Why your message doesn't stick
Why your message doesn't stick
Features & Benefits don't sell. This does..
The vast majority (90%+) of salespeople are fluent in what I call “marketing speak” and illiterate in what I call “Prospectese”
What does this mean?
“Marketing speak” is the language your company uses when describing why your prospects buy.
“Marketing speak” can serve 2 important functions:
It is often used as the copy on your company website in order to pre-sell / convert website visitors into leads
It can get newer salespeople up to speed on the industry
However useful it might be in the 2 scenarios above, “Marketing speak” in a sales/selling environment is useless.. and even counter productive.
More on why this is the case later.
and Prospectese is what the *prospect* actually says/means.
Prospectese serves 2 important functions:
It reveals what the prospect actually wants
It keeps salespeople in ambiguity
These 2 may seem contradictory but they actually co-exist:
It reveals what the prospect actually wants
The language prospects use to complain about the problems your solution solves is the exact language you should be using when talking to the prospect about the problems you solve!
It keeps salespeople in ambiguity
The language prospects use outside of complaining about the problems your solution solves is often wishy washy & vague. Hint: this is why Challenging them to find the truth is so important. How else are you going to find the Truth?
The problem with “Marketing Speak”
When a prospect (Human) wants to “speak with sales” what they are hoping for is to speak with someone who has a credible perspective on how to solve their problems.
That’s it. That’s the only reason they bother opting in on your company site.
Prospects want an experience they can’t already get from your website / marketing materials, competitors, etc.
But unfortunately all they get is the same old song & dance..
Features, Benefits, “Why we’re so great”, Demos, Proposals, and Discounts
How do you think the above impacts the prospects estimation of your competence & credibility?
Hint:
If this picture of your competition isn’t enough to convince you to drop the “Marketing speak” then maybe this will:
Problem #1
“Marketing speak” impacts your ability to close deals. This shows itself in low close rates and/or working harder than you need to for the same results. This happens because the prospect never truly feels like you understand them. In fact, they feel like you are just another product peddler which causes them to feel more uncertain.
Problem #2
Remember the Commodity Frame? Using “Marketing speak” is essentially using the Commodity Frame on yourself instantly putting you at a disadvantage. This is why you get treated poorly by prospects. This also why you keep getting asked for discounts. As a result, you are a dime a dozen in their eyes no matter how great your product is.
Problem #3
Being unable to articulate the problems you solve the same way the prospect does, and being unable to understand the problem better than they do increases the likelihood you sell the prospect the wrong solution to the wrong problem. This results in bad clients / customers, bad reviews, buyers remorse, etc.
Problem #4
Your outreach efforts are ignored because you sound like everyone else. And since you sound like everyone else, you get poor results. This shows itself in your inability to generate & maintain a strong pipeline. Every salesperson worth their salt knows pipeline is king.
Your outreach message also gets ignored because you make unrealistic claims without having any context on the prospects specific current environment.
Making claims like “increase revenue by minimum 30%” or “save 7 hours a week” in your outreach don’t work because they are not believable.
How do you know you can do this for their specific business/situation?
You don’t because you don’t know what their specific situation looks like.
You have no context.
How do you know you can help them save time & money if you don’t know if they have the problems you fix that leads to saving them time & money?
Stop putting the cart before the horse.
Marketing Speak vs Prospectese
Since everyone loves fancy designs, here’s one summarizing a few differences between “Marketing Speak” & “Prospectese”
Let’s examine each example further. My notes in bold:
🤡: Improve Efficiency
^ HOW do you improve efficiency? In what ways can the prospect measure this improved efficiency? What does a future state of improved efficiency look like to them?
🐲: Prevent new feature rollouts from getting delayed
^ Focuses on the problem you solve that the prospect can identify in their world. This problem is one of the causes of the “inefficiencies” implying that if you were to eliminate it for them you can improve their efficiency.
🤡: Increase customer satisfaction scores
^ That’s nice but how will they know it will work for their specific environment? Focusing on benefits raises uncertainty & doubt, Focusing on problems raises certainty & trust.
🐲: Stop customers from churning
^ Focuses on the impact of low CSAT which implies the need for an increase in customer satisfaction scores.
🤡: Customizable No-Code Dashboard
^ Features don’t sell. Problems do.
🐲: “We don’t have the resources to code up our own dashboard”
^ Talk about the problems that imply your features. For example, you can ask “Why not just code your own dashboard?” in order to trigger the prospect to say the 🐲 response which then implies the need for your feature without you having to say it.
Sales is a game of getting the prospect to discover for themselves why they need / don’t need your solution.
What are they really saying?
When the prospect is in the thick of it in their day to day, are they really complaining / saying “we need an all-in-one platform in order to increase revenue”? or are they more likely to be saying something like “Why the f*&! are our sales cycles so long?” or “Why are we not hitting targets this month?”
If you want to know if you are speaking Prospectese or Marketing speak then simply ask yourself:
“Is this what the prospect is actually saying / complaining about in their day to day?”
If no, then I’m afraid you are speaking “Marketing speak” and not “Prospectese”
How to learn Prospectese
In no particular order:
Talk to existing customers and ask why they bought from you. Be honest with them that you are trying to learn more so you can learn/improve. Many will be happy to help you.
Listen to / Study your company’s call recordings. (Ideally from the top performers and SE’s)
Go to G2.com and read your company reviews. G2’s review format includes good questions like “What problem is [company] solving and how is it benefitting you”?
Study my content / course so you have the confidence (and know-how) to challenge your buyers so you can discover for yourself that most of the things they tell you should be taken with a grain of salt.
What other ideas do you have for learning Prospectese?
Once you learn “Prospectese” you can begin improving your performance..
