Author: Vanessa Howard
What do a cybersecurity specialist, an engineering services business and a waste management group have in common?
On the face of it, very little.
But having spent time working with SecuraNova, King Site Services and Gavin Griffiths Group recently, I’ve been struck by something they share. Much of what makes their work extraordinary is something their customers may never see.
The experience that anticipates a problem before it develops. The ability to draw on years of accumulated knowledge to find a way forward and get the job done.
When nothing happens, something has gone right
The security breach that never occurs. The construction delay that never materialises. The operational problem that never becomes a crisis.
Often, behind each non-event lies an extraordinary amount of work: planning, preparation, technical knowledge, difficult decisions and people who know from experience what to look out for.
The absence of a problem is not the absence of work.
Recognising what makes a business valuable
It’s easy enough to find out what a business does. What’s harder to appreciate is the value of the things that don’t happen.
Ask someone with decades of experience how they handled a difficult situation and the answer might be a shrug and a simple explanation of what they did.
To them, it’s ordinary. It’s just part of the job.
But to a customer, that combination of knowledge, judgement and commitment can be enormously valuable.
Yet businesses don’t necessarily explain what it’s like to work with them, or why a customer might choose to stay for years.
That requires a different kind of conversation. One that explores not just what a business delivers, but what its customers are able to achieve, avoid or stop worrying about as a result.
It’s also one of the things I value about working with the Accelerated Growth Programme, which recognises the importance of bringing the right expertise and experience together to help businesses grow.
Making the invisible visible
Good communications shouldn’t need to manufacture a compelling story. More often, the story is already there, embedded in the everyday decisions, behaviours and expertise of the people doing the work.
The challenge is to recognise it, understand why it matters and communicate it in a way that means something to customers.
What customers come to value most is often what they never see.