Do you know how your messaging is perceived by potential customers? Do you know what makes your prospect want to buy from you? What I have found in my many years in sales is that a well-described value proposition is what makes a company unique, differentiated, and sustainable. Only those companies that can accurately articulate what it is they offer to help customers achieve their goals, solve their problems, or satisfy their needs, are able to have a well-scripted value proposition.

Only when the customer/prospect says and believes that what you offer can help them, can say you have a valued and valuable proposition.

Simply describing what your offering does, or the benefits it can generate, will not be enough. Describing HOW "it" (your offering) would do what you say "it" does, and WHAT "it" can do for your prospect's business, has become paramount in significantly enhancing the chances of your customers buying from you.

Salespeople can deliver any message that you give them. However, they cannot create it on the fly. Therefore, they need to be armed with the tools and training necessary to create it and deliver it.

In addition, are your sales people (and prospects) able to visit your website, read your collateral, or listen to your inside sales people and get the business issues faced by your clients? Could they determine how to position your offering in a way that addresses these business issues?

Here are two examples I collected on public websites to illustrate how difficult messaging can be. Following each of the original website descriptions, I created a more effective "customer-centric" way of delivering the message.

Example One:

• Seller-Centric: At XYZ Software we "accelerate the development and deployment of operational excellence and real-time performance management applications providing global manufacturers a sustainable competitive advantage." Our software does this and I want to know if you are interested.
• Customer-Centric: At XYZ Software, we help manufacturing companies meet production schedules, reduce inventories, and reduce equipment maintenance costs. We do this by combining all of their supply chain data into a single web-based view, so that they can act on the data more quickly. I'd like to learn more about your manufacturing environment and then we can decide if it makes sense to talk further about what we do.

Example Two:

• Seller-Centric: I wanted to let you know that "only our company software provides product development solutions, expert consulting and innovative technology." We empower small to mid- sized companies with the ability "to design innovative products, improve your engineering process and competitively manufacture in today's global economy." Would you be interested in learning more about what we do?
• Customer-Centric: Our software is used throughout the product development process to help designers create or modify designs more quickly and reduce errors, so that products can get to market faster. Would you be open to helping me understand your current product development process? Once we do that, I'll be in a better position to point out specific capabilities of our software that are relevant to your environment.

One element in messaging is the use of "descriptive" words that appear in most collateral like, "the leading provider"," the most innovative developer ", "the most reliable, robust, integrated, state of the art" or "the key".

You might think these words sound impressive or enticing, but they do not help your prospects understand how they can use your offering to help them achieve their goals or address their challenges. Although these phrases sound attractive, they are self serving, internally focused and marketing hype descriptions that prospects really could care less about. More importantly, it does nothing to help your sales people learn how to deliver your value proposition.

Click here to learn how Raytheon incorporated messaging into effective sales tools...

Are you intrigued enough to consider assessing whether your collateral, web site, and messaging are as effective as they can be? In exchange for a conversation about your sales and marketing activities, I am offering 30 minutes of my consulting time to review and provide you with a verbal assessment of your website and one piece of collateral.

If you want to learn more about how we have helped our clients address these and other sales issues, please give me a call at 415-229-9226 or, drop me an e-mail and I'll call your administrative assistant and arrange for a mutually agreeable time for us to speak.

Thanks to our many clients and references, we have had a great year in 2004. We have seen our clients improve their predictability in pipeline by 75%, increase revenue directly attributed to our services by 25% to 43%, an increase in average selling price and transaction value by 45%, and a 3% response rate on prospecting campaigns.

Our company doubled its revenue from 2003 and saw engagements across the entire USA. We worked in diverse industries including high tech (software, web services, hardware, and services), bio tech, retail and distribution, manufacturing, and then some. On the personal front, our founder, Philippe Lavie, and his wife Carol, celebrated the birth of their twins, Margot and Benjamin, Thanksgiving morning. Philippe and Carol are very appreciative to all the wonderful wishes and gifts sent to celebrate their arrival. All are healthy, although the parents are somewhat sleep deprived.

2005 has started full pace, and we look forward to working with you to make your business more successful.

Don't forget to check this month's white paper: "The Source of Future Growth. It's your people, not your processes. But you won't tap employees' potential if you manage them like machines", courtesy of Glenn Phelps

McGraw Hill best seller: CustomerCentric Selling®, written by Michael Bosworth and John Holland, is in its second print. Clearly, the sales world has taken a liking to what is conveys. If you have not read it yet, click below to order it now and start learning about:

• How to integrate sales & marketing
• How to use Sales Ready Messaging® process to support your sales efforts
• How to clone your top salespeople

If you want to experience first hand how our services can help you and your organization achieve your/its goals, register for the next CCS® Public Workshop. When registering, please indicate that KeyRoad is the referring party, so that I get notification of your registration. See Quick Links on the right for more information.

We welcome your feedback and comments. Please send them to plavie@keyroad.com.

We look forward to hearing from you. We offer the following services:

• How to better use the telephone for success
• Organizational sales process definition
• Sales Ready Messaging® to develop sales tools your sales people will use
• Sales training programs using the CCS® methodology
• Sales Management training programs
• Professional Services (client services) training programs
• Sales advisors services

Good selling,

Philippe Lavie
KeyRoad Enterprises™, a CustomerCentric Selling® Affiliate