Try this sometime. Ask five people connected to your company what you do. It could be a recent hire, a longtime employee, your bookkeeper, a vendor you’ve worked with for years, or a customer who sends referrals your way. Then compare notes.
You’ll probably get five different answers, and none of them will be wrong, exactly. One person leads with the product, another with the price, another with a story from 2014 you stopped telling years ago. Each version has some element of truth to it, and together, they describe a company that’s hard to pin down.
“Getting our stories straight” sounds like something whispered in the hallways before the principal calls you in. But in business, getting our stories straight is less about avoiding trouble and more about avoiding confusion. Confusion has a cost, and you’re paying it whether you see it or not.
When the people in your orbit can explain what you do and why it matters, using roughly the same words, a lot of friction disappears. New employees get up to speed faster because they aren’t piecing your identity together from water cooler conversations. Vendors and creative partners do better work because they’re aiming at the same target you are. And the people who recommend you — the best marketers you have — describe your company the way you would.
None of this requires a rebrand. The raw material usually exists already, scattered across an old strategic plan, the About page on your website, and whatever the founder or chief executive says when someone asks at a dinner party. The work is pulling it together into what we call a core messaging stack: your mission, vision, values, positioning, and the story that ties them together. Write it down, share it widely, and revisit it every year.
That last part matters more than you might think. Companies change, and so do the stories people tell about them. A yearly check-in keeps the drift from becoming the narrative.
So here’s a small assignment for the week ahead. Ask five people the question. Listen to the answers. If they don’t line up, you’ve found something worth fixing, and it’s a lot easier to address now than after those stories have hardened into what everyone assumes is true.
If you’d like a hand building your core messaging stack, we’re here to help.
