Monday, July 14, 2008
The Brilliance of “brilliant”
Those who become a member of the Idea Sandbox “Sand for Your Inbox” eNewsletter are sent a custom, hand-crafted membership e-card… It literally offers creative license to think creatively and problem solve in remarkable ways.
Each time someone becomes a member – before I send the “welcome” message – I visit their website and try to learn more about them. Marketing Rule #1: It’s important to know and understand your customers.
Recently a fellow named Ryan Morgan became a member. I found out he runs a company called “brilliant.” They offer insurance services to Columbus, Ohio-area businesses. Here’s how he states it on his site…
…a local, independent insurance agency that works with local, independent businesses. Period.
Difficult to get more specific than that, huh?
Ryan understands the secret recipe to being remarkable… zagging while others zig. And, having a Dominant Selling Idea… brilliant isn’t trying to be all things to all people… in fact, the opposite…He is only one thing to a very small, targeted group of people.
Check out his philosophy. brilliant has boiled what they do to a handful of bullets and fifteen words…
Pretty darn simple… And inspiring, huh?
If you visit their, site you’ll notice brilliant spends little time talking about their company, instead you are greeted with big images of their happy clients… They believe in the Vidal Sassoon (beauty products) philosophy: “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.”
brilliant’s clients look good… so brilliant looks good.
Can your company’s philosophy be boiled down to fifteen words or fewer? Do you spend more time showcasing your customers than your own business?
How can you be more… brilliant?
Similar Posts:
- How to Be Different: Create “Wow!”
- Brains on Fire: On Being Remarkable
- The Bear Necessities of Business
3 reactions
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(1)ryan morgan • Monday, July 14 2008 at 5:21 pm
paul,
thanks so much for the great feedback on this post!
and for ‘getting it.’
took a few months and a couple scrolls worth of obtuse copy before i was able to whittle it down to what i thought was the essence of our position (without getting bogged down in the specifics of product lines and offerings like everybody else; we wanted to tell a different story).
regarding our philosophy, there are over 500+ independent insurance agencies in central ohio — a cluttered market — and i can’t tell one apart from the other. and i’m IN the biz. how is anybody else supposed to? it’s all about insurance and profit and nothing else.
the companies i’m passionate about all have a purpose at the heart of their organizations that defines their culture (like brains on fires said recently, ‘put your foot on the ground and stand for something meaningful’), and i was hoping to convey the ethos — using insurance as a social tool to connect; building relationships; working collaboratively towards the common good — that gets us out of bed every morning before the alarm clock rings.
and the decision to showcase our clients was simple. the adjective in our name refers to them — not us. in fact, the very idea of brilliant itself was inspired by the experience of working previously with some of the same remarkable clients we have now. ‘if only it could be this good all the time,’ i remember thinking. so we decided to create something new and (hopefully) remarkable to better serve them and attract more of the same.
so part of what sets us apart is indeed the company we keep — a key fact, i reckon. because while some in the ‘very small, targeted group of people’ (right!) we want to work with may not have heard of US yet, they certainly know and respect our clients — and, odds are, they’re just as passionate about them as we are. might even be friends, too (columbus is a small town masquerading as a big city). in other words: our client list says more about us than we ever could.
LOVE the new idea sandbox skreened shop!
thanks, again. best — ryan.
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(2)Cathy • Monday, July 14 2008 at 11:04 pm
I love this post because it proves that “simple makes sense”. I am currently working in a high school that is a Professional Learning Community. The three simple questions that drives a PLC school is as follows:
1. What do we want each student to learn?
2. How will we know when each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?While delivering instruction can be creative, innovative, and fun, the basic philosphy that gets everyone working on the broad goals can be simple but powerful. It also ensures that ALL students will be inclued in the learning community. Thanks for the post and making connections. Cathy
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(3)belonging « • Monday, August 11 2008 at 6:37 pm
[...] i love when people get it to the point of being able to articulate our strategy better than i ever [...]
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