Build Your Business - Be Credible
FOUR SIMPLE STRATEGIES TO WIN NEW CLIENTS AND KEEP THE ONES YOU HAVE
As the erosion of faith in corporate America continues, we are left wondering just who we can trust. It’s not surprising that a recent CBS News poll revealed that only one out of four Americans trusts corporate executives.
The Boston Globe recently noted that “when stockholders cannot accept the word of accountants, or when people routinely believe politicians lie,
markets collapse and public cynicism reaches toxic levels.” And regardless of what analysts are telling us, the public’s anger and fear is not entirely irrational.
Restoring public confidence will take more than an act of Congress. Like Goldilocks, once we’ve come eyeball to eyeball with the wolf under the bedcovers, we won’t come back to Grandma’s with our picnic basket anytime soon. Somebody needs to put the wolves away and make it harder for them to sneak into Grandma’s bed in the first place.
While Congress and America’s executives reflect on how to rebuild corporate credibility – the rest of us need to figure out how we can protect ours. As W. Michael Hoffman, executive director of Bentley College’s Center for Business Ethics said, “good people can be brought down by institutions. I hear it all the time from corporations – ‘everyone here is an ethical person.’ As soon as you fall into the trap of ethical complacency, it’s the moment when you’re in the most danger.”
I asked reputable stock analyst how she decides when companies she covers are telling her the truth. Her method is pretty simple. “Businesses that are credible have simple, straightforward business models—they can easily explain how they are going to sell their products, pay their bills and make a profit,” she said.
Even if your company’s stock isn’t traded on the NYSE or the Nasdaq, making it simple to understand your operations will help you build trust with clients and customers. You have to be able to easily communicate how you do things. People are in no mood to put up with shenanigans.
They want straight talk. Here’s how to give it to them:
Be relevant – If you give people as much relevant, factual information as you can, you give them a chance to evaluate the facts and reach their own conclusion. They will most likely be persuaded that you are credible, when you tell them what they need to know without a lot of hocus-pocus.
Simplify your language – Get rid of both technical jargon and euphemisms. I remember reading that at Enron, as far back as 1995, management would not allow staff to use the term “losses,” insisting instead on “maintaining value” as they shifted red ink from one entity to the next. This twisted language allowed intelligent employees to fool themselves into believing that these were sound, acceptable business practices.
Listen – Stop talking and start listening. Yes, we all know how important it is to listen. But I read recently about a highly successful auto dealer who actually put it to work, and made a fortune.
He didn’t grow up in the fast-talking culture of car sales – so, when he became a car dealer he taught his sales people to listen more than they spoke. He insisted they restrain themselves from mentioning any of the details or features of a car, until they had asked questions and found out exactly what they customer wanted. He credits that strategy for helping him build a single dealership into a regional empire.
Act with Integrity – even when nobody’s looking. Here’s a story told to me by the president of a wire manufacturing plant in Chicago. A young guy working on his loading dock reported to a supervisor he had received extra spools on a shipment from a supplier. He went to his supervisor, wondering if they could get away with just handing the guy a check for what they ordered, without paying for the overage. As the president listened discreetly, he was pleased to hear the supervisor say no, they would write a check for the difference. The honest supervisor later wondered allowed in the President’s office, why the kid would even ask. “It was a test,” said the President. “The kid wants to know what kind of a company he’s working for.”
What kind of company are you working for, or running? We have to be listening and watching, making sure that even when nobody’s looking, people are acting with integrity.
Many businesses that have not already done so are considering ethics policies for their companies.
That’s not a bad exercise. But Enron and Arthur Andersen had ethics policies. A written
document is no guarantee that you have built an ethical organization.
The key to credible communication isn’t creating a maze with language – it is helping people walk the labyrinth, until they get it. Simple language not only creates understanding, but accountability, because everybody knows what you’re doing and why. And as we all know by now, accountability has been sorely missed these days.