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Many CEOs realize their job in this “new normal” (whatever that is) is to speak directly to customers and employees. Recently I gathered a group of eleven forward-thinking CEOs in a Zoom CEO Roundtable Focus Group to discuss one burning question: how to communicate your company story in the new normal?
Kara Goldin of Hint Water has had to personally jump in as a salesperson. “I think the team seeing me out actually visiting stores in the area just to make sure that it's safe and to help has been really critical. My employees are seeing the executive team do things that they don't typically do.”
Another issue was the CEO as Chief Energy Officer, there to give and find inspiration from different points of view.
“From my perspective as a CEO, the number one job is to inspire and energize,” says Feyzi Fatehi of Corent Technology. “And CEOs now have to look at their business through two lenses: a microscope and a telescope. My focus is to revive, renew and refresh the purpose, the goal, and the mission. And to revive, in the minds and the hearts of everyone in the company, the why they are here.”
Heidi Zak of ThirdLove said her company has come together to consider how they could help both women and the community. “Let's make sure we continue to focus on what we control and how we can impact women everywhere. One of our values is giving back. We can do something to help our community. So, we joined an innovation coalition, donating elastics, which we use on our bras, that are now being used for masks.”
One core theme that came up in the CEO Roundtable was companies need to show value to the customer, now more than ever.
“You have to bring something to the table that solves just their problem,” says Tom Searcy of Hunt Big Sales (I met Tom when we wrote a book together). “And now this is the time compression point: it is inside of the next sixty days, which is as far out in their future as they trust.”
Clara Shih of Hearsay Systems offered this advice: “If you think about what's happening, it's about using digital with a human touch to reach out and proactively reassure clients that their portfolios will be okay, for example. That, even though the bank branch is closed, they're still open for business and this is how you can access your funds. As a software company, we always used to say we're not curing cancer. But in the last sixty days, our customers have told us that we've saved lives because we've allowed bankers and insurance agents, these essential businesses, to be able to close and actually perform their work from home.”
Another core theme was moving outside of your CEO comfort zone and that includes shifting your focus to new ways of being.
“The 15 percent of business leaders are going to help the 100 percent navigate this, possibly for the next few years,” said Susan Sly of RadiusAI. “There are going to be other challenges. It's time for us all to step up to a whole new level. And in order for us to do things we've never done we have to become people we've never been.”
Telling the story digitally and in virtual ways will only increase in importance.
“Everything is centered around how can we educate, share and show up,” said Lisa Apolinski, 3 Dog Write, who I met when I helped her edit her first book. “One of the things that we're doing to show up is to be still and listen to what's happening with our audience and our prospects. Instead of running in and trying to talk about our story, we want to focus on our audience and make our story and our needs second – to be quiet and be present.”
