Its amusing how many tech companies believe all they need is a new website to fix their sales and marketing challenges. Like a new coat of paint or a fresh mow of the lawn will suddenly attract a new set of prospects to fill their pipeline. Since websites are the most visible marketing channel, budgets are often allocated accordingly. But what if that shiny new website still says the same old things?
Too many companies fail to fix the underlying issues buried deep below the surface.
These are the fundamental, foundational issues upon which the rest of their sales and marketing efforts succeed or fail. They rarely address questions about positioning, differentiation and value propositions that haven’t been re-evaluated since their website was first launched.
- Who is our customer?
- What are their needs?
- How does our product meet those needs?
- Who are our competitors?
- How is our company/product truly different?
- Where can we compete and win?
Without first taking the time to understand what it is that makes their company unique and different, none of the rest of their marketing will be nearly as effective. Without this solid positioning and messaging foundation, their website becomes just another tool in the marketing toolbox, instead of the force multiplier their website should have been destined to become.
Although wrongfully attributed to Abraham Lincoln, the old saying “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend four hours sharpening my axe,” often applies.
So many startups try to apply brute force and plenty of wasted capital trying to grow their pipeline, build traction and close more deals. They chase "that" many more prospects and spend "that" much more money chasing "that" many more leads instead of focusing their efforts first on generating "better quality" leads.
But its better to spend a little time up front working smarter, to save so much wasted time and money down the line working harder.
Which is so often seen in situations where executives say “we just need to fix the website,” even though their lead generation challenges run much deeper.
Entrepreneurs and first-time founders are often too reactive, chasing this deal and that, building feature after feature into their products in hopes that the next great thing will generate the elusive traction they are seeking.
But taking the time to figure out the underlying positioning and competitive differentiation issues are critical to being successful in building a scalable foundation for growth.
By taking a moment to step back and do some due diligence on their market, their customers and their competitors, entrepreneurs are better able to identify barriers to product adoption, figure out what makes them different from their competitors (and therefore more valuable to their future customers), all of which helps them reduce friction in their sales cycles to help them grow faster.
With these foundational efforts complete, not only is their new website far more effective, but every marketing activity is more effective as well, creating an opportunity where 2+2 equals something far greater than 4. These are the organizations that have achieved double- and triple-digit growth, where their underlying positioning and messaging serves as a force multiplier for their website and every other marketing investment they make thereafter.
Contact us if you’re ready to sharpen your axe and we can help you build the positioning and messaging foundation to set your organization apart and the sales and marketing infrastructure to measure your success.
And we can even fix that under-performing website of yours too.
