Founder & CEO, the Imagine companies
Abridged and reprinted from The Fast Growth Blog with the author’s permission.

I hear it all the time:  “I just need a brochure that explains what we do better,” or “If we could just create a piece that gets people to see how we’re different.”  While I’m not (necessarily) against brochures or corporate collateral, the vast majority of them (like 95+%) are not only bad – they kill profits.

How?  They completely commoditize you. They’re like watching a home slide show, without the entertainment.  They not only bore your audience, they make you completely indistinguishable from your competition (remember, they have access to stock photos too).

I’ve said it before – and I’ll say it again (and again) – your buyers don’t have the time, the desire, or the inclination to care about you.  What they care about is what you can do for them.  What you need to provide is context.  Stop telling them about what you do, and start enabling them to understand how what you do impacts them in relation to the results they want at this moment in time.

To do this, you must stop thinking of the world from your perspective and start thinking about the world from your client’s perspective.  It means that you must know and understand your customer better than they understand themselves.  It means start creating demand, rather than merely fulfilling it, and creating value in all (and I mean all) aspects of your business development efforts.

Now, if you want a brochure that drives profits … read more.

Imagine Business Development helps small and mid-sized business enterprises throughout North America achieve fast growth.

Posted in Audience research and strategic planning