Landing in Boston last night, the weather here was actually nice although they are calling for snow this week – we’ll see.  As I am preparing for meetings  this week with Courion (Access Assurance and compliance) to discuss messaging strategies, I have marketing and branding on the forefront of my mind.  This seems to be the weak link in many of the companies I’ve worked with or encountered over the past decade.  While some are investing in building a brand – as this company is, others are still trying to push ahead with brute force and more sales micro-management.  The problem is, when a sales person finally does get a qualified meeting, their message is weak, they are immediately demoted to IT,  and the opportunity becomes a long drawn out sales process to sell a widget to people with no money to spend.

Build the message – begin establishing the brand by focusing on the urgency.  Keep asking, “Is this worth reallocating time, money, and resources to?”  If it isn’t, you may be selling the wrong thing.

ALSO:

An article you may want to skim on hackers in China: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704140104575057490343183782.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews – this was on the front page of Wall Street and well worth reading.  The point is, this young man from China explains how he got into hacking, how the code is put together to steal data, and how much money he made doing it.  Knowing this kind of information makes your message more relevant – it’s not the high tech theoretical data many are running around with.  This is what is actually happening on the street and all around us.

© David Stelzl 2010