Business is communication. Critical business processes and inflections are dependent on the quality of ideas and how they are communicated. For instance, differentiation does not exist unless it is articulated in the language of the customer. Business is won through communicating with customers and prospects. Customers can be confused by different pitches from different members of your team or inspired by a compelling consistent story over time. You need to be strategic and consistent in what you communicate and how you communicate it.
The fractional CCO fills a strategic role for fast-growing companies who may not have the day in/day out needs of a large company. Yet, in the B2B space there are critical points in the evolution where the professional communicator plays a vital role on the executive team:
- Building the message: Why does your target customer care about your product? Creating the emotion-tinged message map that provides the foundation for all communication is critical to getting past the initial filters any human being brings to business communication.
- Guiding message delivery: The story must be consistently delivered and by the right people. The sales force needs the right deliverable at key stages of the buying cycle, and the executive team needs to stay consistent with that message while providing added value in strategic counsel or thought leadership. Nothing confuses prospects more than hearing different stories from different parts of the company during the buying cycle.
- Navigating key inflections where the story evolves: In the business classic, “Crossing the Chasm” strategy guru Geoffrey Moore notes that the way an organization communicates may have to change as you move from the “early adopters” to the “early majority” in the technology market. Your story must broaden beyond the product to build trust in the company’s core competencies as a trusted partner.
- Executive communications: When you achieve enough success that the industry wants to hear from your company at conferences, in the media and elsewhere, your executive team becomes the face of the company. But, no one wants to hear a product pitch. Executives need to be positioned to tell the story from their strategic perspective. It has to be one consistent story, but the CEO is naturally expected to sound a little different from the CFO, the CMO, the CRO etc. While PR agencies are great resources to achieve placement in various venues, they may not have the gravitas to work with a given executive to develop their take on the company story.
These are not the only reasons to consider a fractional CCO, but they constitute critical junctures where experience, insight, and the ability to work with a dynamic executive team matter. If you face these types of strategic needs, let’s talk.