But what if instead of trying to focus primarily on what your company does or the product/service it provides, companies started looking at other ways to acquire attention? You can acquire attention by not even talking about your company. These are the things that will get you the new client or customer and leave your competitors wondering why. When you’re starting out, any positive attention is good attention, regardless of what it is. Here are a few ways to get attention without directly talking about what your business does. Perks not only keep people within a company, but they also encourage people outside the company with a good work-life balance and a positive perspective. Most CEOs and entrepreneurs have no idea that they can create value just by tying certain life experiences to a particular topic. Talk about your cool clients. Tell your clients’ stories. People love a good story.
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The world is a crowded place, filled with competitors all vying for attention. In many cases, it’s hard to differentiate yourself from others in the same field doing the same thing.
What can you do as a business to stand out over your competitors? Most founders and CEOs I work with have tunnel vision and believe the only way they can stand out in a crowd is by trying to differentiate what they do. They think if they can somehow market themselves differently they will create a gap in the market or get a leg up over the competition, and then they can begin driving traffic to their business.
But what if instead of trying to focus primarily on what your company does or the product/service it provides, companies started looking at other ways to acquire attention?
Most of the time, people don’t actually care what you do. You can acquire attention by not even talking about your company. Attention — no matter what it is — as long as it’s positive, is attention that will bring people in and let them take notice of what your company is doing. These are the things that will get you the new client or customer and leave your competitors wondering why.
I hear it all the time. “We don’t have a story to tell. Nobody cares what we’re doing.” These are the clients who end up having the best stories to tell. It never fails.
Many clients of mine gained a ton of attention by talking about everything and anything but their product or service. This forced people to take notice of the company by bringing them in using different, sometimes unconventional ways. When you’re starting out, any positive attention is good attention, regardless of what it is.
Like I tell many clients of mine, unless you’ve cured cancer or you’re Google, a good percentage of the public is not going to think who you are and what you do is as cool as you think it is. That makes acquiring top tier attention very difficult, and it’s probably not going to happen overnight.
Here are a few ways to get attention without directly talking about what your business does.
Use your shiny toys.
Interesting perks and a cool workplace environment are like having shiny toys — use them to attract the masses. Instead of showing them one thing to distract from another, it’s quite the opposite. Show them the shiny thing to use as bait, and reel them in.
Think of the latest startup you saw on the news. Did they mention the perks? Dog lovers in San Diego love that a company leaves water bowls out and makes dog treats a part of their bar menu. Crazy employee benefits and workplace perks like breakfast/lunch/dinner catering, an encouraging culture, or company happy hours for good causes all attract people to what…
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