Notes From Jerome: March 2021
Website Changes
Simon Sinek is an author and speaker on the topic of business leadership. His signature phrase is: “People don’t buy WHAT you do. They buy WHY you do it!” An example is an Apple computer. Why do people pay more for an Apple laptop instead of less expensive alternatives with even more functionality? Sinek’s answer is that people know Apple exists to challenge the status quo (their “WHY”). They challenge the status quo by making their products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly (their “HOW”). This is why Apple has created unmatched customer loyalty to its products.
Most businesses, however, start by telling you WHAT they do. Some tell you HOW they do it. But, few tell you WHY they do it. Sinek’s direction is always “Start with Why!” That is the only way to consistently distinguish yourself in the marketplace and drive customer loyalty.
CSS has adopted Sinek’s insight into the latest revisions to our website. While revisions are still in process, please take a look at our new Home Page! In addition to the updated design, the first thing you will see is:
- Our WHY: “In everything we do, we strive to outperform conventional results!"
- Our HOW: “We do this through continuous learning, innovation and a metrics driven team.”
- Our WHAT (lastly): “We deliver game-changing real estate solutions to those who buy, sell and finance real estate.”
The other marketing strategy adopted into our revised website is: “They Ask You Answer”. This is an inbound, digital marketing approach intended to attract more lenders to our website and convert them to new customers. Simply stated, the strategy dictates our website must answer the most important questions of our prospective customers. This is why the first panel in our Home Page ends with the statement: “Our team is dedicated to answering your questions, providing insights and sharing best practices.” You will also notice multiple boxes in each of our new Solution Pages intended to Ask and Answer these most relevant customer questions.
Our Marketing and Sales Teams are focused on generating the most meaningful industry content to answer our customers’ questions. As you hear from customers in your daily work, please forward to Jake any customer questions you think are important we answer on our website. Thanks!
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
In recognition of Black History Month in February, your DEI Committee made it a priority for CSS to financially support a related charity. As you will read in the linked webpage below, Greater Cleveland has many that are struggling. CSS continues to support the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. However, in addition, we supported in February the Kids Book Bank. Please open and read this webpage and it will explain better than I why we made a donation to this organization. Since its inception in 2016, the Kids Book Bank has delivered over 2,900,000 high-quality children’s books to hundreds of thousands of children and families in need in Greater Cleveland! Our donation was designated specifically for purchasing books featuring characters of color.