It was a beautiful Spring day in Philadelphia. I was outdoors at an antiques flea market spread out around Eastern State Penitentiary – once the most expensive prison in the world. Built in the 19th century, Eastern was home to notorious criminals including Al Capone and Willie Sutton.
As I was lingering over some wooden chests, I witnessed a crime. A man running for Judge, walked up to the vendor and took a brochure out of his pocket. Handing the brochure to him, the candidate said, “I’d appreciate your vote.” ”Why don’t you give him a reason?” I whispered to myself.
Sadly, many companies today are like the would-be judge: they build their websites, create sales collateral, send emails and then wonder why no one’s knocking on their digital door. Like the would-be judge, they’re transactional; here’s my product, buy it please. Without taking time to introduce why we’re here (our brand origins), the change we want to effect (our mission), why we’re different from other “candidates” (key differentiators) and the problems we solve (value proposition), we’re just like the man who wanted to be judge: Not likely to get a vote – or a sale.
