Are You Wasting a Great Communications Opportunity?
By Abe Wischnia
President
Abe Wischnia & Associates
A frequent complaint from senior executives is that their companies need to do a better job of telling their story to the public, the investment community, their customers, or their employees. The constituencies vary but the concern remains the same.
Yet many of those same companies don’t take advantage of opportunities that exist and are, like the famous low-hanging fruit, there for the taking. Those companies are overlooking ways to get their story out that are effective, inexpensive, and comparatively easy to implement.
Consider commonly wasted opportunities I observed while exploring the web sites of a number of publicly-traded companies. I was looking at them as if I were a potential investor. I wanted to find out how easy they make it for someone to get the information needed to make a decision on whether to buy or hold their stock.
I was disappointed, but not surprised, at how many miss opportunities by not providing information that should be readily available, such as investors’ “frequently asked questions” or the names and bios of executive officers and board members.
Then there are others that miss opportunities by putting up roadblocks to communication. For example, I came across companies that seemingly don’t want to talk to investors or potential customers. At least someone might draw that conclusion when the company does not give the name of an investor relations contact nor list a phone number to call with questions.
However, smart investors do their homework and that means asking questions. Many of them want to talk to the company before they make their investment decision. The person who doesn’t call because there isn’t a name or number might be a potential investor with the ability to buy and hold a lot of stock. Or it could be a concerned shareholder who wants information to counter something he heard from a short-seller.
In trying to generate interest in their stock, companies – especially those without analyst coverage – will spend thousands of dollars to get on the program at an investor conference where they can give a 20 minute presentation and hope for some one-on-one meetings afterwards.
Yet too many of them make it unnecessarily difficult for qualified, prospective investors to talk to them one-on-one via the phone. Not only is that a missed opportunity, but it also creates an image of not caring about prospective investors who want to know more about the company.
Other companies waste good opportunities to communicate by the way they handle inquiries that do come in. If a prospective investor were to contact your company and ask a detailed question in a voice mail or an email, how long would she have to wait for a response? What kind of response would it be? Would your company provide a response at all?
These are easy examples to spot and pick at. But the reality is that many companies are overlooking opportunities to meet the information needs of investors and other important constituencies.
It’s often easier for an outsider to see overlooked opportunities than it is for an insider. Companies should take advantage of a fresh set of eyes to help them see communication opportunities they might be missing or not utilizing to best advantage.
Consider asking a qualified public relations or investor relations consultant to do a communications audit that evaluates all of your communications. A thorough review should include the content of your investor kit, your annual report, your investor presentations, your news releases, and the content and ease of use of your web site. It should look at the clarity and consistency of your messages to all of your constituencies. It should also examine how your company responds to inquiries from investors and news media.
The findings can give you the basis for developing a better communications plan that not only takes advantage of all opportunities but also helps you do a better job of telling your company’s story to all of your key constituencies.
