Often companies present lots of reasons for not communicating. For not investing in engaging with their audiences, for not elevating their company’s brand, and for not actively telling their story.

I have heard a lot of these reasons and listened carefully to the rationale. Some are valid and some just aren’t.

Sometimes the argument is that the engagement is best to be had behind closed doors rather than shouted from the hilltops.

“The story is confidential”. Or “the customer doesn’t want us talking about a particular issue”.

This argument regularly wins me over.

Sometimes the argument goes something like “they already know who we are and what we do”. “There is only a handful of people we need to reach, and we have good relationships with them. We talk to them every day. They understand our offer, our business, and the value that we bring to the table.”

I like this argument. But often when we dig deeper, we find that the gut feel that the customer or stakeholder ‘knows’ the company, isn’t quite true. They know some things about the company, but not all. Or in some cases what they understand is way off the mark.

In this case it is useful to see communications as part of a broader set of tools to engage with an audience. Face-to-face discussions are often well supported by a multi-channel approach to reach the audience.

Sometimes the argument to not communicate may be a reluctance to invest, or a hesitancy because of the inability or difficulty of measuring the value of communicating.

“How do I know that the article in the AFR is going to result in growing confidence amongst investors”.

“How do I know that delivering that speech will result in increased understanding from our customer base.”

This is tricky. Why? Because measurement is important. We need to know what the results are of our efforts. But it is difficult, because proper measurement of an objective can often require research and investment, and this can present another barrier to be overcome.

I often think that the real reason that underpins a company’s reluctance to communicate is their view that nothing is broken, so why try and fix it. The downside to this approach is that ‘silent running’ avoids the opportunities of better engagement. And avoiding opportunities is a disservice to the business.