QUIZ: Which Message Moves the Sale Forward?
How you explain your offering to the customer determines whether the sales goes quickly or seems to take forever. The right message starts the sales efforts on the right foot and builds momentum. Here's a quick quiz to test if your ability to identify an effect salves message.
SCENARIO: You're selling software that helps companies support their own customers. You've been handed a " sales script" that contain two similar core messages for your product. You're told you can use either one during your sales conversations:
- MESSAGE #1: "With this product, your support staff will be able to get the information they want, when they want it. Your customers will be serviced more quickly, and you'll have 60 percent less downtime. And that means your customers won't be left hanging."
- MESSAGE #2: "Our software integrates with your back office software. Because of this, we can improve productivity in your support group and reduce your downtime by 60 percent. It is our recommendation, therefore, that you replace your current software with our product."
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How you explain your offering to the customer determines whether the sales goes quickly or seems to take forever. The right message starts the sales efforts on the right foot and builds momentum. Here's a quick quiz to test if your ability to identify an effect salves message.SCENARIO: You're selling software that helps companies support their own customers. You've been handed a " sales script" that contain two similar core messages for your product. You're told you can use either one during your sales conversations:
- MESSAGE #1: "With this product, your support staff will be able to get the information they want, when they want it. Your customers will be serviced more quickly, and you'll have 60 percent less downtime. And that means your customers won't be left hanging."
- MESSAGE #2: "Our software integrates with your back office software. Because of this, we can improve productivity in your support group and reduce your downtime by 60 percent. It is our recommendation, therefore, that you replace your current software with our product."
The correct answer is MESSAGE #1.
Here's why. Message #1 is all about the customer and the customer's customers while message #2 is all about the vendor and the vendor's software. Effective messages are always about the customer, so the easiest way to evaluate a sales message is to examine the pronouns. Messages that feature the words "you" and "your" tend to be customer-focused. Messages that feature the word "I", "we" and "our" tend to be vendor-focused.
Of course, neither message is all that great.
READERS: Care to try you hand at writing a better one?