Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Control Your Market With Your Actions

Most companies don’t want to admit that their low sales mean their stories got stale. They’ll blame the economy, their competitors, the election cycle, or “industry headwinds,” when what really happened is much simpler: They stopped saying anything worth hearing. 

Customers stopped noticing because most companies sound exactly the same. You could have the most advanced product in your category, but if you describe it like everyone else, you’ve already lost. Nobody buys “high quality,” “fast turnaround,” or “excellent service” anymore. Those slogans are expected table stakes, not selling points.

Every brochure, website, and booth banner at every trade show says the same thing: “Innovative solutions,” “Customer-driven,” or “Committed to excellence.” That’s just background noise.

Don’t try to control the market with slogans. Take action that earns attention, trust, and loyalty through a story that moves people. The companies that rise above sound different. They tell stories that people remember by humanizing what they do. They take a complex process, like PCB fabrication, battery engineering, circuit assembly, or logistics, and make it matter to the person on the other side of the table.

The company that tells the best story wins the customer, even if they don’t have the cheapest quote or the biggest name. So, before you complain that your pipeline is slow, ask whether you’ve given anyone a reason lately to care.

Every great brand makes people feel something, from pride and excitement, to belonging or curiosity. It’s something beyond, “That’s nice.” So, start talking about why you matter. Rather than talking about the boards, talk about how they keep planes in the air. Don’t talk about assemblies; talk about how your work powers life-saving equipment.

The emotion is the difference; the meaning is the hook. Companies that lead markets make people believe in what they make. When your story moves someone, it moves the market. Differentiation doesn’t live in imitation. It lives in conviction.

If you’re brave enough to sound different, you’ll stand out in an instant. Honestly, the bar is that low. Stop sounding like your competitors. Sound like a human being who believes in something.

You don’t have to sound “professional.” You have to sound real. When you say “synergy,” they hear “nonsense.” When you say “paradigm shift,” they hear, “We’re trying too hard.” But when you say, “We build things that never fail,” they lean in.

Every industry, even the most technical, runs on people who want to understand you, trust you, and like you. Talk to them like they’re sitting across the table, not like they’re reading your quarterly report.

Here’s where it all comes together: Control your market by standing for something so clear, bold, and consistent that people instantly know who you are.

What’s the one thing you do, say, and believe differently?

Look at these great examples:

• FedEx: “Absolutely, positively overnight.”
• Southwest: “Low fares. Nothing to hide.”
• Tesla: “Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler the better. If you’re known for speed, deliver faster than anyone. If you’re known for reliability, publish your on-time stats. If you’re known for innovation, show your process.

Markets move toward clarity and conviction. Thriving companies have customers that can describe them in a sentence. Every email, post, quote, and interaction either builds your story or blurs it. Choose which one you want.

Control your message, or someone else will define it for you. Control your story, or you’ll be forgotten in someone else’s. Control your market—not through price wars or panic—but through purpose, action, and authenticity.

The market is watching, listening, and waiting for someone to stand up and say something worth hearing again. Make sure that someone is you.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.