Talk about pet peeves, sales and marketing slogans are high on my list. Companies employ a variety of sales and marketing slogans but totally disregard the intent and meaning of the phrase they use. They even go so far as to have it as a salutation on their emails and voicemail greetings.
The problem that exists is most of the associates working in these companies have never been trained on implementation of their cute slogan. These companies would be better served not to have any slogan, as opposed to one that is ignored—it just becomes infuriating for their customers.
My sales training and consulting company slogan is, “Your success is our business!” I couldn’t be more serious when making that statement. I go to great lengths to advise and train my associates specifically what that means and how we strive to achieve this concept.
When sales people and/or managers engage my services, I must add to their success or I should be selling shoes with Al Bundy (sorry for the dated reference but I couldn’t resist). Don’t make a representation, in the form of a slogan, if you have no idea if the slogan has been properly conveyed to your staff. More importantly, and herein lies the key to success, it’s incumbent on management to monitor implementation.
Recently, I had an opportunity to deal with a company with one such slogan. I won’t repeat the slogan for concern that most of you might recognize the company (which is not my intent with this article), but every time I was disappointed with their responsiveness and/or service I would reiterate their slogan to remind them of their representation.
Not unexpectedly, it fell on deaf ears. I would repeat it in my emails and phone conversations (when they accidentally answered their phone), all to no avail. I even left a voice message to the branch manager with the same concern; she never returned my phone call.
Don’t use a slogan or catch phrase if you main consideration is not to fulfill whatever representation is being made. As a corporate consultant and trainer, I’ve become more realistic (not cynical) about how poorly trained most associates are as relates to corporate visions and mission statements. That’s to be somewhat expected, but when middle management doesn’t subscribe to the slogan it becomes a major problem.
Does your company use a slogan or catch phrase? If so, who monitors the implementation and effectiveness of worker’s efforts to fulfill these representations? Managers, you might be unpleasantly surprised with your findings.
