Many of today’s business leaders have lost touch with a critical fact:

The financial performance of your business is intrinsically linked to the strength and consistency of your corporate story.

If your story is delivered inconsistently … financial performance suffers. However, when your story is clear, compelling and consistently delivered throughout the customer experience … top-line and bottom-line results thrive.

Why do we believe many business leaders have lost touch with this fact? How else can you explain the lack of strategic time, energy and investment the C-suite puts into the development and delivery of a consistent corporate story?

Most companies treat their story as nothing more than words on paper.
Most companies treat their story as nothing more than words on paper.

And, that is a serious problem.

If your corporate story is going to drive financial performance — delivering a clear, compelling and consistent story has to matter — and the C-suite has to make sure that message is received loud and clear across the organization.

It is important to remember that your message is not an ad, it’s not a slogan, it’s not even the message on your website. It’s the story that is delivered throughout the customer journey: across all channels and every touchpoint. Yet, why is it that many business leaders look for the quick win when it comes to getting their message in the market? They launch a new campaign or website … and they think the work is done. Then, they wonder why financial metrics aren’t moving in the right direction.

Business leaders have to redefine what the finish line looks like. Landing on a clear, compelling and consistent message — is just the starting line.

It wasn’t long ago that ensuring stakeholders (beyond the marketing department) understood the corporate message was a luxury — a nice-to-have. Now it is a business imperative.

Today, the customer experience is the battleground on which business is won and lost — and it consists of so much more than just a new website or campaign. The fact is, it takes a village to deliver a clear, compelling and consistent corporate message throughout the entire customer journey.

So remember, if you want your corporate story to have a material impact on the financial performance — that story must be infused throughout the customer experience. It must be consistently activated inside and outside of your organization.

That’s Your OnMessage Minute.