Imagine any and every field possible. There are so many brands, so many choices, so many claims, so much clutter, that the central challenge is for an organization or an individual is to rise above the fray. It’s not good enough anymore to be “pretty good” at everything. You have to be the most of something: the most elegant, the most colorful, the most responsive, the most accessible.

Given the growing number of web professionals today who can plan, design, develop, and market products and services for any industry, being “the most” of something increasingly becomes more important … and harder to come by. Compounding the scenario is the commoditization of everything from design through analytics, and the outsourcing of application development to firms overseas where quality assurance may be sacrificed and project management challenges multiplied all for the promises that come with a low introductory price tag.

We want to be the firm that helps clients WIN (more sales, greater efficiencies, more members, fewer errors, higher performance, etc.), all our efforts are focused on reinforcing and achieving whatever the client’s ultimate goals are. With this mindset, we’ve never had to waiver from our core specialty of being thinkers first and foremost.

So, when Taylor asked readers in his excerpt, “Are you the most of anything?,” I felt confident saying “We’re the most deliberate.” It’s why we ask questions and take methodical steps when solving functional technology challenges. It’s why we don’t write a single line of code or add even a tiny pixel of color without first knowing its purpose in the grand scheme of things. And it’s why we tend to be blunt with prospects and clients–because we’ve learned that unabashed honesty typically enables better communication (and partnerships).

Particularly in today’s economy, people who are looking for technology consulting seem to be excited about working with meticulous professionals.

When we decided in August to unveil a new division of Tellenger to handle incoming requests from the private sector, we were concerned that balancing commercial and government prospects could be exceedingly challenging. (For example, we feared our experiences with enterprise-level systems like SharePoint may intimidate someone looking to launch a website, build a product, or implement an off-the-shelf content management system).

But what we’ve found over the past few months is that decision-makers from small business owners to not-for-profits to $100+ million firms are reassured by our stability. Our contracts continue to renew and multiply, and that’s comforting to those wanting a long-term technology partner who is thriving in today’s economy.

The government folks also are reassured because we’re growing, diversifying, and innovating with what’s cutting edge in the digital marketplace. They want to work with efficient, dependable companies — growth in a recession certainly is one way we’ve demonstrated that successfully.

Sure, we’re consistently tinkering with the messaging on our website and in our marketing collateral to ensure Tellenger brand integrity and a commitment to our two unique audience sectors, yet so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

For all those government contractors or private companies looking to take the leap into the OTHER sector, we say go for it. But, if you’re in the web consulting business, then expect stiff competition from us!

Beth Brooke, Ernst & Young’s global VP and a surprise speaker, said that staff diversification makes for stronger solutions to problem solving. By actively recruiting and hiring a non-homogeneous staff, its collective wisdom will be varied enough to offer new perspectives essential to growth. The challenge against this is that it’s human nature to surround ourselves with people who look, act, and think like us.

I thought about how we at Tellenger have shown commitment to diversification by employing a staff of men and women equally, with older and younger professionals who offer varied cultural backgrounds. (We even have a female web developer, which I find to be somewhat unique!)

Kathleen Matthews, formerly an anchor with Channel 7 and now EVP of global communications and public affairs at Marriott, said her college-aged daughter “is oblivious to the challenges” that Kathleen had fought against during her career, which may be an indication of the changing times. “When we stop counting the women in a room, that’s when women in leadership will have normalized,” she said to about 400 women packed into Georgetown’s Sequoia restaurant on the Potomac, over-looking the Key Bridge Marriott.

As a woman in the technology industry, I often find myself among a room full of men — at the recent Internet Summit in Raleigh and BarcampDC3 events, I occasionally counted how many women were speaking on panels or were around me at various sessions. (Suffice it to say, women comprised a minority.) The sentiment of yesterday’s event was that the wave of women in the pipeline continues toward reaching critical mass soon, but it’s not there quite yet.

Which leads me to a final takeaway noted by Rand Construction Corporation’s CEO, Linda Rabbitt. She said that women need to be willing to praise — not disingenuously, of course — those around them in order to forward the growth of women in leadership positions. She observed that when women in prominent positions have mis-steps, other women can be the first to “pull them down.” Encouraging honest and motivated women of all levels will promote advancement of women in general, she said.

In my role as director of digital strategies, I’m proud to represent yet another female who is contributing to the collective rise of women in leadership positions — particularly in the technology industry. I look forward to “reaching back” and providing similar opportunities to other individuals at Tellenger, and in the DC community and beyond.

Recently, I was speaking with the COO of a large company who said many years ago the company ran into reputation problems because they took on more work than they could deliver. Even though they had a great logo and tagline, it was their reputation for not delivering on-time that became their greatest brand attribute. It took a major shift in project management and years for this company to get the brand image back where they wanted it (needed it) to be.

Over lunch with a partner at a prestigious lobbying firm, we started talking about pricing strategies (yes, we have an odd sense of enjoyable conversation). One of the ways this firm signals that it is better than all the rest is to charge higher retainers than competitors. Not only are their people worth the price premium, but the higher price makes their prospective clients feel like they’re getting the best representation for their money. And the firm delivers on this expectation. I pointed out that the high price being charged simply creates brand consistency: everything at the firm is high end — the people, the access, the results, and…their prices. To lower prices is to lower the brand value. The classic example that illustrates this point is the company that figured out how to produce a great-smelling perfume for a fraction of competitors’ costs. When they went to market, the product didn’t sell even though testing showed a clear preference for their fragrance over the competition. One savvy executive had the counterintuitive idea of raising the price on the poorly selling product…sales soared. The fact is people don’t want to buy cheap perfume. And the price of the perfume created a brand image of “cheap” that overpowered all other branding elements.

Your website, content, technology (or lack thereof), client interaction, responsiveness, collateral, prices, and deliverables/products all come together to reflect on your company. This is your true brand. What does your true brand tell your prospects and clients?

“In business, being able to read people and quickly get a sense of who you’re dealing with is an invaluable skill. It turns your encounter with a client into an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the upcoming project and how it will need to be handled. It is one of the building blocks of a professional relationship.”

Building relationships is essential (ok, I’m stating the obvious). And we’ve found that sustaining them is almost fully attributable to our (1) being forthright and (2) doing what we say we’re going to do … exceptionally well.

To my first point, clients need to know *us* just as much as we need to know them. Being forthright about our recommendations, expectations, and processes is a primary reason we’ve grown in a down economy. Yes, being honest means sometimes giving some tough love so they can understand the pros and cons of pursuing various options in today’s digital landscape. But being proactive is key; everyone deserves to have the facts up-front to avoid unpleasant surprises later.

To my second point, the buck stops here. Recommendations are just wasted effort without proper execution. If we receive a request that doesn’t align with our core strengths, we’ll recommend a specialized partner instead.  When it comes to execution, we *know* that clients are paying for the best, so we execute the best work every time.

In the end, it’s our brand.  Honesty and integrity command respect, and we know that’s a two-way street.

Steve Fisher of AppSolve charged the room in the afternoon with some some hilarious, unfortunate, and expensive examples of how to (and not to) present yourself on business cards before the day closed with Women Grow Business’ Jill Foster moderating a panel on social media.

Overall, we took several pages of notes and had conversations with tons of bright, driven people who all came together to learn about how they can grow — and help the larger DC market (and beyond) continue its upward swinging economic course.  The event was valuable both in terms of new learning and discussing real opportunities with other business owners about how we can help them grow.

I wondered in that moment if his employer realized the organization’s integrity was being compromised by someone it was actually paying to interact with consumers like me (who will now associate that frustrating experience with the organization’s brand).

Luckily, innumerable customer service folks have shown consideration (and compassion) as representatives of their larger brand’s integrity. I’m sure it’s been exhausting during sensitive or tough conversations, too.  But building bridges with consumers certainly fuels word-of-mouth promotion and strengthens brand loyalty.

Two examples: There’s a heart-warming anecdote about a Zappo’s employee sending flowers to a customer struck by tragedy — after the customer asked for refund.  As the text mentions, the recipient of Zappo’s sympathies became a vocal proponent.  A patient Southwest employee gave me a voucher equivalent to the cost of my flight — after she explained that, even though I spent six hours in the air between Baltimore and Cleveland before being diverted to Columbus, they don’t reimburse flights disrupted by weather.  I’ve only flown Southwest since then, as have two of my friends impressed by my tale.

These examples of individuals representing their brands so positively truly inspire me. They only further my commitment to represent Tellenger with unwavering integrity and respect, and in doing so, to help myself and my brand to grow and thrive.

It is the intersection of web and mobile technologies with traditional ways of doing things that is the most exciting because it can yield the greatest results.  The firm Legal River created a platform to link small businesses with a legal problem to quality lawyers able to solve the problem.  They used technology to address the issue of “how do I find a good attorney.”  Manufacturing plants are using mobile phone applications to monitor assembly line metrics, which are automatically input into a web technology that generates performance reports broken down by machine, worker, and hour.  Small mom and pop retail shops can use the web to not only sell products across the world, but to reach highly defined niche target markets of people most likely to buy their products.

Using technology to make traditional businesses and everyday processes better is where the real innovation exists.  And this is what makes our jobs so rewarding.

The entrepreneur who called me would get more value and productivity out of hiring experts to build the back-end and front-end of his idea rather than trying to figure out how to manage doing it himself. The highest and best use of his limited time and energy is to fully flesh out the idea, develop prototypes, create the brand, refine the user experience, and, of course, figure out how his idea will attract users and generate revenue. Even though he’s starting an online business, the technology driving that business will not be what makes or breaks the new company. It is the viability of the business model.

On the back-end, we’ve utilized WordPress as a content management system as well as a blog. We have super clean code for greater efficiency and employ an uber-reliable host. Of course, Google Analytics keeps us informed of key site data and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) make us easy to find online.

The site is a reflection of what we preach: Technology driven by business objectives. Our objectives were to (1) clarify our brand, (2) clearly communicate our capabilities and experience, (3) leverage social media to increase site traffic, (4) make our website faster and easier to manage, and (5) use Tellenger.com to increase sales and brand awareness. Early data shows we’re off to a great start.