Want More Customers? Be Overt!
The essence of being overt is to be clear and assure your
prospective customer understands exactly what you want them to
understand about the benefits, difference, and reasons to
believe in the outstanding value of your offering.
In my business I see a lot of customer communication materials.
Unfortunately, I see too many customer presentations whereby you
finally understand what the company does and what benefits they
deliver to their customers somewhere around slide 7 of a
way-too-many-slides presentation.
No long ago I was leading a sales and marketing meeting,
discussing with a management team the launch of a new product
line. We were reviewing the new product's positioning,
competitive environment, pricing methodology, and sales
collateral. While reviewing the customer presentations I noted
there were continuous questions:
"What does that mean?" "What do we mean by that?" "What are the
keys things I should say about this slide?" "What is the point
we want to make on this slide?"
As these questions were asked several times it become
obvious..."Why don't you just say on the slide what it is you
mean and what it is you want the customer to know about the
benefits they'll realize as a result of employing your
solution?" The question was simple enough and left the meeting
participants looking around the room at each other.
It's amazing the positive impact you can have on your sales
efforts by simply communicating with your prospective customers
clearly and directly about the value you offer. To greatly
impact your revenue there are really only a few things you have
to do...
Don't Make Your Customer Translate Your Offering into Something
They Value - A huge mistake in marketing and sales is to
unwittingly make your customer translate everything you say into
something they value.
Regardless of your market, customers of all types have similar
buying processes. Customers evaluate you offering by first
asking themselves two questions - "Why do I need this
product/service? What do we get (benefit) out of using it?" No
matter what you say, write or present; this is the first and
only thing going through the mind of a buyer.
A great number of vendors (technology companies tend to be the
greatest offenders) make the mistake of communicating with
prospective customers from "love" they have for their product or
service. Their typical communication is driven from the
speeds-feeds-features-functionality of their offering. Their big
mistake is not realizing customers never buy
speeds-feeds-features-functionality; they only buy the benefits
they can realize from employing your
speeds-feeds-features-functionality. If you communicate from
your speeds-feeds-features-functionality you force your customer
to translate them into meaningful benefits they value. Remember,
customers only buy benefits. It only makes sense then that you
should lead your communications with the benefits they want,
expect, and will enjoy.
"But aren't speeds-feeds-features-functionality necessary?"
Yes. Speeds-feeds-features-functionality, especially in
technology markets, are necessary and often critical to closing
a sale. The difference is you want your
speeds-feeds-features-functionality to be evaluated as proof of
your ability to deliver benefits, not as evidence in
investigation of the benefits you offer. Put another way, once
your prospective customer resonates on the benefits and value
you offer, the speeds-feeds-features-functionality of your
product or service is then evaluated solely in its capacity to
deliver the benefits your customer wishes to purchase.
Communicating clearly and directly is the key to assuring your
customer knows the benefits and value you offer, something that
important to the success of your business must be overt.
Great Example of Bad Communication - I came across what I
believe to be a great example of poor customer communication.
Following is exact text taken from an anonymous company's
marketing materials, describing who they are and what they do.
Note how it is unclear what they do for their customers
(benefit) as well as unclear why a prospective customer would
seek their services. Avoid making this mistake:
"Company X is a results oriented training and consulting firm
promoting sustainable economic growth globally by developing
entrepreneurship programs focusing on capacity-building
techniques, skills and knowledge. Company X provides needs
assessment to determine capacity-building strategies, training
design and implementation in small and medium enterprise
development, services focused on empowering women through
entrepreneurship, and technical assistance and business advisory
services."
For Company X, their prospective customers have to interpret and
translate the statement above into something meaningful for them
(benefits). Remember, all customers in a buying process take
what you offer them in communications and reason what's in it
for them. Your customers want to know what benefit they will
realize as a result of using your product or service. You can't
take the chance of leaving it up to your customer to figure it
out on their own. You need to be overt in telling your customers
who you are, what you do, and what's in it for them. Remember to
sell from their process of buying. Lead with your benefits and
offer your features and functionality are proof of your ability
to deliver.
Lasting Thought - The lasting principal here is extremely
simple...if you mean something; say it as plainly as you
possibly can. Never let a prospective customer guess about the
benefits they should expect to enjoy as a result of doing
business with your company. Review all of your marketing
materials and assure there are no implied benefits. Read all of
your materials as a prospective customer will, from their
perspective of being engaged in a buying process. Make sure your
communications clearly answer the most critical components of
good sales communications - what's in it for me, why should I
believe you.
Your perspective customers need to clearly understand what's in
it for them. When you approach your customer communications from
the perspective of your features and functionality, you need to
assure you are doing so only as a means to prove your ability to
deliver benefits to your customer, not as the reason to purchase.
Lastly, remember...if something is worth saying, it should be
said.