I promise you that this little crib sheet I invented in my first job out of college is going to be as helpful for you and the others you share it with as it’s always been for me. Get used to Noise Cubed, because it’s going to sit at the top of your business processes as the driving force of your competitive strategy. Those three questions are going to constantly remind you and everyone working with you what you’re collectively working toward. They’re going to define your go-to-market positioning vocabulary and the behaviors that will be demanded of your working culture to bring it to life.
Noise Cubed is also going to make you a smarter, sharper communicator because, by the time our journey together winds down, you’ll be much more thoughtful and consistent with the words and messages you share with your important publics. Equally important, you’ll find it to be a bulletproof touchstone for decision-making, as in, “Will this action, new product, or statement we’re considering make people say about us what we want said?”
Noise Cubed is going to be rocket fuel that powers your most important competitive asset: Your reputation. Your reputation can only be built and leveraged for competitive advantage when the people you serve are advocating for you and describing you precisely as you want to be described. And, needless to say, this just ain’t gonna happen unless top leadership at your business makes this Priority Number One.
Here’s a simple test prove that your business is currently destined to struggle and that re-branding isn’t gonna do Jack Squat to fix that:
Gather your fellow leaders around a meeting table, give each a sheet of paper and pencil, then ask them to write their answers to Noise Cubed question two (you do it, also). Put a three minute time limit on this, then gather the responses and read them aloud. What you’ll find among these responses, I promise, is the answer to why your business is currently an also-ran instead of a dominator. Because what you’re going to see is very little commonality in the responses. The obvious questions this begs, then, are, “How can our market accurately describe who we are when we don’t even know ourselves?” and “How can our employees support what we’re collectively working toward if they don’t know what that is?”
Can you think of a better way to kick-start a serious conversation about improving your business’s competitiveness than with that little exercise?
With Noise Cubed — and, ahem, the simple action steps in “Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance” — you’re going to develop and gain complete buy-in among your business’s leadership on the specific words you want your important publics to use when they describe you, then you’re going to work with your employees to ensure that everyone exhibits the behavior necessary to bring that desired language — your positioning — to life. Like Fonzie, remember?
Re-branding ain’t gonna do that. And you know it. Because it’s the equivalent of getting a haircut when what you really need is a heart transplant. Save your $.
Stay tuned.