Your Fabulous Culture: Make It Context-Specific & Meaningful

There’s nothing more yawn-worthy than a C-suite or other senior executive giving an impassioned, self-congratulatory speech lauding the company’s wonderfully (fill in the blank from any number of websites, marketing brochures, Annual Reports and etc) “culture”.

But when you tout your company’s fabulous culture as worth of representing some sort of compelling factor in your audience’s decision-making (even if it’s only to decide how they feel about you and your company), you likely stop short of being convincing if you leave it largely unqualified, and don’t contextualise it to your audience’s interests and objectives.

If indeed it’s such a meaningful differentiator – why? And against a backdrop of what, by comparison? Or do you leave it at a potted statement like “our can do / customer-focused / inclusive / collaborative (fill in the blank) culture” . . . and expect the customer to be just as jazzed as you are?

Or, worse still, perhaps you simply assume the prospect organisation somehow knows what you mean by your great culture?

In my business development / bid strategy and writing work, I use the expression “hard nuts”. Everyone who’s worked with me for a while knows exactly what I mean. And what I mean is this: “Don’t give me some vague term that means nothing to the client; harden it up, give it a specific context and tell them clarify the benefit to their objectives.”

Of any facet of your business that you offer up as in some way of benefit and value to the organisation or the contract you’re pursuing, culture – arguably – is one of the toughest sells.

Harden It Up & Make It Relevant

So you need to harden it up . . . you need to explain this “culture”, then qualify its relevance, and quantify its value.

Trust me, putting in the effort to think this through will pay off handsomely in terms of your grip on your audience. Because now you’re making it all about them. And don’t be afraid to make that clear.

If you can provide a client-focused or audience-focused, compelling explanation of the depth and breadth of the relevance of this fabulous culture of yours, to the achievement of your client’s goals and the solving of their challenges . . . let’s just say the queue to get your business card might just be longer than the queue at the buffet afterwards.

In short, don’t leave “culture” as some simplistically-expressed, generic (and supposed) competitive strength. If it really stands as a genuine competitive differentiator for your company, do the research it warrants to put weight behind your words.