SMB Success Factor: Get Sticky!

How sticky is your business?

Stickiness describes how successful you are at getting content or a concept to remain in circulation or front-of-mind for consumers.

It can mean a lot more that that though. We talk a lot about being remarkable, but how about being sticky?

This about lead generation vs. retention. Being remarkable drives new business and buzz, but can you extend it to hanging onto those customers, employees, and audience members once you have them?

What makes you stickier? Some thoughts:

1. Get real. If words like authenticity, integrity, honesty don’t describe your behaviours and habits, we will slip away.
2. Make others matter. We stay where we feel we matter. When I walk through the doors of a business and I am greeted in a way that subtly sends the message that I matter, that my presence there is part of what keeps the doors open and the lights on, I will come back. And for employees it has been documented repeatedly: the #1 thing that encourages loyalty is the feeling that our work makes a difference. Make us feel replaceable, and we will replace ourselves.
3. Bring us in. We invest in others to the extent we are allowed to connect with their humanity. I’m not saying start a personal reality TV production, but do ditch the old school ‘professional distance’ nonsense. We’re tired, and need the fuel of human connection to move forward. As customer, employee, or social media audience member, I’ll invest in you to the extent I get even a glimpse of a human to build community with.
4. Teach us. We have enough stuff. Daniel Pink’s amazing book A Whole New Mind covers that territory. We want more now. Show us how we can use your products and services to make a difference. Teach us what is important in our organization, and what we need to do to make a real difference. Create content, visual or text, that illuminates and suggests next directions. We’ll stick around for the ride.
5. Suggest there is more. Commodities are finite. Whether a mass-produced widget or cookie-cutter service, once we have experienced it, we instinctively know there is nothing more. Want is to stick with you? Tease us, make hints, suggest future possibilities. Growth and transformation are evidence of life, and the elements of great stories. And we all love a good story.

There’s more to come…

I work with business owners to redesign a business and its future. Want more out of your business? Contact me. From my home base on Vancouver Island, I provide planning and coaching support to businesses across Canada.

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