“Everyone seems to have their own special secret sauce for crafting a message that differentiates their product from the current supplier or chief competitor. So let me say from the beginning, our method isn’t better, it just works.” – Tom Williams in today’s Tip 235
What is your Secret Sauce?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Tom Williams. Tom is the Chairman and Founder of Strategic Dynamics, a sales productivity improvement company and the author of Buyer Centered Selling. Here he is with today’s tip:
Tom Williams: Everyone seems to have their own special secret sauce for crafting a message that differentiates their product from the current supplier or chief competitor. So let me say from the beginning, our method isn’t better, it just works. So first ask yourself what makes a message, any message interesting to a potential buyer or stakeholder? And really there are four ingredients to our sauce. First messages, whether they are voicemails, emails, marketing, brochures, or even formal presentations. You need to have a value claim. Now, you know a value claim as a promise of what the product or solution will deliver that benefits the mind organization in some measurable way. In short, the message has to connect with a project or initiative that’s relevant to the buyer. The second ingredient is uniqueness. What is your product or service do that others can’t claim, but it can’t be just any old run of the mill. Uniqueness has gotta be one that matters to the buyer. So messages should convey a value claim that’s relevant to the buying organization and is unique in a way that the buyer will recognize and value. The third ingredient is risk aversion. If unaddressed risk and kill any deal, your messages need a heavy dose of risk prevention. What one or two steps will you take to ensure that the black swan or one of its ugly ducklings doesn’t make an unexpected visit. How do you predict, plan and prevent this dreaded downside. And then the fourth element in our secret sauce is the one sellers often forget or ignore and that’s urgency. You need to answer this question for the buyer or stakeholder. Why must I buy now? Maybe it’s to reclaim lost production time or to have inventory in place for the holiday season or maybe it’s to align with the buyers started their fiscal year. What also, what’s the dollar value of a quick decision and immediate implementation. Now let’s get something straight. You can’t force-feed buyers value messages that are long, complicated, redundant, or meaningless. So here’s some advice that falls into the, don’t ever do this category first. Don’t use language or terminology that may be unfamiliar to the buyer. Use the buyer’s language and customize your message. Second, don’t underestimate the buyer’s propensity to Ron’s to re to respond with a challenging question like “I just don’t believe you can get this done in that short a timeframe” and last, don’t ever commoditize your product. Don’t feed your buyer, me too messages like our product can match the productivity of any other product in the marketplace. Stay away from cheap messages like when you compare all the products in this category, you’ll be surprised at how inexpensive our product is. Avoid languages, you know, language that commoditizes unnecessarily product. So as you craft your messages, don’t think of value messages of monologues or points of view or an elevator speech. Value Messages are really a 22nd sound bite or claim that is meant to arouse interest, prompt insight in advanced the buying process. So think of value messages as headlines that you can deploy in a conversation to pick stakeholder or by an interest. Have two or three of these sound bites that show how your product will meet a need critical to overall productivity. If you don’t have two or three of these value messages defined and committed a memory do so this week, and if you want some help, please check out chapter five of our book Buyer-Centered Selling: How Modern Sellers Engage & Collaborate with Buyers. Look for the chapter five that says, look for value messages as a snap, crackle, and pop.
Scott Ingram: For more about Tom, Strategic Dynamics and his new book – Buyer-Centered Selling, just click over to DailySales.Tips/235. Tom has also been kind enough to offer two copies of the book to listeners of this tip. All you have to do is send me a quick email to [email protected]
Then make sure you’re subscribed to this podcast and come by tomorrow for another great sales tip from Jeff Bajorek. Thanks for listening!