wrapped up into one simple statement:
Most companies’ outside perception is not an accurate reflection of their inside reality.
Your inside reality encompasses everything you do and everything you are that makes you great. It’s all your skills, your people, your expertise, your service to the customer before, during, and after the sale, your systems, your operational procedures, your commitment to excellence, your passion, and the way you conduct your business. You might think you’re actually better than you are, or, you might not be giving yourself enough credit for the things you do well. Regardless, there is a reality of how valuable you are to the marketplace based on these things. That’s what we call your inside reality.
Your “inside reality” is about what you do, and what you are, that allows your business to perform better than everyone else in your marketplace. It’s what gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
What is the inside reality in your business?
You probably already know. If you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious. They could point to specific advantages of doing business with you and say, “That’s why I do business here; that’s why I refer my friends to come here; that’s why I’m a loyal customer of this place; that’s why I don’t mind paying more here; that’s why I keep coming back.” That’s your inside reality.
If your inside reality is not matching up to what the marketplace wants, then you need to innovate your company so that there’s a reason for people to buy from you. However, once you’ve matched your inside reality to the market needs there’s still a problem. Just because you’ve achieved “WOW!” doesn’t mean that customers are going to flock to your business. You still have to market your business, and that’s where the “outside perception” comes into play.
Imagine for a moment that you run a small hotel or guest house and that you specialise in having the best sleeping environment possible, you’ve spent a small fortune on making sure the rooms are as quiet as possible. You’ve hung the best quality curtains or drapes which keep all the light out and finally, the bed itself has the finest mattress available fitted with the highest quality french linen. All of this is designed to make the room as comfortable for the guest as possible.
Now how would you go about communicating this awesome inside reality to the outside world? You could rely on word of mouth, which surely would be good or you could do what most would do and that’s put their rooms on the room booking sites. The problem of course is that when you do this it’s almost impossible to communicate your inside reality. Your fantastic guest rooms that are second to none get lost in the ether and you seem to be just like all the rest.
The outside perception is how customers and prospects perceive your company.
This is developed from all the interactions somebody has with your company. Customers will draw on their past buying experiences to form their perception of your business. Your prospects will draw on your outside communications to form theirs.
But even if your customer service is great and your customers love you, none of that means squat to a prospective customer if:-
1) they don’t know you even exist as an option, or
2) they can’t distinguish your value because of your inability to communicate your inside reality to the outside.
If this is the case then they perceive that you are no better or worse than anybody else. The thing is that marketing ineptitude (the inability to communicate your inside reality) creates a chasm between your inside reality and your outside perception.
Regardless of how good you are or how good your “inside reality” is, if your prospect can’t figure it out based on your marketing then you appear on the surface to be just another company that sells whatever it is you sell. The prospect will more than likely be apathetic at best, resistant or hostile at worst to your marketing efforts.
Look at your ads and your website. Is it instantly obvious what makes you better?
- Can you show what makes you unique and different and how prospects should judge your offer,
- What factors they need to consider when deciding, and
- How you provide value?
If not, you have some work to do: to ensure that your outside perception is an accurate reflection of your inside reality and to convince prospects that you are the obvious choice to do business with.
Ask yourself this: “How many competitors, either direct or indirect, do we have for our business?” Whatever that number is, that’s how many choices your prospects have, and how many businesses they have to sift through when making a buying decision. And that’s assuming they want to buy what you’re selling!
Because of a large number of competitors your marketing has to do the heavy lifting for you. It has to 1) interrupt the prospect, 2) facilitate their decision-making process, and 3) lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process. We have a specific marketing equation that details this process. You can read about this here.
Most business owners know what their customers want but can’t communicate their “inside reality” to the outside world. They can’t take their WOW and lead prospects to the conclusion: “I would have to be an absolute idiot to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price.
Think about your business.
Your ability to know what your customer wants is what has made you as successful as you are now. You have good products or services, and you fill a market need. You’ve studied your market, your prospects, and your business for years, and you have solutions that add value to your customer’s life. Why, then, aren’t you making all the money you deserve? Because you’re an expert at what you do, not a marketing communications expert.
You’ve got to work on both sides of your business, the inside reality and the outside perception. If you concentrate all your efforts on the “inside reality” but you don’t know how to market properly, you set yourself up for frustration and failure. You’ll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out where your money vanished to, or you’ll feel like the “best-kept secret in town.”
Or, if you’re focusing all your efforts on the “outside perception,” you may have bought some marketing books, or you hired a PR or ad agency or enlisted a media sales rep. Now you’ll have customers, but they’ll hate you because you’re selling them a lie! You must balance both sides of your business.
Most businesses could stand some improvement in both areas, but they struggle most with the outside perception.
In reality, they have good products and as a rule, offer good value, but they don’t differentiate themselves in the marketplace. They come across as the same as everyone else.
Both your inside reality and outside perception depend upon systems. In order to deliver a consistent product or service your business needs to systemise its inside reality. It’s no good having the finest product or service and the customer receiving inconsistent delivery, brilliant one time and poor the next time. Your outside perception relies on systems to ensure that the message is delivered in a consistent manner. Your marketing system should walk the prospect through the ‘buyer’s journey’ ensuring that their outside perception matches your inside reality.
Stop and think for a minute: What is the inside reality of your business? What is the outside perception? If you’d like a review of your outside perception why not request a scientific marketing evaluation. We’ll review a piece of your marketing and provide you with a report as to how effective it is at communicating your inside reality. Hit the button to request yours now!
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Final word.
Advertising guru Rosser Reeves (Inventor of the USP) once said, “To be effective, you’ve got to make the product interesting, not just make the ad different.”