How many times have you told someone something and later they asked you about the very thing you already explained? What happens when this is a prospective customer? Are they listening?
Customers and potential buyers of your products and services are so multi-tasked now that they very well may be looking you in the eyes and listening – only to forget later what it was you said. Sometimes your marketing reaches them and they do the same thing. Often, they don't even hear you the first time.
Ultimately when your buyer is ready to make a decision, you want them to know who you are, how to find you, and have confidence that you’ll make it easy for them to buy. They need to believe your option is the best for them.
Clear, concise, targeted communication is the key. You are clear and concise about your services and offerings in addition to how you are differentiated from your industry counterparts. You are targeted to the buyer audience that matches up with who you best serve.
To do this think of these three ideas as you become a better student of communication, since communicating is a key component of selling and doing business in general:
1. Paint a picture. If I started to tell you how a sales team is like a PGA golf tournament, with each pro golfer having areas of strengths and each also having areas they work on every week to improve, you could see the creation of an analogy about sales training for senior sales representatives starting to happen. I would talk about how all pros have coaches, and explain some of the various coaches each pro from the most recent US Open.
2. Use power words. When possible, in e-mail messages, tweets, and voice mail messages, replace one word for another more powerful word. Examples include:
Employed by - instead of works for
Empowered to – instead of approved to
Competent – instead of knows how to
3. Be clean and clear in your messaging. If you submit a proposal, offer a summary overview at the beginning rather than the end. Help people quickly understand what it is that you offer and how your organization works to make this happen. Clarify what others say about you in the form of endorsements and references.
Look for places to learn more about clear communication. Focus on just ONE of these ideas, or all three, for the next week and see how it helps you make your point. Share with us where YOU have learned to be an expert communicator – we’ll share those comments with others.
Lori Richardson writes, speaks, and trains on sales topics for B2B mid-market technology front-line sales teams. Why not sign up for our twice-monthly newsletter,Sales Tips in a Minute or the blog rss feed? We value your time and promise good stuff for you.