You’re at a banquet filled with cacophonous chatter, barely able to hear the person on your right. It’s time for the program to begin. The guest speaker ascends the podium as the MC quiets the crowd, so the speaker can take control of the audience.

Taking control of the audience. Complicated concept? Hardly. Yet, “the enlightened” have discounted it via blind infatuation with social media, believing that technology magically renders obsolete the immutable laws of human behavior.

Audience control, the antithesis of social media, is paramount to success. To wit, here’s a confounding, self-defeating practice I see everywhere: companies asking prospects to leave their Websites — their primary branding platforms — to “see us on Facebook and ‘like’ us.” Huh? Can you imagine a maître d’ greeting you and then asking you to leave his restaurant?

I’ve attended investor meetings during which the presenting entrepreneurs, obsessed with creating something — anything — in social media, pitched the most-absurd company ideas imaginable. They weren’t trying to solve real problems; they were robotically perpetuating flavor-of-the-month technology.

Social media are the online equivalents of uncontrollable, noisy rooms. Aren’t we always eager to leave noisy rooms? At a noisy tradeshow, doesn’t a salesman always invite his prospect to conduct business in a quiet room? The answer to both questions is, of course, yes. We can’t function in noise; that’s why Bose sells noise-cancelling headphones.
 
You Are Talking to Yourself

If noise is so disturbing, why would the Internet make it palatable? Makes no sense. In fact, “social” noise disturbs and, ironically, isolates us. According to Stephen Marche, Facebook is making us lonely. So, isn’t this anti-social behavior?

Indeed it is. In fact, there is strong evidence that people are either tiring of Facebook (FB) or avoiding it altogether — they want their privacy and silence.

On June 15, 2012, GM announced that it no longer would advertise on Facebook because the poor ROI didn’t justify the expense. I’m surprised this move didn’t happen sooner. GM realized that, without a remote MC, it can’t get anyone’s attention on Facebook. Obviously not a good branding venue.

Whether speaking, selling, delivering news, or entertaining, you need the audience. But, if you can’t hold and control the audience — the message to and response from the audience — you are talking to yourself. Lesson: More noise, less control.
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

If you’re employing a “social” medium, ask yourself: Is it an influence channel that I control? Does it sharpen my brand? Does it drive customers to my Website and cash register? If not, dump it. Don’t do anything just to copy a fad.

You can’t control your brand without controlling your message, which requires you to control your audience. You can’t control an audience distracted in a noisy room. A speaker wouldn’t tolerate chaos; a marketer shouldn’t, either. This is what GM decided.

Once concluding that your social media are distractions, drop them. Focus on the influence channel you can control: your Website. Make it worth visiting.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

The Silicon Valley venture-capital firm (VC) is under intense pressure from its limited partners (investors) to fund as many startups, and ultimately earn as high a return, as possible. In this high-testosterone endeavor, each VC constantly races its rivals to discover, back, and launch the next Google.

Accordingly, VCs are spread so thinly, sitting on too many boards, that they have neither the time nor expertise to thoroughly screen entrepreneurs’ ideas and business plans — instead allowing them to experiment and fail multiple times until something sticks.

In addition to being financially suboptimal, these rapid-fire, mulligan-oriented transactions kill something critical: branding. In fact, branding is extinct in Silicon Valley.

Branding is the art & science of articulating a jargon-free value proposition — before building a product — one that people react to, remember, and repeat. Alas, Silicon Valley is awash in forgettable, indecipherable jargon and ephemeral trends.
 
Building Companies About Nothing

On 04.26.12, Lizette Chapman penned a revealing piece in the Wall Street Journal about the latest trend in techdom: pivoting, another term for the jargon pile. Wrote she: The founders who change products and markets between one and three times raise more money than those who don’t, according to Startup Genome Compass of San Francisco. This defies all logic.

Jeff Bercovici of Forbes amplified Chapman’s article by characterizing this flavor-of-the-month trend as a “Seinfeld moment”: building companies about nothing!

Pivoting is what a politician does: in chameleon-like fashion, he replaces yesterday’s slogan with one that resonates better today — to raise cash and get votes. In essence, he stands for and commits to nothing, the antithesis of branding.

Because VCs are in such a funding rush, largely in preselected spaces like “social media” rather than according to what consumers actually want and need, startups are no longer expected to know what products to build. Instead, they assemble teams and rent offices, then figure out the rest, on the fly. Huh?

What happened to doing your homework BEFORE starting a company, aiming before firing? That’s so yesterday. Perhaps VCs have too much of other people’s money to chase too few good ideas. Just saying.

Imagine engaging an architect to design your house, approving his plan, getting financing, hiring the general contractor, breaking ground, then watching these folks “pivot” your plan — and your cash — to oblivion. You can’t.

Tweaking is one thing, but completely and repeatedly changing course is another. Yet, this is Silicon Valley’s current MO — and why branding is extinct here. It’s no mystery that nebulous cloud computing originated in Silicon Valley.

Yes, some companies like Instagram will make it via lucky pivoting, but most won’t. In fact, VCs are teaching prospective entrepreneurs to fail by becoming companies about nothing.
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

The only way to convince another that your company is about something is to believe it yourself, with conviction and PROOF that you’re solving a real problem — for someone who doesn’t live in Silicon Valley.

If, however, you pivot three times after raising seed capital, to attract more capital, you don’t know and never knew why your company exists — other than to get the VC’s check.

So, what will you do, now that you have the cash, pivot three more times until nobody can fathom your reason for being?

Cisco did this, then had to cut 10,000 jobs before getting back to basics. Cisco ignored the fundamentals of branding at great cost to its shareholders and employees.

Branding is extinct and won’t appear any time soon — unless and until Silicon Valley ceases to operate by the current VC-driven model.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Back in the day, everyone knew the Datsun name as well as the sleek design and low price of its popular 240Z sports car. Strangely, in 1981, the Datsun name disappeared, replaced by Nissan.

Caroline Winter at Businessweek wrote: “…the company resolved to rebrand all Datsuns as Nissans, as part of a global strategy to strengthen the company name. It proved to be a disaster.”

Gee, who could have seen THAT coming? I’ll bet that no Datsun customers, while plunking down their hard-earned cash, ever complained to dealers that the Nissan name was too weak.

Customers in every country except Japan knew and loved the Datsun name. So, some HQ geniuses, with zero customer orientation or knowledge and no marketing skills, decided to scrap the embedded brand in favor of a name nobody knew.

Brilliant! This branding blunder inhabits a wing of the marketing museum with New Coke and The Shack, RadioShack’s gem that nobody uses.

Contrast Nissan’s decision with that of Federal Express, which changed its name to FedEx, the sobriquet that customers invented and preferred to use.
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

Nissan, unlike FedEx, was disconnected from its customers and didn’t grasp the power of its Datsun brand. Impossible for me to fathom. Akin to a standing-room-only performer whose fame eludes her.

Nissan paid dearly — hundreds of millions of dollars and lost impetus — for killing Datsun. Now, the company is resurrecting it but only in Russia, India, and Indonesia. If this gambit succeeds, perhaps someone at HQ will notice, stay connected to customers, and not kill Datsun again.

Let this be a lesson: If your corporate name is not part of the brand, don’t waste any time or money trying to make it so. Pay attention to what’s working — and why it’s working — and strengthen that.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Do you really think IBM’s commissioned salespeople walk into client sites to banter about a “smarter planet”? Not if they want to walk out with purchase orders. But, IBM’s series of TV spots would have you believe so.

Can you imagine any board of directors, of a for-profit enterprise, debating issues of “the planet” — other than global reach, tax rates, or profit margins? If such Kumbaya occurs, it’s because, in our capitalism-bashing era, they and their company are desperate to be liked.

Develop a thicker skin.

As I asserted in “Bad Brands Bounce Sales,” salespeople will use whatever language works to get orders, despite the indecipherable white noise their HQ marketers create.

Here’s an example of an IBM “Smarter Planet” spot that I’m sure you’ve seen:
 

 
I’ve always scratched my head in bewilderment when viewing these IBM feel-good spots. What on earth (excuse the pun) do they mean? What is a smarter planet; who decides? What is IBM really selling? And, how does it solve my specific problem?

In the spot above, IBM is really selling a solution for supply-chain management, while trying to manipulate us with nebulous, feel-good political correctness.

In his seminal book, The End of Marketing As We Know It, Sergio Zyman, former marketing VP at Coca-Cola, explained that advertising has a sole purpose: selling product. Attempting to achieve any other objective — such as making people feel good or winning awards — is a waste of time and money. Such subterfuge also dilutes the brand.

Coincidentally, in his recent Business Week piece about Big Blue, Ashlee Vance relates the confusion surrounding its “Smarter Planet” campaign:

If there’s a downside to IBM’s marketing campaign, it’s that many people don’t quite get what the company does. The “PC maker” has transformed into an amorphous think tank. As a friend of mine who runs a prominent mutual fund recently asked, “What do they actually sell?”

Indeed. Indeed. When people can’t grasp your value proposition (brand) and ask what you actually sell, you’ve failed to communicate. How much did that cost the shareholders?
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

The CEO’s job is to articulate a crystal-clear brand, kick his rivals’ asses, improve customers’ businesses, and enrich his shareholders in the process — not improve Earth’s IQ. A smarter salesforce, design team, and product strategy? Absolutely. Stick to basics.

IBM does well because it delivers results. It could do much better by staying on-message, being specific, and not running from capitalism.

Finally, IBM must articulate concisely, clearly, consistently, and compellingly what it sells, so that its key constituents — customers, salespeople, channel partners, shareholders, and media pros — can grasp and exploit its value.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

It is all-too common for a company to create and disseminate its brand, and then let it run like a wild horse. Why? Corporate politics, turf wars, egos, and incompetence.

This is my only explanation for GEICO’s unending onslaught of inexplicable, inconsistent, unfathomable, torturous, irrelevant spots: an irritating brand about nothing … and a giant waste of shareholder cash.
 

 
Letting a brand run like a wild horse is amateurish — even if it works — because audiences are fickle, inattentive, and mercilessly bombarded with indistinguishable competing brands.

Making audiences wade through this sea of white noise, by failing to continuously tune your brand, is an unforgivable sin — resulting in minimized or delayed purchases, investments, and word of mouth, and increased costs of these lifelines, respectively.

A good marketer knows, in advance, when a brand will resonate with customers, investors, and media pros — through visceral feel and experience. Besides, he can modify it over time through continuous testing and tuning, or scrap it if it falls flat.
 
No Room for a Tin Ear

In fact, branding is akin to a musical recital: no room for a tin ear. For those obsessed with and rewarded for managing audience satisfaction, the tuning regimen is a big part of daily life.

When experiencing the virtuoso performances of Vladimir Horowitz, one is struck not only by his style and accuracy but also by his piano’s perfect pitch.

Had his music — his message — emanated from an out-of-tune Steinway, he would have irritated his audience, sullied his brand, and ended his career.

The tuning fork and piano tuner were, then, as integral to Horowitz’s success as his skill. As Marshall McLuhan once said, the medium is the message.

According to Steinway & Sons: No matter how expertly a piano is tuned, atmospheric variations and the nature of the piano’s construction constantly conspire to bring it off-pitch. So, “set it and forget it” doesn’t cut it. Bottom line: always be ready to tune it.

By the same token, no matter how expertly your brand is tuned (or how expertly you think it is tuned), market and industry variations and the nature of its construction constantly conspire to bring it off-pitch. Again, “set it and forget it” doesn’t cut it. Bottom line: always be ready to tune it.
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

Don’t stare at your tuning fork; channel Horowitz.

Vladimir Horowitz died in 1989, but imagine he’s alive today. Would he appear at Carnegie Hall, hoping and assuming that his piano is still in-tune since yesterday’s concert? Of course not. The medium is the message; it must be perfectly tuned.

When to tune your brand? Now. Tonight. Tomorrow. Always keep that tuning fork handy; your audience is listening. Finally, beware the discordant brand-killers: corporate politics, turf wars, egos — and anyone with a tin ear.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

If you own a TV, you’ve seen nonstop discount campaigns from Joseph A. Bank, the men’s clothier. How does a customer know what value he’s getting at any time? It’s impossible.
 

 
Newly minted JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson, former head of Apple’s retail stores, discovered upon arrival that 75% of all items sold in his stores were discounted by half off the list price. Customers see through this exhausting nonsense, and Johnson knows it.

Seeking to raise JCPenney above the white noise, Johnson rebranded the retailer with a bold stake in the ground: Fair and Square Every Day Pricing. His objective was to mirror and match customers’ expectations by making their shopping experiences reliable, dependable, and consistent.

In an age when politicians are running and overtaxing our lives, and enriching themselves in the process, nothing is fair or square. JCPenney’s new messaging resonates with us. This is how to solidify a brand, assuming it remains true!
 

 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

We like to trust those who are consistent and reliable, those who stand for something. We all know people (Hint: businesses are run by people) who constantly flip-flop, who have no solid opinions, who are difficult to fathom. We don’t trust them. We can’t be loyal to them.

Ron Johnson wants customers to trust JCPenney, shop there first, and return to JCPenney. He knows how to create and communicate a brand. Visit an Apple store if you doubt that.

A brand is a value proposition — not a logo, not a TV commercial, especially not awareness.

A brand succeeds only when customers, investors, and media pros embrace and articulate it immediately — without thinking. Is this true of your brand?
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2012 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

When I took a typing class in highschool, my fellow students and I used typewriters with look-alike blank keys: it was incumbent on us to learn — without looking — the identity, purpose, and position of each key.

Likewise, when learning to play musical instruments, whose keys, strings, and valves are indistinguishable from each other, students must learn — without looking — their identities, purposes, and positions.
 

 
Alas, many vendors treat customers like music students, appearing as unmarked piano keys and expecting us to decipher their identities, purposes, and positions. Patently absurd, the antithesis of branding, but it happens every day.

Remember, people would rather blend than brand. Cloud computing proves it.
 
No Imagination

On December 3, 2011, SAP announced that it had purchased online employee-performance company, SuccessFactors Inc., for $3.4B. Businessweek reporter Ragnhild Kjetland wrote an article about it. Here’s his first paragraph:

SAP AG, the largest maker of business-management software, agreed to buy SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4 billion in cash, stepping up competition with archrival Oracle Corp. in the cloud-computing market.

First, there’s no “cloud-computing market”: a market is people, not products. Second, we know nothing about the value SuccessFactors provides its customers, do we? No. Why is that? In tech circles, vernacular always trumps — and clouds — value.

Some believe that sticking a lower-case “i” in front of generic vernacular makes it unique. How so? We already have a plethora of i-names, a few of which (not including iPhone and iCloud) are listed below:

• iVillage
• iHeartRadio
• iPage
• iPower
• iGoogle
• iShares

Redolent of Mark Wahlberg (Charlie Croker) admonishing Edward Norton (Steve Frazelli) in The Italian Job: “You’ve got no imagination.” That’s right. No imagination. Why do the heavy lifting? Let the customers figure it out; they’re music students.

Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

Branding requires imagination — and being unique. My tagline is Be Unique or Be Ignored^TM for a reason! Copying everyone else, with generic vernacular and symbols, keeps you in the white noise and increases your costs of sales, capital, and media.

Yet, imitation and blending prevail.

So, you must attract attention, customers, and capital while identified as iBoring. Good luck.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2011 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

Are you a communicator? How do you know? If so, you are rare.

As a branding consultant, I read homepages and exec summaries, listen to investment pitches, and watch TV commercials — most of which are totally unfathomable. They’re supposed to be crystal-clear and grab my gut in 15 seconds. They don’t.

Why is bad communication such a huge, pervasive problem?

Like the corpulent wearer of an inappropriately fitting Spandex outfit, the creator of bad communication is always oblivious to it.

Don’t be surprised by the deluge of corporate white noise. Good communication begins at home, where it rarely exists. Executives bring their home skills to work, do they not? Not a good scene, as depicted by the unhappy couple below. If communication is the oxygen of a great marriage or relationship, the lack of it is the chief reason most are suffocating.
 

Corporate Communicators at Home

 
Antisocial Media

This situation is worsening. Because of text messaging and “antisocial” media, people — especially college graduates — can’t even talk to each other in plain, grammatically correct English. When’s the last time you, like, tried to, like, talk to a teenager, the CEO and parent of the, like, future? You’re lucky to get a, like, grunt in response to any question.

Ironically, small children do know how to communicate. Eavesdrop on them sometime; it’s beautiful to watch. Sadly, once these kids reach the age when they can use cellphones and computers, they lose their interpersonal skills.

These days, some folks can’t even express themselves, in any way, other than by clicking a “like” button. How does one communicate to them? A society of passive automatons we have built.

Yo, phone, e-mail, and conversational etiquette are relics of the past, Dude.

So, where will corporations find professionals with stellar branding skills? Where? From a dearth of great communicators. But, who will understand them?

Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

Branding is communication. Communication — knowing what to say, when, how, and why — begins at home, and you know THAT is not working out.

The strength of your brand is a reflection of the people you’ve charged with creating and disseminating it, the ones who embed their communications skills — or lack thereof — in it. Don’t dismiss this truth!

You can’t wave a magic wand to convert your noncommunicators and poor communicators into great communicators. You just can’t do it; so, stop trying to do it. Stop pretending you can get blood from a stone. Stop settling for murkiness and mediocrity. Stop winging it.

What you should do, therefore, is recognize the criticality of branding — communication — and hire great communicators, wherever you can find them, and pay them well.
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2011 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

The other day, I was discussing one of my pet peeves with a senior officer of a top global corporation: jargon-laced branding. I mentioned a few examples from techdom: Web 2.0, 3G, 4G, cloud, and SaaS. At this point, he sheepishly asked me, “Exactly what is a cloud?”

Bingo. I told him he had made my point.

Yet, the perpetuators of jargon are completely unaware how many “victims” of jargon don’t comprehend it, like it, or deem it a purchasing stimulant. This epitomizes a branding blunder.


Most folks in tech companies suffer from a malady I coined in 1989, technologica erotica, which causes them to speak in insular, arcane jargon — in engineering meetings, on homepages, at conferences, in radio/TV spots, in magazine/Internet ads, and, worst of all, on sales calls.

Jargon junkies — like all addicts — are perpetually clueless that their gibberish doesn’t resonate outside the rooms in which their jargon-filled whiteboards hang.

To speak in customer language, which obviously DOES resonate with customers, a supplier must understand: 1) buyers’ needs, emotions, and conversations; 2) that buyers acquire value and solutions and lifestyle, not products or technologies.

Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

Are you a jargon junkie? Maybe you don’t realize it. You’ll know if your prospects, potential investors, and people in the media keep asking: “What the hell are you talking about?”

Using jargon causes your business focus and operation to become insular and stuck in time. Dale Carnegie taught us that, to win friends and influence people, one must engage them in conversations about themselves. This is impossible when talking about yourself.

You have a simple choice: Either kick your jargon habit, or accept unnecessarily high costs of sales, media, and capital — not to mention refilling that prescription.
 
POSTSCRIPT: Ellison vs. Benioff: What Is the Cloud?
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2011 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.

You’re an energetic sales rep, armed with product training and imbued with HQ’s brand du jour, sitting before your prospect. When asked to explain your company’s value proposition (brand), you reflexively blurt out the slogan affixed to your company’s homepage: We take you to the cloud. Bewildered, your prospect, neither meteorologist nor balloonist, flashes a blank stare. Bad news: Your pitch just bounced back.

This revenue-killing ordeal is akin to sending an ambiguously worded e-mail: The recipient either ignores it or bounces it back by initiating an exasperating, multiple-volley clarification exercise — ultimately ending in a heated phone call.

Lesson: Failure to hit and stick to your target on the first attempt — in an e-mail, during a sales call, or via a homepage — is an unacceptable, preventable error that carries with it high resource and opportunity costs.

A top salesman succeeds because he knows which words work. He speaks customer-centric language, not vendor-centric jargon. He’ll try the “official” corporate message once; if it fails, he’ll invent his own version. Every other sales rep will do likewise (one brand per sales rep), needlessly boosting the cost of sales, relegating the HQ-articulated brand to the trash.

Jargon, like a tennis ball, is fuzzy and hollow, and bounces off its target. Why? It’s vendor-centric argot; customers reject it. They care only about their agendas, their lingo, and their pressures — not those of suppliers. Despite this, most suppliers are jargon junkies.
 

 
Steve W. Martin, who teaches sales strategy at the USC Marshall School of Business, knows that perceiving and leveraging customers’ emotions — garnering GutShare™ — is essential to successful selling. Cerebral selling, consequently, doesn’t work; that’s why mindshare — an absolute waste of shareholder capital — is meaningless and begets bad brands.

Martin penned an article in Harvard Business Review called “Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople.” In trait #3, Martin explained the art of selling (emphasis mine):

Top sales performers seek to understand the politics of customer decisionmaking. They strategize about the people they are selling to and how the products they’re selling fit into the organization instead of focusing on the functionality of the products themselves.

 
Branding Is Macroselling

Selling to one is like branding to many but on a smaller scale, although the skillsets of the people involved are vastly different — unfortunately. Each endeavor requires constructing a detailed map of needs, emotions, politics, and behaviors — and then adeptly incorporating these “coordinates” into customer communications.

Sounds simple, right? Evidently not.

There’s such a disconnect between how top sales reps and homepages (from marketing departments, PR firms, ad agencies, and Web developers) articulate value, resulting from:

• Lack of communications competence (bad now and growing worse): Today’s college graduates — the OMG/LOL/BRB crowd — have no clue how to speak or write;
• Using impotent, consensus-driven committees, which excel at converting arrowheads into tennis balls;
• Aversion to being unique: Most people prefer to blend and imitate;
• Ignorance of human emotions and behaviors;
• CEOs assigning low priority to unique, jargon-free, GutShare-garnering branding.

 
This value-articulation disconnect explains perfectly why HQ-driven homepages invariably focus on product functionality, feature indecipherable jargon and forgettable slogans, and resemble complex cockpits — the key to bouncing sales.

A top sales rep, alternatively, operates on a completely different wavelength: He relieves the pains and buttresses the ambitions of the execs in the decisionmaking unit — a far cry from “selling products” — by immersing himself in each one’s politics and psyche. Speaking customer-centric language, rarely found on homepages, is paramount to his success.

I’ve asked many sales VPs what role their companies’ homepages play in closing business. Typical reply: It plays no role; my salesforce ignores it, and our customers don’t even look at it. A wasted strategic asset. Are you listening, shareholders?
 
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™

When your customers and salesforce bounce your homepage, you have a bad brand — one that’s synonymous with ambiguity, complexity, confusion, imitation, and insularity — keeping your company stuck in the white noise, indistinguishable from its competitors.

Does your brand stick or bounce? Quick test: If your top sales reps, who are great proxies for your customers, are pitching with their own arrowheads, it bounces. Getting the point?
 

About the Author

Marc Rudov, The WhiteNoise Doctor™, is a branding-strategy advisor,
creator of GutShare™, and internationally known media personality.

MarcRudov.com | GutShare.com

Copyright © 2011 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.