There are many niche industries and businesses selling a range of specialist products.  Often when we work in such industries we hear people talk of how this is a unique industry or business and that our problems are like no-one else’s and no-one else is capable of solving the issues we have. Often we use three (or more) letter acronyms to make our world seem even more impenetrable.  That’s ok if we believe that we will only sell to people in our industry, who are just like us.  But that’s rarely a recipe for survival and even less a recipe for growth.

One such industry is the domain name industry.  Talk to those in the industry, and they’re deeply passionate about what’s happening in the market, they have a wonderful set of statistics at their fingertips, they are frustrated by the policy machinations and the impacts of government and law enforcement.  The reality when you talk to the average person on the street how they feel about domains is very different – they’re generally not very interested – marketers would term the domain industry a ”low interest category”.  The Japanese domain registry recognised this and played on it with an excellent video that many could do well to watch.

Some do not react so well and find it hard to take that there are people (lots of people!) out there who think that what they’ve been doing for the last fifteen years is essentially boring.  The industry, be it domains, seatbelt manufacture, car park design or whatever, feels put down by such comments, because they know how important their role is.  Some recognise this, like the Japanese registry.  Others carry on regardless, unperturbed and hopeful that their existing customers will continue to be customers forever.

The challenge that we all face is that markets, industries, businesses change.  The domain industry is going through a massive change right now.  Even if you work in an industry where change seems very slow (think fifteen year lead times on aircraft engines) change still happens and as a business you have a responsibility to react.  So businesses will tend to differentiate themselves via a number of routes: innovation, quality, price, service.

When differentiating in such a way, the story you tell must be clear, coherent and consistent. Not only that, but it must be engaging.  In ways that engage at an emotional level, with a clear target audience in mind. In such industries the challenge is to make people sit up and take notice of something that they rarely think of, or if they do, to help them see it in a new light in a way that makes then stop, think and take action.

Television programme producers tend to be good at this.  Analyse the structure of any programme and it’ll be the same.  First there’s a set of characters we can relate to.  Then there’s a situation we can empathise with and finally there’s a strong storyline, often multiple storylines interweaved, to keep us hooked and wanting more.  This approach has been the cornerstone of soaps for decades and has become the norm for documentaries too – even the news does it.  Why do they do it?  Because it hooks people in and helps them understand.  We tend to remember a powerful story more easily than a collection of facts.

So, let this not be a competition about who has the least interesting industry.  After all, often the most dull of products will have improved the lives of many though we may not instantly recognise or appreciate their impact.  Someone has to make the seat belts and we use every day.  These are the people and businesses to be cherished.  Let’s tell their stories in imaginative ways, that inspire others to get involved and be part of something that, although largely unnoticed, keeps the world we know turning.

Your business may be unique, so why not help the world understand why?

Over the last few months as Resonant Stories has developed, one of the biggest challenges we have faced has been doing for ourselves what we do for other people, i.e. identifying and telling the stories that define our business and help others to understand clearly what we do.   The challenge, of course, is that we’re too close to see clearly.

It’s the challenge many businesses have – taking a step back from the detail, from the everyday challenges that consume us, to take a more objective look, to see more clearly what value we really bring to our customers.  Making a fair assessment of what you do for your customers requires you to step into your customer’s shoes.  So often, the trap we fall into is to focus on ourselves and what we do, not to look at what our customers see us do and the impacts we have on their businesses.

To step into their shoes we have to put aside our own view of the world; actively listen to the language our customers use when talking about us (online and offline); review all the ways they interact with our brand; and measure the impact we have on them.  Only once we’ve done this can we truly reflect on how we impact their businesses and project to others what we can do to help them.

We’ll be stepping into our customers’ shoes as often as we can over the coming months – how about you?