For this installment, I must first state that this was a question asked on LinkedIn, so until we went back and forth it was truly an ask the coach. That said, it fits in perfectly into our conversations about messaging then gets a bit deeper.  The question asked is below, and the back and forth clearly outlines how hard it is to explain what is needed to define a clear entry message.

The question:

Fast = Hacky?

A little background:

In my business development efforts I often need to explain who we are and why you should be talking to me.  The “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me) value statement that opens the door making continuing the conversation worth your time.

One of our companies top values is that we build applications fast. (that’s it)

Which usually hits the experienced ears as: (great, another outsource provider that puts our work at a lower priority than their larger clients, delivers hacky code, over promises then under delivers time and time again)

I’m aware that there’s tremendous value in being able to deliver high quality work faster than our peers, but how do you say fast and “un-hacky” without sounding hokey or like a vacuum cleaner salesman?

Solid code?
Clean code?
Quality programing?
Robustly Written Code?
Efficient?
Concise?
Well-Written?
Accurate?
Scrumptrulescent?
Super-Fantastically Ultra-Marvelous Code
Omni Spectacular?

All of the above?

My first answer:

Let’s start with a big who cares? This is what you need to know before any of this matters.

Next? What do they care about. Fast is not important unless I care about fast, accurate is not important yada yada yada.

What matters? What your targeted prospects want. Who are your targeted prospects? Do you have customers? Find out why they bought and find people JUST LIKE THEM.

Short and sweet, but you get the point. For more check out the blog and sign up fpr the newsletter.I am talking about messaging this month and have answers for you.

The rebuttal:

Hi Karl,

Thanks for answering.  You’re right, but let’s assume that I’ve already done my marketing research, I’m calling the correct people, and I have a solution that they need.

Over and above having a valuable and competitive service offering as my steak, I need to get my foot in the door with some sizzle and smells of charcoal

(That’s why I posted this question under software development and not under a sales tech category.)

For the purpose of this question:

Mainly, I’m looking for the golden words that raise the eyebrows of my prospects on that first call (I doubt they exist but I’ll keep trying until everyone is our customer).  Proving we’re awesome is no problem after establishing that initial interest.

My next response:

Again, go back to your customers for two things.

1. What compelled them to buy
2. What benefits are they experiencing now

These are your razor blades to cut through the noise of a prospect’s day
Then he went to this blog and returned with this:

HI Karl,

This is excellent stuff,. after reading I thought maybe you could help me out?

When you looked your knowledge filled blogs have you found any flaws in your advice,. or pieces of the puzzle that you’re missing?

Besides the gaps in knowledge that you don’t know about,. (people don’t know,. what they don’t know),. what have you found that you’ve wanted to add, but just haven’t developed the content for?

My DEEP follow up:

Great questions and yes there is still lots to cover. Also, Sales in my opinion is not science but art. Like, art of other mediums, what is considered current and valuable changes with social paradigms. Sales is evolving and right now so quickly that many of the things I have written need to be amended just a year after they went to print.

Tags: , Messaging, sales advice, Sales Tips, sales training

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Ask the Coach, Messaging, Sales Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.