Remember when you were a little kid and would play “Let’s pretend”? Whether it was with a bulldozer in the sand box or a baby doll in a buggy you were someone different than yourself. Do that again right now as you think about your website, your elevator pitch, your product, or service.

GET REAL

Pretend you are a customer or a prospective client. Let yourself go mentally to a new place—a place where you can see differently, through a different set of eyes, and with a whole nother thought pattern.

Think hard and you will likely discover the positioning of your product or service, maybe your website in general, needs a boost to reach the “how will this help me” perspective for those you want to appeal to. People are TIRED of businesses that exist because they’ve always been there, and/or ones that promote themselves.

Am I saying people are looking for the real deal? You got it! The real deal is in. It’s what people want. It’s how people are making decisions. So . . . you need to be real—meaning authentic.

WHAT IS AUTHENTIC?

Merriam-Webster says:
a: worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact b: conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features c: made or done the same way as an original.

In terms of your company, your product, your service, what you say in print and on your website, authentic is anything that is real—meaning innovative, original, honest, and spot on. People know fake and phony, certainly; but there is a fine line between real and not real that you must understand. Why? Because the more AUTHENTIC you are, the more likely people are to do business with you.

The real thing from a real company. That’s it. Innovative, original, honest, and spot on. Did you happen to hear Michelle Obama welcoming neighbors to the White House? She invited them to look around, and “Touch some things!” Michelle Obama is authentic. As a business, you must master this in all that you do. It is how you will not only survive, but thrive.

Does being real appeal to everyone, you wonder? Sure it does. We are all unique, but we all know the real deal when we see it. And today consumers make business decisions and purchase decisions based on how offerings fit in with how they see themselves. Being unique is very much like being authentic. It’s the very thing that differentiates one person from another and your business from all others. Just like you manage your costs, your staff, your production and your quality, you must be sure what you offer is authentic and that you appeal to people because your company and your offerings are the real deal.