In the business world, what sets you apart from competitors? "We're professional", "Our people make the difference", "We've been in business since 1962"…etc, etc. I've heard it all a million times before, and it really does make me yawn…Shouldn't all businesses be professional?! Does it really matter whether you've been around for 100 years or 10 years? Even if it does matter, there are lots of other ways to communicate heritage as opposed to literally having to spell it out.

As a former Brand Manager for a large corporate firm, this is what used to irritate me the most about the industry. Companies seemed to be scared to challenge established order and think of innovative ways to get their message across for fear of being different and raising too many eyebrows. There is such a stale 'old school' world out there and it makes me wonder whether they will get left behind eventually because they don't seem to be thinking forwards and into the future.

And it seems that businesses forget they are talking to human beings. Even though B2B communication seems to do just that, let's not forget that we are always talking to people.  Even if the final decision maker is 'the Board', that Board consists of human beings - people with emotions, desires and feelings.  So why don't corporate businesses ever try to tap into those human emotions and instincts? We should be thinking about what makes people tick. What people respond to, and what they connect with. Let's face it, most people don't want to read jargon and corporate spiel; instead they need to understand, be inspired and trust you. Personally, I think Business-to-Business should be renamed as a category: 'People-to-People'.