Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Write Your Company’s ‘Eulogy’—You’ll Be a Better Company for It

Write a eulogy for my company? Really? Yes, and here’s why. After reading Brand Scaling Culture by Ron Lovett, the idea has stuck with me. I thought, if my company died or disappeared one day, what would my customers say? Would they be sad? Would they be disappointed? Would they miss me? Did they think I was already dead? Would they be able to go on without me? How devastating would the loss of my company be to them?

I think you see where I’m going with this.

What about your company? What would your customers say? What about your vendors, the people who have been selling your products and services? What would their reaction be? How would your employees react? Would they be devastated? Surprised? Maybe they actually saw this coming for many years?

It’s time to honestly assess what the reaction would be—and then act accordingly. Start by writing your company’s eulogy.

Now, if you cringe at the very idea of what that would look like, if you have to admit it would be pretty bad, then that tells you something right there.

Yet, here’s the silver lining in my “death of a company” story: Your company is not dead.

And if you didn’t like the way your imagined eulogy would have sounded, you’re really not dead yet; there’s still hope for you to create a company that would be great to eulogize.

So, imagine the great eulogy someone will write about your company. What would people love to say about your company when you’re gone? Better yet, let’s dump that morbid eulogy example and get right to the point: What do you want your customers to think about you? What do you want them to say about you?

As you ponder that, let your imagination run wild. I mean, really go for it. Put your company on top of the world. What does that look like? What does that feel like? And how would you achieve that? (Points earned for learning lessons along the way.)

Now, if you need some help getting to the pinnacle of success in your mind, here are some suggestions that you might like others to say about you and your company:

• They were always there for us no matter what happened.
• They had the best products on the market. We could not live without them. We could not run our business without their help.
• When it comes to overall value, they were the best. When you take into consideration that they were always on time and never had a reject, then we were more than willing to pay that small amount extra.
• They were always open. Even when there was a problem they would stand up, admit it, and then get on with the solution. They never argued about whose fault it was, they just went to work fixing the problem.
• I loved it when their salespeople came to our facility. They were so well-informed that they would always tell us something that we did not know.
• What I loved about them was that they were so far ahead of their competitors when it came to the newest technology.
• They could always find a solution for the products we bought from them. No matter what it was, no matter what we required from them they always had it.
• Whenever we started a new project or developed a new product we could count on them to come up with ways to make that product better.
• Their management team consisted of some of the most down to earth people I’ve ever met in business. You could sit down and talk to them about anything. And they were always extremely trustworthy. I was always very comfortable talking to them about some of our proprietary product because I knew that information would stay with them.
• I was always very proud to say they were one of my vendor partners; they made us look smart for working with them.
• They were true industry leaders when It came to innovation and thought leadership.
• They were extremely generous, always willing to share whatever information, technology, or innovation they developed.
• They looked out for us. They would actually have brainstorming meetings focused on how they could help us to be successful.
• If they spotted trouble coming–something that could hurt our business in the long run–they would not only tell us about it but when they did tell us about it, most of the time they already had a solution for how we could handle it.
• Remember that blizzard of ‘78? It was at our month end, and we desperately needed their product so that we could complete and ship our equipment in order to make our critical revenue forecast for that month. The highways were closed, and everything was shut down. Planes were grounded and UPS and FedEx were not delivering. I had just about given up hope of getting their parts. I was in the process of sending everybody home when I got a call from their general manager, telling me that he was driving the company van full of those critical parts and would be at our place in an hour. How the heck can you top that?
• You know I always thought that we were their favorite customer. They treated us so well that I just assumed we were special to them. Then I talked to some of their other customers, even some of our competitors, and they admitted that they felt the same way. They treated everyone this same great way.

What do you think? Would your customers talk about you this way if it was your funeral, your company they were eulogizing?

One thing is for sure, if your customers talked about your company this way, it would certainly not be at your company’s funeral.

It’s only common sense.

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