The Top Three Sales Messaging Deployment Blunders and What to Do Instead!
The Top Three Sales Messaging Deployment Blunders and What to Do Instead!
Companies that describe themselves as world-class in terms of consistent customer [sales] messaging [that they’ve] provided effectively to sales, and with collateral driven by market segments and customer needs:
• Outpaced other firms in quota achievement by 25%
• Had win rates that were 20% higher
• Were three times more successful in proposal closing
• Were five times better at eliminating excessive discounting
To obtain results like these, your organization must have the knowledge and skills both to develop and to deploy great sales messaging. The additional rewards are more-effective demand generation and accelerated pipeline growth, all of which lead to increased market share, revenues, and profits of 15% or more!
In prior Silver Bullet Group articles, the focus has been primarily on what you need to know to develop great sales messaging. Here the focus is on the implementation side: reviewing common deployment blunders and what you must do to avoid these drains on your resources and results.
Blunder #1: Giving the Feature/Benefit “Forest Tour”
These tours are often given in demos, presentations, proposals, and printed and emarketing collateral. It’s the classic tour of all the trees in the forest, i.e., “let me show you or tell you all about my product or service”. The features and benefits presented in this manner are typically not in context of how they solve the customer’s business challenges or how solving those problems produces true business value for the prospect.
You know you’re giving a feature/benefit tour when you review or provide a list of the top 8 or more features and benefits of your product or service. The impact on the audience or readers is that they become overwhelmed. It’s too many data points to digest and correlate to their challenges, so they tune out, or worse, move on.
What to Do Instead:
An alternative to the feature/benefit tour is to first organize your messaging into three higher-order value statements or the benefit of the benefits, then combine them into one. For example, these three benefits…
• Fewer tools to buy, learn, and integrate
• Developers have only one language to learn for all tools — Java
• Less time spent developing and testing applications to ensure scalability, performance, and reliability
…can be summarized into one primary benefit or business value: “You can bring your applications to market and revenue 2–3x faster.”
**Organize your messaging into three higher-order value statements.**
This change leverages a proven fact — people absorb and remember best things that are presented in groups of three and certainly no more than five. Since studies have proven that the human brain works in this way, you must optimize your sales messaging for maximum results by organizing your features and benefits into three to five key value statements…or “Silver Bullets”!
Blunder #2: Offering Data Dumps
The best examples of a data dump are the 5- to 50-page white paper, application note, and 50- to 100-slide PowerPoint presentation. These are long-winded versions of “let me tell you all about my baby” — what it does, how it does it, why it does it this way, etc. and so forth, with the benefits and value of the offering sprinkled throughout the document and usually buried at the end of each paragraph or section. The reality is that most buyers have neither the time, the inclination, nor the attention span to read a marketing document that is longer than one or two pages. And, when they do, it’s usually quite late in the buying process when they have pretty much already decided to select your company’s offering.
What to Do Instead:
The solution, however, is not to throw the baby out with the bath water. The most effective way to deliver your messaging is to summarize it on one page and reference or provide a link to the white paper for the details. Alternatively, you can create an executive summary as the first page of your tome.
**Make your offer no longer than it needs to be to keep the buying process moving forward.**
One page is an excellent rule of thumb for most B2B marketing documents. This length greatly increases readership, comprehension, and retention by presenting information that is easy to digest quickly. When preparing a sales message, ask yourself this: What is the least you can say about your offering and still get the prospect to the next step in the buying process? That’s the fine art of deploying great sales messaging.
Blunder #3: Serving Up Mostly Potatoes and Little Meat
Do you believe the following?: Buyers don’t immediately believe your marketing claims or sales messaging. While most marketing and sales professionals would agree with this statement, it seems most don’t really incorporate it into their thinking. How else does one explain the dearth of testimonials, case studies, and third-party endorsements in most marketing collateral, which contains instead mostly claims (or potatoes) and little proof (or meat) that their claims are true.
What to Do Instead:
Buyers are inherently skeptical. To overcome this challenge and to gain more credibility that your claims are true, you must provide lots of evidence or proof points to support your claims. The more proof you provide, the more your buyers will believe your claims. The most effective proof points are customer testimonials and case studies. The principle here is that if you say it’s true, then it’s a claim; if a customer says it’s true, then it must be true. The second-most-effective proof points are from independent third-party organizations such as the market research firms, Gartner Group or JD Power and Associates. The third-most-effective proof points are product demonstrations and proof-of-concept.
**Use proof points and use them effectively.**
Your proof must support your sales messaging. For example, if a sales messaging statement focuses on having the highest product reliability and the testimonial touts on-time and on-budget delivery, a costly mistake has been made. And be sure your proof points are compelling statements that include measurable results. Here’s a good example of a strong proof point from Oracle: “Nine out of ten of the world’s largest financial institutions run Oracle applications.” That’s a powerful way to answer “why select Oracle?”.
The Top Three Sales Messaging Deployment Blunders and What to Do Instead - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon's Website.
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It’s no secret that companies proficient in the development and deployment of great sales messaging do achieve a substantial competitive advantage. According to a recent CSO Insights study:
Companies that describe themselves as world-class in terms of consistent customer [sales] messaging [that they’ve] provided effectively to sales, and with collateral driven by market segments and customer needs:
• Outpaced other firms in quota achievement by 25%
• Had win rates that were 20% higher
• Were three times more successful in proposal closing
• Were five times better at eliminating excessive discounting
To obtain results like these, your organization must have the knowledge and skills both to develop and to deploy great sales messaging. The additional rewards are more-effective demand generation and accelerated pipeline growth, all of which lead to increased market share, revenues, and profits of 15% or more!
In prior Silver Bullet Group articles, the focus has been primarily on what you need to know to develop great sales messaging. Here the focus is on the implementation side: reviewing common deployment blunders and what you must do to avoid these drains on your resources and results.
Blunder #1: Giving the Feature/Benefit “Forest Tour”
These tours are often given in demos, presentations, proposals, and printed and emarketing collateral. It’s the classic tour of all the trees in the forest, i.e., “let me show you or tell you all about my product or service”. The features and benefits presented in this manner are typically not in context of how they solve the customer’s business challenges or how solving those problems produces true business value for the prospect.
You know you’re giving a feature/benefit tour when you review or provide a list of the top 8 or more features and benefits of your product or service. The impact on the audience or readers is that they become overwhelmed. It’s too many data points to digest and correlate to their challenges, so they tune out, or worse, move on.
What to Do Instead:
An alternative to the feature/benefit tour is to first organize your messaging into three higher-order value statements or the benefit of the benefits, then combine them into one. For example, these three benefits…
• Fewer tools to buy, learn, and integrate
• Developers have only one language to learn for all tools — Java
• Less time spent developing and testing applications to ensure scalability, performance, and reliability
…can be summarized into one primary benefit or business value: “You can bring your applications to market and revenue 2–3x faster.”
**Organize your messaging into three higher-order value statements.**
This change leverages a proven fact — people absorb and remember best things that are presented in groups of three and certainly no more than five. Since studies have proven that the human brain works in this way, you must optimize your sales messaging for maximum results by organizing your features and benefits into three to five key value statements…or “Silver Bullets”!
Blunder #2: Offering Data Dumps
The best examples of a data dump are the 5- to 50-page white paper, application note, and 50- to 100-slide PowerPoint presentation. These are long-winded versions of “let me tell you all about my baby” — what it does, how it does it, why it does it this way, etc. and so forth, with the benefits and value of the offering sprinkled throughout the document and usually buried at the end of each paragraph or section. The reality is that most buyers have neither the time, the inclination, nor the attention span to read a marketing document that is longer than one or two pages. And, when they do, it’s usually quite late in the buying process when they have pretty much already decided to select your company’s offering.
What to Do Instead:
The solution, however, is not to throw the baby out with the bath water. The most effective way to deliver your messaging is to summarize it on one page and reference or provide a link to the white paper for the details. Alternatively, you can create an executive summary as the first page of your tome.
**Make your offer no longer than it needs to be to keep the buying process moving forward.**
One page is an excellent rule of thumb for most B2B marketing documents. This length greatly increases readership, comprehension, and retention by presenting information that is easy to digest quickly. When preparing a sales message, ask yourself this: What is the least you can say about your offering and still get the prospect to the next step in the buying process? That’s the fine art of deploying great sales messaging.
Blunder #3: Serving Up Mostly Potatoes and Little Meat
Do you believe the following?: Buyers don’t immediately believe your marketing claims or sales messaging. While most marketing and sales professionals would agree with this statement, it seems most don’t really incorporate it into their thinking. How else does one explain the dearth of testimonials, case studies, and third-party endorsements in most marketing collateral, which contains instead mostly claims (or potatoes) and little proof (or meat) that their claims are true.
What to Do Instead:
Buyers are inherently skeptical. To overcome this challenge and to gain more credibility that your claims are true, you must provide lots of evidence or proof points to support your claims. The more proof you provide, the more your buyers will believe your claims. The most effective proof points are customer testimonials and case studies. The principle here is that if you say it’s true, then it’s a claim; if a customer says it’s true, then it must be true. The second-most-effective proof points are from independent third-party organizations such as the market research firms, Gartner Group or JD Power and Associates. The third-most-effective proof points are product demonstrations and proof-of-concept.
**Use proof points and use them effectively.**
Your proof must support your sales messaging. For example, if a sales messaging statement focuses on having the highest product reliability and the testimonial touts on-time and on-budget delivery, a costly mistake has been made. And be sure your proof points are compelling statements that include measurable results. Here’s a good example of a strong proof point from Oracle: “Nine out of ten of the world’s largest financial institutions run Oracle applications.” That’s a powerful way to answer “why select Oracle?”.
The Top Three Sales Messaging Deployment Blunders and What to Do Instead - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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