Who in Your Organization has Their Fingerprints on the Gun?

It is 8:00 a.m., day two of your annual sales meeting. Product marketing is up first. A tall pedestal sits next to the podium draped in a black cloth. Out walks Joe, the director of product marketing in the hardware division – dressed in his nicely pressed shirt adorned with the company logo and so excited to share his news. He begins his presentation. He welcomes everyone, updates you on the state of the market and – “ta da” – he pulls off the black cloth and introduces you to the newest addition to the product family. He then begins to share the elevator pitch and features/benefit messaging.  And, finally he concludes with a list of marketing tools that he and his team have been diligently working on over the past several months to help the sales organization sell this new product into their accounts.

Does this scenario sound familiar? Probably. It is pretty typical in most organizations. Product management and product marketing work together to develop and bring to market their individual products. They have a standardized checklist of launch deliverables that they churn out prior to the big reveal. But what about the other product teams? How does this product fit into the larger product portfolio? And, what about the sales team? How will this product fix the problems that their customers need to solve? Do the product teams even know what those problems are? How much of the messaging and tools will actually work the way real customer conversations work?

Avoid the “ta da” method – get others involved

In the example described above, there was a lot of upstream planning with little input from key stakeholders across the value chain, in particular the people who actually conduct the conversations that matter. By bringing in downstream players, specifically representatives from the sales team, you benefit in two important ways. First, they bring with them the perspective of the customer. They are talking to prospective and current customers every day. They are the feet on the street and bring to light the real-life problems that customers are looking to solve. Second, they are the people that will choose to use – or not use – the tools that the product teams work so hard to develop.

Develop the message together

If sales and marketing are aligned from the outset, together they can develop a relevant and impactful story, right from the start. One key is making sure the messaging passes the “snicker” test – can a salesperson actually say this without snickering. This cross-functional story building effort can then be cascaded throughout meaningful tools and support materials that will help bring it to life. Finally, with this elevated level of joint collaboration, it no longer becomes about “us” and “them.” It’s no longer about the sales team sitting in a dim room waiting for the big “ta da” – everyone is connected to the story. Everyone has his or her “fingerprints on the gun.” This ownership will breed passion and that passion will close the sale.

Are you relying on Union Rules for your sales messaging?

Then you’re killing deals.  

Recently one of our consultants, Scott Weinhold, was on a tram while connecting flights between client events, and he couldn’t resist sneaking a photo of an airline pilot’s luggage. What caught his eye was the bag tag promoting the pilot’s union. Here was the union’s attempt to create value for themselves:

In case the image is too fuzzy for you to read (this was a “stealth” snap on a phone while the tram was in motion) the tag says, “WE ARE WORTH IT!”

This union message reminded me of the same theme in thousands of marketing and sales pitches happening this very moment. Sales reps rely on “union rules” for delivering messages to communicate the value of their solution. For example:  “We have the best technology!” “We have the best people!” “We have the best service!”

In other words, “WE ARE WORTH IT!”

What happens to your prospect or customer when you start telling them why your solutions and your company are “worth it?”  Do they grab for their checkbook and say, “How much will that be? We’ve been waiting for someone to come in and tell us how ‘worth it’ they are…”

Charlie Sheen Effect

This type of “union rules” sales messaging approach triggers what I call the “Charlie Sheen Effect.”

Several months ago, Charlie Sheen hosted a webcast of his own (“Sheen’s Korner”). During the first few seconds, over 100,000 attendees logged in. Within four minutes, less than 5,000 remained.

Why over a 95% reduction in attention? Because no one wants to hear boring and irrelevant bragging.

When your prospects and customers see a salesperson present slide after slide of why your company and products are so wonderful, they tune out. Your sales rep’s effort to create value in the mind of your prospect comes across as boring and irrelevant bragging.

Based on our work with hundreds of the largest sales forces, these “WE ARE WORTH IT” sales conversations spread across your organization with no effort at all. They are like a virus. If you do nothing to stop them, these boring and irrelevant sales messages will replicate all on their own.

In fact, unless you’re laser-focused and intentional about equipping your sales force with the right messages, tools, and skills, you can assume at least 80% of your reps will follow “union rules” in their next sales conversation.

Why do “Union Rules Messages” Happen?

It may seem obvious to you. You’ve been told for years you need to be customer centric. So, why do companies continue to create and deliver “union rules” type messaging?

Because it makes companies and salespeople feel good about themselves, the product they are selling and the company they work for. The biggest enemy to great sales messaging is the natural drift of companies to create messaging that fires them up. That gets them jazzed. That rallies the troops.

Have you ever been in a message development session? How do messages get chosen? It’s usually the phrases that get everyone, especially the executives, inside the company excited when they see it on posters, advertisements, billboards, buttons and t-shirts.

But, none of that has anything to do with getting your customers to care. Your prized prospects don’t care about what fires you up. Don’t force them to love your “union rules story.” Save the internal cheerleading for inside the company.

Click here to watch an instant webinar on how you can put an end to boring, irrelevant sales messaging.

Negative Thanksgiving?

Is Your Messaging Half Empty or Half Full?
It Might Not Matter, if You do it Right.

My daughter came home with an interesting holiday homework assignment – she had to come up with three ideas for a “Negative Thanksgiving.” Here’s the concept:  Be thankful for something that would otherwise be perceived as a negative by pointing out a positive correlation.

For example, she came up with the following:

• I’m thankful for Final Exams, because that means school is almost over…
• I’m thankful for Bad-tasting Medicine, because it helps me feel better…
• I’m thankful for Waking up to Alarm Clocks, because it means I’m still alive…

• I’m thankful for Property Taxes, because it means I own a home (OK, that was mine)

You get the point.

Here are a couple relevant examples for you to consider (insert yourself in the first person):

• I’m thankful for my competitors, because it means I’ve got a product worth competing with.
• I’m thankful for my customer’s objections, because at least they were paying attention.
• I’m thankful for Marketing and Sales training binders, because they provide great lumbar support.

What’s the positive in your negatives?

We recently worked with a client in the internet security market who was facing a young, up-start competitor trying to position our client as being too big, inflexible and out of touch.  After engaging us for messaging work, we were able to position the value of being the biggest and turn it into a differentiating advantage.

In the internet security space, your ability to detect potential risks, hazards and threats, and create a solution to prevent them, is significantly enhanced by having the largest network of customers and consumers using your system. Something the smaller competitor lacked.

So, by the end of the workshop, our client was saying (I’m paraphrasing here): “I’m thankful for being the biggest, because in the battle against internet fraud, it’s the size of your network that matters.”

What’s the positive in your perceived negatives? Can you reframe them by attaching them to an even more important customer objective?

Happy Negative Thanksgiving!

– Tim Riesterer, CMO and SVP of Strategic Consulting and Products
on behalf of the entire Corporate Visions Team

Amazon Kindle vs iPad

Finding Your Value Wedge

In Power Messaging we teach companies to differentiate by finding their “Value Wedge.”  Here’s how it works:

Identify your uniqueness in the context of a specific prospect need.  Then amplify that need so it becomes the dominating buying criteria, and then clearly contrast your uniqueness with the competitor’s weakness so your prospect sees the unmistakable value of your solution.  Also, make sure it is defensible by proving the claim and demonstrating your clear advantage.

I recently saw this commercial and thought… now there’s a perfect example of a company that knows how to find and promote their Value Wedge.  Watch as Amazon Kindle responds to the emerging threat to their e-book reader leadership posed by the iPad.

Amazon is saying…  Hey, if you are in the market for a reader, because you love books, and you love reading them everywhere, especially relaxing outdoors, then there’s only one solution for you.  They aren’t trying to be everything iPad is… they are identifying their prospect as voracious readers and elevating the need to be able to read everywhere and showing how only the Kindle meets this need.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad is an amazing little gadget with so much to offer.  But, if you are a reader, and that’s your emphasis, why not buy the product that will work when and where you want it to, at a much lower price point?

Love to see two strong Marketing powerhouses go at it, using Power Messaging techniques.

– Tim Riesterer
CMO and SVP Strategic Consulting and Products
Corporate Visions Inc.