Last week, I gave you a simple formula that you can use to easily craft company overviews that kick butt. A few people even posted their new company (or personal) overviews in the comments and I gave them feedback.
But along the way, an interesting question came up. Is one company overview enough? Today, I’m going to explain why the answer is no and give you some guidance on how many company overviews you really need.
Why The Heck Would You Need More Than One Company Overview?
I once had this friend. She dressed just like everybody else. She wasn’t covered in tattoos or body piercings. She was just a normal girl. But every so often, she would dress up like a goth (if you’re unfamiliar with that term, think vampire) and go out to this bar and hang out.
In a sense, she was two different people. She had an identity with the goth crowd and she had a different identity with me. Sure, at the core, she was ultimately the same person. But her persona, depending on who she was with, differed.
Aren’t we all a little like that? Doesn’t your dad have a different perception of you that your best friend, or significant other has? Your dad and your best friend (unless your dad is your best friend) met you at different times in your life and have had different experiences with you. The story your dad has about you in his mind is different from the one your best friend has.
The same concept applies to clients. The story you tell your first client probably isn’t going to be as effective with your 1,000th client. The story that resonates with a pharmaceutical company isn’t necessarily the same one that will resonate with a school board. And that, my friend, is why a single company overview will just not do.
So, How Many Company Overviews Do You Need?
You should start out by crafting an overview for each client type. For example, you might have one for government owners, one for developers, and one for contractors.
You should also have a standard company overview for the general public. Most of us already have this, it’s on our website, brochure, press release, etc.
If you want to take it a step further, craft company overviews for each market sector. For example, you could have a different overview for the secondary education market than you have for the higher education market.
If you break them out as I’ve described and use the formula I laid out, it won’t take you long to write these company overviews as you need them. They will be much more relevant and interesting to the people reading your marketing materials and/or proposals.
How Many Company Overviews Do You Have?
Now it’s your turn. Did you ever have more than one company overview? Let us know by posting a comment here.
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We have multiple company profiles; one for each market that we work in. And in some cases, those company profiles get rewritten to better identify with a prospective client. Our core values never change but how we approach each project does. If you’re the same thing to every client than you will only have one client.
The evolutionary path our company has taken over the decades makes a single company overview a dangerous thing. The fact is some of the services we provide to one particular type of client may be viewed as being in direct opposition to the best interests of other client types we serve. It’s a sticky wicket for sure – yet we’ve been able to strike a balance within our organization that allows us to meet each group’s needs. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t skeptics out there, particularly among the prospects who don’t yet really know us, and it takes only just a few words to cast some doubt. For that reason, we make every effort to assure that any company overview targeted at a specific project or client type is crafted to address that particular interest.
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