Sales messaging is vital to the success of your sales force, so why isn’t yours working? Let’s look at five significant problems with ineffectual sales messaging and, in turn, destroys your numbers.
1) It’s not authentic and doesn’t resonate with your audience.
Too often, sales messaging is overly complex and wordy. The content becomes too technical. Salespeople speak very differently — and more effectively — than what is on the slide. So, your sales messaging should play to the reps’ strengths. Even educated and highly professional people may often talk in more conversational tones and vocabulary. So, too, should your sales messaging. State your value in easy-to-understand terms.
Don’t say, “Our team of experts has created and delivers the best product that helps differentiate you in a highly competitive global marketplace,” when you can say, “Our product does what no other product can do by (insert a very clear value point).”
Vocabularies don’t make sales — messaging does.
2) It’s not current.
How old is your sales messaging? When you add new product lines or make a competitive shift in your industry, do you rewrite your entire message or only tweak a few words? Your messaging should be updated regularly because the marketplace and audience change, even if your product hasn’t changed.
3) Your sales force isn’t using it.
This is a result of the first two points. Your sales team gets paid to make sales, not to recite your message, and if your message isn’t compelling, your sales staff probably isn’t using it. Talk to your sales team; listen in on their calls. Although they may not be parroting the sales message doesn’t mean the problem necessarily lies with them. Instead, they may have found a unique message that works better than your training material.
4) Your urgency is wrong.
Are you pushing people for decisions too quickly or even too slowly? At what point in the customer buying process are you equipping the sales team to enter and lead? For example, suppose the customer is unsure about their existing problem and hasn’t begun to evaluate the options that exist yet. In that case, the last thing the salesperson needs to do is pitch product features/functions. It is premature for reps to ask customers to buy something they don’t think they need yet. Understanding where the customer is in their buying cycle is critical. It is crucial to equip sales teams to recognize where the prospect is in the buying process and how to lead effective conversations that uncover need, uncover the cost of not solving them, and tell stories of how your company has solved similar problems.
5) It doesn’t tell authentic stories that contain results
Don’t get caught making promises — show them results. Buzzwords and grand plans are exciting, but they aren’t good at moving leads through your pipeline. Your sales messaging should include specifics, not generalities consisting of authentic stories of people who experienced dramatic results based on implementing your solution.
Leave us a comment on what you think makes for troubled sales messages! Want more? Receive an assessment from Kodiak Group on your Sales Messaging Effectiveness on our website.
One comment