Your sales message is your initial pitch to potential customers, in which you try to convince them to buy your product. Now, in an ideal world, you’d have as much time as you needed to approach every potential customer and explain to them why your company, goods or services are great.
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But unfortunately, that is just not feasible, which is why having a clear and concise sales message is absolutely crucial.
That being said, when you’re excited about your business and what you sell, it can be tempting to try and get across as much information as possible in a bid to make customers as passionate about your offerings as you are.
This can lead to confusing or long-winded sales messages, which can damage your chances of making a sale, particularly in the era of the internet when there is already so much information online.
That is why we’ve put together this guide. Below, we’re going to share with you some of the ways you can simplify your sales message whilst ensuring it is as hard-hitting as possible.
1. Make sure you know your customer
In order to target the right people, you need to know who your existing customers are and who your target audience is. As such, one of the best ways to perfect your sales message is to create buyer personas that can help you with your marketing and sales efforts.
By really getting to grips with your customers, you will know which specific nuances, languages and themes to weave into your sales message. This can make it a lot more successful without making it too complicated.
2. Pretend to be a total newbie
Although you might not think about it, when you live and breathe your business and your industry, you take for granted that you have a deeper understanding of the market, competition and latest trends.
However, your customers probably don’t. Therefore, they might not understand what you mean when you use jargon or industry-specific language. This means that while you might think your sales message is self-explanatory, it isn’t.
So in order to simplify your message, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and pretend to be a total newbie to the industry. This will help you to come up with simpler, more concise ways of getting your message across by including only the essential information.
3. Hone in on their problems
What is one of the best ways to sell to a potential or even existing customer? It’s to identify the key challenges they’re facing and quickly let them know how your goods or services can help them.
So, though you might have a laundry list of benefits of using your goods or services, you need to make sure that your sales message gets across how this solves their biggest pain point.
For example, if you’re selling beauty products, what is it that makes yours stand out from other brands and helps your customers? Perhaps it’s better for dry skin, it’s vegan-friendly, or it’s better for the environment.
Whatever the case may be, you need to hone in on your customer’s biggest issues and make this an integral part of your messaging and online advertising.
4. Make it as easy as possible for customers
As well as being clear, your sales message also needs to be distinctive and include a call to action (CTA). This could be buying your product, signing up for a demo or starting a free trial.
Whatever this is, you need to make it as easy as possible for the customer to understand your sales message and take the next step.
By removing any barriers between your customers and the desired action, your message is more likely to convert.
Luckily, highly skilled marketing professionals, coupled with sales software, can help you to focus on key messages and make fulfilling the desired action as easy as possible for customers.
5. Avoid (or remove) complicated words
Although you might think it makes your brand seem more intelligent, luxurious or high-class, the reality is, using complicated language is only going to damage your chances of making a sale.
Complicated words are unnecessary, and in most cases, these can actually be broken down into simpler terms that appeal to a wider audience. So think about what you want your sales message to be (if you haven’t already got one in place), and then consider the simplest way to say this.
Clear communication and more conversational language require less effort on behalf of the customer. Therefore, they are likely to find your brand more relatable. And if the sales message resonates with them, they’ll be more likely to part with their cash.
6. Reduce the noise
In today’s digital world, noise is everywhere.
And no, we don’t always mean literal noise, but rather that we are bombarded with information, adverts, marketing emails, video clips and more every day. This can make the online world feel very noisy and crowded.
And with our brains trying to take in so much information already, there is only so much each day that is going to make it through and that you’re going to engage with.
So, if you want your message to make it through the digital noise, you need to make it short, sweet and as simple as possible.
But when using fewer words, these need to be a lot more carefully selected, so be sure to put thought into every single word or image that is used as part of your sales message. Often, it’s a good idea to get professional copywriters involved to help you get the most from your message.
7. Communicate with customers in stages
Finally, one of the greatest things about the internet is that you have different points at which to target potential customers. So rather than overloading them with your sales message all at once, try to communicate with them in stages.
For example, your first aim could be to get an individual to sign up to your newsletter. This is when you can begin to share more in-depth information with them and really start to push the sale. But in the first stage, they have not been asked to do much more than provide their name and email address.
This breakdown of communication can be done in several ways, especially when using social media advertising, so think about it and get creative. This will help you to simplify your sales message and make it more manageable and, therefore, effective.
Written by Stuart Cooke, Marketing Manager at Irish Parcels an online courier comparison service based in Dublin, Ireland.