How many of you have ever listened to the Jim Rome show? It’s a sports talk radio show that is broadcast out of Los Angeles and is syndicated all over the country, perhaps even all over the world, for all I know.
If you’ve ever heard Rome speak, you’ll never forget it. He talks in short bursts, his tone of voice is abrasive, his comments are almost always caustic, and he has a tendency to repeat himself over and over and over again. Yet, his program is wildly popular and, I admit, I enjoy listening to it on occasion.
Thousands upon thousands of people from all over the country flood his phone lines daily in an effort to be on his show, if only for a brief moment. In a nod to technology, others send him faxes, while still others send him emails, all with the same intent: to say what they want to say to Rome’s enormous audience of listeners.
Rome has only two requirements for taking your phone call (or reading you fax or email on the air): have a take and don’t [be boring]. By have a take, he means have something meaningful to say. Don’t [be boring] is self-explanatory. If you violate either rule, you’re gone. Zap. Just like that. No second chance.
So what does this have to do with economic development? Easy. Despite his smugness and hip crudeness, Jim Rome’s two rules are the heart and soul of good communications and good marketing. Economic developers would be wise to pay close attention because those six words pack a lot of wisdom.
Have a take means to say something meaningful, but it goes beyond that. It has to be meaningful to the audience for that particular venue. In Rome’s case, his audience is probably mostly men in their teens to early forties who are obsessed – not just mildly interested, but obsessed -- with sports. And not just any sports: American sports commonly played by American boys and men. In other words, something they can relate to.
That being the case, a message that is dead-on-target for a gathering of heart surgeons or trial lawyers or homemakers would probably fall on deaf ears with Rome’s listeners. Similarly, a breathtakingly keen insight into the trials and tribulations of the Hungarian synchronized swimming team, while clearly about sports, is not about a sport most of Rome’s audience care about.
Too much of that and Rome’s audience would start scanning their radio dial for something else to listen to. The same is true for newspapers, magazines, television and any other mass communications venue you can think of. Audiences come together because of a common interest and, when that common interest is no longer being catered to, audiences break up and go elsewhere.
For economic developers trying to sell their communities, you need to pick the right audience (professional marketers call it the rifle vs. the shotgun effect) and you need to have a compelling story to tell. This holds true regardless of the marketing venues you pursue: advertising, public relations, direct mail, cold calls, etc.
Know your audience and have a story to tell that is meaningful to them. Trust me, they don’t care how your ED organization is organized, or about your latest marketing effort. They want to know about your labor force, your taxes and fees, your available buildings and sites – things that are important to them as business executives trying to make the best site location decision for their company.
Remember, if you receive a phone call from a reporter or writer asking about your community’s business environment, don’t waste the opportunity by talking about things that don’t advance your business attraction or retention efforts. Besides, a reporter who is interested in how you are organized probably ought to set off your alarm bells.
The second rule, don’t [be boring] is pretty self-explanatory. Have something meaningful to say and present it in an interesting manner. Always have a story ready about a recent success -- a company that recently chose your community for a new facility, or how you recently helped a local business expand by streamlining the permitting process or by facilitating the use of certain financial incentives.
We all love to hear about how people like ourselves solve problems, and business execs are no different. A simple anecdote about how your organization was able to help a local company solve its problem will advance your business attraction and retention efforts a lot more than telling people your bi-state, 12 country regional organization has a CEO and six vice presidents on its seven person staff.
Trust me, the business executives you’re trying to attract will cut you off a lot quicker than Jim Rome will -- that is, unless you have a take and don’t [be boring].
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