Ensuring every customer-facing employee can instinctively activate your corporate story and strategy in the customer experience can be extremely challenging. For this to happen, CMOs need to secure enterprise-wide collaboration and support. Every employee has to play his or her part.

It is not easy. A recent article in Forbes, “Strategy 101: It’s All About Alignment,” said it best …

“Assuming you have created a sound strategy based on the union of customer desires and company output, you now face the challenge of inserting employees into the mix — in a way that aligns their daily decisions and actions with the strategic direction of the company. Success rates drop by around 50 percent in this phase.”

Success rates drop off a cliff because activating a consistent story in the customer experience requires that your employees actually understand and embrace that story. Getting employees and partners engaged is difficult. To do it right, CMOs must infuse the corporate story and strategy into the company’s culture.

Remember … it starts on the inside.
Leaders, managers and ultimately every employee must ensure the story and strategy are communicated in a consistent manner inside the organization. Harvard Business Review explained the importance of delivering a consistent message to employees in, “Selling the Brand Inside.” The article stated …

“Employees need to hear the same messages that you send out to the marketplace. At most companies, however, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can be very confusing, and it threatens employees’ perceptions of the company’s integrity: They are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the public.”

What we find interesting is that companies spend millions of dollars training their general employee population, sales teams and customer service representatives on basic job skills. Yet, the fundamental requirement of every employee should be to articulate a clear, compelling corporate story. For this to happen, CMOs must lead the charge. They must implement sustained training and organizational change initiatives that provide employees with the knowledge and confidence they need to bring the corporate story to life.

Do you want your employees to be able to share with confidence and conviction — who your company is, what it does, the value it delivers and ultimately why prospects should do business with your organization?

Speak with one of our experts to learn how we can help you make that happen today.

That’s Your OnMessage Minute.