The Best Kept Secret

"You may not have heard, but we have a great portfolio for this..."; "You probably aren't aware, but we've made great strides doing this..."; "You may not know, but we have the best..." The list goes on.

These comments are great when positioned to the customer. You can talk to your potential customers about all the things that you have done to make your product better for them. However, these comments are not good when you are telling them to your own team.

Something cannot be the best or the greatest or the most improved if no one knows about it, especially your internal audience. It drives me crazy when people tell me that I may not have heard, or I may not know. I work for the company, in the group, and I have no idea. How are my customers supposed to know? How am I supposed to market to them? Why are we keeping secrets from ourselves, and from our customers?

It's one thing to not tell customers about a project that is in the early stages of R&D, or to share proprietary information. It is a completely different thing to not tell customers that you've made strides in improving how you service equipment so that it is more reliable, or that you have a broad portfolio of products to help customers get more out of their current system. and it's a down right shame to not tell your own sales and service organization that you've been working on, or made these developments.

I've often heard the phrase "Best Kept Secret in the Industry". Why would anyone want this title? Basically it means you have a great product/service, but since you don't talk about it, no one knows about it, and thus no one buys it. This approach can really only go one of two ways. Either someone very vocal and influential finds out about your product/service and begins singing your praises, and you go from "Best Kept Secret" to "Best". Or, you remain a secret, languish, and struggle to survive.

It's not ok to simply talk to yourself about yourself; you probably are not the one buying your product (especially in my industry). Rather you need to talk to customers, and empower your marketers to do the same (this is a whole other discussion, but the basic premise is don't put obstacles up to prevent you from being able to talk to your customers).

Next time you catch yourself saying "We have the best widget", stop and think. Does everyone know you have the best widget? Or have you just been telling yourself? It's easy to be the best in your own mind. It's quite different to be the best to everyone else.