Three signs you may have a business identity crisis
The other week, a business owner told me how things have changed since working on their ‘story.’
This is a community gym who’s grown significantly. One thing she said caught my eye:
“When we started, our business was in an identity crisis. Cash flow was tight. At the time of signing up my partner and I had a 5 month old baby…. Having an expert guiding us on what was the most important aspect to work on first, giving us simple tasks and reminding us what we were already doing really well, helped more than we could have imagined. Our business became focussed, we re-established our identity…”
Here’s the cool part:
“…And we became confident in who we were and what we had to offer again. And Confidence is infectious.”
While it’s nice for me to hear all that stuff, the thing that stuck out to me was the term “identity crisis.”
I decided to steal it!
An identity crisis (could also be called a narrative crisis), is when the biz is clear on their ‘niche...’
They have their persona.
They know their ‘people’.
They know how they help them.
And they know they help them in a way that’s ‘deeper’ than the surface level transformation of that industry.
And yet…
They still feel lost, marketing isn’t working well, and they find themselves looking at other businesses on social media.
In the work we do, we tend to attract more ‘unique’ businesses. And with a more unique business, when this kind of crisis pops up, it can seem even worse because the owner doesn’t think anyone will understand them.
Which is fair enough, because, they’re unique after all.
So you get this internal crisis, combined with doubt that anyone can help, or there’s anything anyone can do... And it’s crippling.
And the worst part is, you can limp along like this, for a while, which strings out the frustration over time.
Anyway, the first step is to understand this crisis, so we can try to get past it.
In the RA MA article, I talked about what may be the best story driven marketing I’ve seen.
And how a story driven business is very different from a claims based business.
In a claims based business, the owner looks to sell their offer as the main priority, and does this through making claims that they’re the best, before clamping around the prospect with various funnels.
With a story driven business, their main focal point is a broader change that they are making in the culture.
A change that’s relevant because there’s been a shift in the buyer’s world.
That shift is called the catalyst, and their offer is simply a key stepping stone for this change to happen.
A business identity crisis happens when a story-minded business owner, ain’t clear on their story.
They ‘want’ to be story driven.
But they’re confused on the narrative.
So filling out a niche sheet, or client profile, is easy. But, it doesn’t help with the confusion, which often spreads throughout the team and into marketing. It’s especially obvious when you have multiple CEO’s or co-founders and you put them into different rooms, they try to explain the story of the biz and you get different answers.
And when the crisis rears it’s head, you can try to ramp up outbound marketing or sales, but it never feels like there’s a strong momentum, or that the buyer doesn’t trust the business.
(From the customer’s perspective, there’s no compelling story that can build trust.)
Just because there’s uncertainty, doesn’t mean there’s a crisis…
Even in with a clear business, uncertainty can still pop up sometimes. That can be normal.
So, here are three other signs, that hint that an identity crisis may have implanted itself at the root of the biz-ness. And that the overall narrative needs to be addressed to restore buyer trust.
Sign 1 - Watching other businesses for direction
In a claims-based business, positioning is built comparatively. So this means using price, location, speed, or some other attribute (usually shown on an x/y axis) to outperform other businesses, and then claim that performance. This means it makes sense to spend time on other business websites, and try to see where everyone is sitting, so that you can over-index on your point of difference.
In a story-driven business, we focus on ‘absolute’ positioning. This means we’re creating a movement (even if it is small), and don’t want to really look at what others are doing. We literally avoid comparison based positioning, and focus that energy on helping the clients to win in this new story we’re creating.
Example:
On the Fitness First website, the first thing we see is “Start Today and Get up to 15% off”.
This is price driven positioning.
The first thing they want you to see, is that it’s likely cheaper.
On the Anytime Fitness page, they’re showing how the game has changed, and you don’t need to follow the old rules of fitness anymore.
This is story driven positioning.
Sign 2 - The CEO(s) looking to staff, or customers to clarify the story
There’s an audio clip from the Howard Stern show (worth ~$500M), where a caller, Evan, rings up to give feedback.
“Hey Howard, how’s it going? I want to give constructive criticism on your show.”
“Not necessary.” Stern replies.
“What’s that?”
“Not necessary.”
“But you need feedback” stammers Evan.
"No. I figure out what to do, by me. I’m in charge of me, and I’m in charge of my show. What do I need feedback for?"
"Because your show is a community" says Evan.
"If I thought of the show as a community, I’d be doomed."
"Evan. Your feedback is irrelevant."
"How dare you?" Evan's getting fired up now.
"I’m telling you my process Evan."
"But I’m a paying customer!" Evan yells.
"I don’t care. Quit."
"I don’t care what you think. I care what I think"
"The way that I was an innovator was to IGNORE the feedback!" Howard continues
"Call Ryan Seacrest, he probably listens to feedback... He worries about what people think of him… A show that everyone loves is hardly my show."
“Most people don’t like my show.”
Evan swears at Howard and hangs up.
Stern takes it to the extreme.
But fact is, if you’re getting input on the overarching narrative of the business (why you exist, why now, and the future you want to create) from staff, customers, and everyone else, then it’s very difficult to have a core, singular narrative.
Note: This doesn’t mean we don’t do customer or client research.
Research on the client’s world helps us to clarify the story. But this observation happens in a research phase, not asking on an ongoing basis.
More: Customer or client feedback is great for shaping offers (stepping stones for the client to move forward in the story), but not shaping the narrative. That’s the founder or CEO’s job.
Sign 3 - Marketing is start-stop, or very difficult
"Good marketing tells the story, great marketing is the story"
- Bernadette Jiwa
Content marketing then, falls into three categories:
1 - Updates on the characters in the world and documenting the story (to build trust)
2 - Helping the audience move forward on the new path (with or without the offer)
3 - Celebrating wins of clients (or non-clients) who are winning on the new path (i.e. they’re helping drive the story)
Basically, you’re marketing should attract more people to the overarching story.
And this means it’s pretty simple, once the narrative is clear.
So, if marketing (content marketing, networking, projects, asset building) feels really draining, it’s a sign that when we go to do it, we don’t have a guiding business story, and we’re relying on thinking in the moment.
What does ‘easy’ marketing look like?
I met with a business owner last week. We had fleshed out their business story in recent months.
“I’m wondering what to do this month for marketing, I’m understaffed, and short on time…”
We went back through his overarching story.
And pointed to the fact that his sales have been best when he’s leaned heavily on that story in the past.
And destroyed any over-thinking about it all.
Once we were done I told him he shouldn’t be asking me about marketing, because he knows the story, and know what performs.
He agreed.
Typically, it takes him a minute or two to film a video and post it for marketing. They don’t do edits. They don’t do scripts. They don’t need to, because the story is clear.
If you’ve come through the internet marketing world, you may have been indoctrinated to think that any hurdle you have is a niche hurdle. Or a messaging hurdle.
And if you make it through that, you may have been told it’s an ‘effort’ hurdle.
Sometimes that’s the case. But a lot of times, the feeling of the ‘identity crisis’ is around the narrative, or business story.
When this happens, the owner, CEO or staff can get frustrated doing more and more niche work, or working harder on outbound sales or marketing, when really it’s about clearing up the narrative, or story.
When everyone in the biz knows what the business is doing, or the story that drives the business, and how their niche, or persona, fits into the story, it creates confidence.
There’s no need to watch other businesses, marketing is simple, and there’s no need to ask the customers or clients to steer the business direction.
There’s one unifying message that acts as a north star not just in marketing, but business strategy and decisions.
Clarity creates confidence, and, as we heard at the start, confidence is infectious.
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