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PR professionals bore audiences with press releases about THEM, when in fact, a press release in an opportunity to sell new prospects.

Case in point: A recent announcement in Crain's about IBM's plans to acquire Softek. Once again, we see a case of putting the customer in the back seat, a problem easy corrected by a quick re-engineering of the sentence.

BEFORE: International Business Machines Corp. said Monday it will acquire privately-held Softek Storage Solutions Corp., to expand its storage and data services business.

AFTER: IBM said Monday it will continue to help its customers seamlessly access storage and data services on-demand with new solutions from Softek Storage, a privately held firm it plans to acquire.

Or consider Softek's version:

BEFORE: Softek's technology helps clients move and manage data without causing a disruption in access. The company's customers include British Telecom, KeyCorp, Lufthansa and the Principal Financial Group.

AFTER: Companies such as British Telecom and Lufthansa get uninterrupted access to information even when their IT departments are taking actions to secure, move and manage information - using techniques developed by Softek.

The BEFOREs are ego-centric. Make your releases customer-centric. Make it about them, not you. Marketing isn't about you and it never will be. Talk about customers first, you second.

We don't exist without customers, since they are the ones with the check book that matters.

Learn more about this author, Richard Fouts.
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