Twisted But True: High-Quality B2B Marketing Messaging Dramatically Reduces Sales and Marketing Effectiveness - Assess Your Messaging with This Five-Point Checklist
Twisted But True: High-Quality B2B Marketing Messaging Dramatically Reduces Sales and Marketing Effectiveness - Assess Your Messaging with This Five-Point Checklist
Customer messaging is the words you use, both written and oral, to persuade a prospective customer to do business with your firm. Most customer marketing messaging, like brand messaging, company messaging, product messaging, and even most value propositions, are descriptive. They provide a description of what your company does, the products and services you offer, the features of each offering, and, if done well, a little bit about the benefits of doing business with your company and the benefits of buying your offerings.
**The Missing Messaging Type**
What’s most often missing is great sales messaging. This type of customer messaging is persuasive. It provides compelling and persuasive answers to your prospective customer’s primary buying questions, such as “Why should I meet with you?” and “Why should I change-out my current solution and buy a new solution?” and “Why should I buy this solution from you?”, for each product or service your company offers.
**High-Quality Marketing Messaging Is Low-Quality Sales Messaging**
Sales teams need both descriptive marketing messaging and persuasive sales messaging to be successful. The problem is that most companies provide Sales, and customers, with only marketing messaging. They make this expensive mistake because they do not know about sales messaging and how it is different from the other customer messaging types.
**5-Point Checklist to Assess the Effectiveness of Your Customer Messaging**
To help you determine if your customer messaging is more descriptive than persuasive, consider doing one or more of the following assessments: a competitive collateral assessment, sales collateral assessment, a messaging assessment, a field sales time-use assessment, and/or a field/channel training assessment.
Assessment #1: Competitive Collateral
The competitive collateral assessment is quick, inexpensive, and often startling. Obtain one of your key competitor’s company brochures and one of its product brochures. Black out all references to the competitor’s company name and product name and replace it with your company and product names. How similar are the competitor’s brochures to what you would or could say about your company and product? If they are more than 30 percent the same, then your sales team’s effectiveness is suffering from low-quality marketing messaging.
Assessment #2: Sales Collateral
The sales collateral assessment will help you determine what percentage of your collateral is not considered useful in helping Sales generate revenue. Does your company’s collateral fall into that 80 to 90 percent of marketing collateral that sales groups across the country consider useless? Is your marketing group part of that 70 percent of marketers who give themselves failing grades in the materials they provide to Sales? If more than 30 percent of the collateral fails the usefulness test, it’s likely you have a sales messaging problem.
Assessment #3: Customer Messaging Effectiveness
Another way to determine if you have the right messaging is by conducting a customer messaging effectiveness assessment. Our research indicates that U.S. companies alone waste more than $100 billion every year confusing sales messaging with other customer messaging types. To do this assessment, select one of your products and identify the buyer’s key buying question. Is the key question “Why should I change-out my current solution for a new solution?”? Is it “Why should I buy this solution from you?”? Or, is it both? Next, evaluate your current messaging by reading the product brochure. Does the messaging provide a compelling and persuasive answer to the buyer’s questions? If your company is like most, the answer is no, not really. The answer is often quite weak. It’s another example of how sales and marketing effectiveness is dramatically reduced by using high-quality marketing messaging as if it’s high-quality sales messaging.
Assessment #4: Field Sales Time-Use Assessment
If your collateral and messaging are not good, then a field sales time-use assessment will show that your field sales teams are spending a lot of selling time creating their own collateral and messaging — materials they feel they need to meet their sales objectives and that they aren’t getting from Marketing. This problem is supported by a recent report from the Aberdeen Group, which states that “salespeople spend typically 30 to 50 hours each month searching for information and re-creating customer-facing content.” We all know that sales reps are revenue-optimization machines, meaning that their objective is to do the least amount of work for the most amount of revenue. So, if your reps are spending any time creating customer-facing messaging and materials, then the reason they are doing it is because they need those materials in order to close deals. It’s much more effective to have one or two marketing people create high-quality sales messaging, and then leverage that work over your entire sales team.
Assessment #5: Field/Channel Training Assessment
The last assessment is the field/channel training assessment. What percentage of the sales team feels the new product training is useful in helping the team effectively sell the product? The same question applies to competitive training and training on specific market opportunities. There is typically great friction in these training areas, between Sales who receives the training and Marketing who creates and delivers the training. Just think about your last annual sales meeting. How satisfied was Sales with the quality of the training?
How on earth can Sales and Marketing be effective at selling if the messaging, collateral and training do not help prospective customers, and sales people, understand your company and products in the context of how they help customers solve meaningful problems, and how they help customers generate meaningful business value, better than the competition? Great sales messaging has been proven to be quite effective in connecting these data points and dramatically increasing Sales, Marketing, and company effectiveness.
Twisted But True HighQuality B2B Marketing Messaging Dramatically Reduces Sales and Marketing Effectiveness Assess Your Messaging with This FivePoint Checklist - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon's Website.
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Many executives with an underperforming sales or marketing team think they know what the problem is. Many of them are wrong. If Sales or Marketing are not meeting or exceeding their revenue, profit, and market share objectives or a new product introduction is not meeting expectations, one of the first questions to ask is, “Do we have the customer messaging right?”.
Customer messaging is the words you use, both written and oral, to persuade a prospective customer to do business with your firm. Most customer marketing messaging, like brand messaging, company messaging, product messaging, and even most value propositions, are descriptive. They provide a description of what your company does, the products and services you offer, the features of each offering, and, if done well, a little bit about the benefits of doing business with your company and the benefits of buying your offerings.
**The Missing Messaging Type**
What’s most often missing is great sales messaging. This type of customer messaging is persuasive. It provides compelling and persuasive answers to your prospective customer’s primary buying questions, such as “Why should I meet with you?” and “Why should I change-out my current solution and buy a new solution?” and “Why should I buy this solution from you?”, for each product or service your company offers.
**High-Quality Marketing Messaging Is Low-Quality Sales Messaging**
Sales teams need both descriptive marketing messaging and persuasive sales messaging to be successful. The problem is that most companies provide Sales, and customers, with only marketing messaging. They make this expensive mistake because they do not know about sales messaging and how it is different from the other customer messaging types.
**5-Point Checklist to Assess the Effectiveness of Your Customer Messaging**
To help you determine if your customer messaging is more descriptive than persuasive, consider doing one or more of the following assessments: a competitive collateral assessment, sales collateral assessment, a messaging assessment, a field sales time-use assessment, and/or a field/channel training assessment.
Assessment #1: Competitive Collateral
The competitive collateral assessment is quick, inexpensive, and often startling. Obtain one of your key competitor’s company brochures and one of its product brochures. Black out all references to the competitor’s company name and product name and replace it with your company and product names. How similar are the competitor’s brochures to what you would or could say about your company and product? If they are more than 30 percent the same, then your sales team’s effectiveness is suffering from low-quality marketing messaging.
Assessment #2: Sales Collateral
The sales collateral assessment will help you determine what percentage of your collateral is not considered useful in helping Sales generate revenue. Does your company’s collateral fall into that 80 to 90 percent of marketing collateral that sales groups across the country consider useless? Is your marketing group part of that 70 percent of marketers who give themselves failing grades in the materials they provide to Sales? If more than 30 percent of the collateral fails the usefulness test, it’s likely you have a sales messaging problem.
Assessment #3: Customer Messaging Effectiveness
Another way to determine if you have the right messaging is by conducting a customer messaging effectiveness assessment. Our research indicates that U.S. companies alone waste more than $100 billion every year confusing sales messaging with other customer messaging types. To do this assessment, select one of your products and identify the buyer’s key buying question. Is the key question “Why should I change-out my current solution for a new solution?”? Is it “Why should I buy this solution from you?”? Or, is it both? Next, evaluate your current messaging by reading the product brochure. Does the messaging provide a compelling and persuasive answer to the buyer’s questions? If your company is like most, the answer is no, not really. The answer is often quite weak. It’s another example of how sales and marketing effectiveness is dramatically reduced by using high-quality marketing messaging as if it’s high-quality sales messaging.
Assessment #4: Field Sales Time-Use Assessment
If your collateral and messaging are not good, then a field sales time-use assessment will show that your field sales teams are spending a lot of selling time creating their own collateral and messaging — materials they feel they need to meet their sales objectives and that they aren’t getting from Marketing. This problem is supported by a recent report from the Aberdeen Group, which states that “salespeople spend typically 30 to 50 hours each month searching for information and re-creating customer-facing content.” We all know that sales reps are revenue-optimization machines, meaning that their objective is to do the least amount of work for the most amount of revenue. So, if your reps are spending any time creating customer-facing messaging and materials, then the reason they are doing it is because they need those materials in order to close deals. It’s much more effective to have one or two marketing people create high-quality sales messaging, and then leverage that work over your entire sales team.
Assessment #5: Field/Channel Training Assessment
The last assessment is the field/channel training assessment. What percentage of the sales team feels the new product training is useful in helping the team effectively sell the product? The same question applies to competitive training and training on specific market opportunities. There is typically great friction in these training areas, between Sales who receives the training and Marketing who creates and delivers the training. Just think about your last annual sales meeting. How satisfied was Sales with the quality of the training?
How on earth can Sales and Marketing be effective at selling if the messaging, collateral and training do not help prospective customers, and sales people, understand your company and products in the context of how they help customers solve meaningful problems, and how they help customers generate meaningful business value, better than the competition? Great sales messaging has been proven to be quite effective in connecting these data points and dramatically increasing Sales, Marketing, and company effectiveness.
Twisted But True HighQuality B2B Marketing Messaging Dramatically Reduces Sales and Marketing Effectiveness Assess Your Messaging with This FivePoint Checklist - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Cannon'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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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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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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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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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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