It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog

I’m a member of SoftwareCEO.com’s forum and recently replied to a very interesting question I found there. The reciprient found my reply useful so thought I’d write it
here in the hopes you might find it useful too.

Here it is:

This statement you made really intrigued me. You said:

“We do want to strengthen the ROI message, but it appears sometimes that our “small company” image does not help to give credibility to this message. That’s why I think to invest more on marcom, to increase our “brand awareness”, but I wonder if it’s really appropriate now.”

There is a saying:

“It’s not the size of the DOG in the fight, but it’s the size of the FIGHT in the dog.”

The tone of your messages sounds to me like you’re feeling that size is a problem. It isn’t. Unless you make it one.

Plus, I understand branding IS important. But unless you know who you are in the marketplace already, branding is useless. You need to take your time figuring out how your company is perceived in the marketplace first, then decide if you’re okay with that. If not, you need to take strides in growing into the company you desire to be; then brand that. Not the other way around.

On the size issue, yeah sure — back in the day, big companies held all the power, but that’s changed a lot over the years. I heard recently that one medium sized company felt much better dealing with a small company because he felt he wasn’t treated like a number — a wallet.

And wouldn’t you agree?

That companies who offer a quality service, make you feel number one; that no problem is too small for them to deal with, are the kinds of companies everyone wants to deal with?

Now, if you know, hand on heart, that your company has those qualities in spades, these are the kinds of things you need to be talking about in your sales copy, because believe me, not many companies are.

They all talk about how great they and their product is — yada yada — but don’t think for a nano second about the poor shmuck whose going to be using their product.

If you want to shine out from the rest, then these are the kinds of things you need to be thinking and writing about in your direct mail packages. Plus how the product you offer will make their life better in some way but never really reveal the product in it’s entirety, always focusing your copy on them. No easy feat.

On another note…

How are you doing looking after the customers you already have?

Again, if this is something your company is good at — building long term relationships, then again, this is something you should shout about in your sales copy and on your site.

These are the things that will make you stand out and shine above all the rest, regardless the size of your company, and should make marketing your company that little more focused and easier.

There is a very small company out there, hardly two years old that is doing a phenomenal job of building their customer base. They’re called Hubspot.com. They specialise in helping small to medium sized companies drive more targetted traffic down the pike. I encourage you to go and take a look at their site and listen to their free training programs. You’ll get a ton of free quality help there.

Oh! I have an idea! You mentioned that some prospects find it hard to understand how your product works. Why not make a short training video on your blog (if you have one) showing HOW to use the product and how it makes life easier? Visual is so much stronger than the printed word.

Plus I’d encourage you to read a book called “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham. Jay is the master at helping companies squeeze out all they have to make more and more profits year in and year out. You can find his book on Amazon.com. Companies have made billions, yes billions on the back of this guys advice.

Plus this book by Michael Masterson called “Ready, Fire, Aim. His book talks about the three life cycles companies go through and the varying problems they face, at different stages of richness. You’ll find his insights helpful in figuring out how you can get through your growing pains. This guy is an expert at helping companies grow and has financed and supported many start ups in his time.