Are You Communicating What You Actually Sell?

Clear communication is where the sales process really begins. Concise and consistent messaging shared with a targeted audience makes sales so much easier. The concept of lead generation and nurturing isn’t new, but the cycle has changed.

Today, product, marketing, and sales cohesion is more important than ever before. Recent research indicates that it takes 7-9 contacts for an unfamiliar prospect to know who you are and what you do and 15-17 contacts to engage a warm lead. Contacts are defined as any outgoing attempt at reaching someone. This can include emails, social posts, phone calls, text messages, direct social messages, etc.

That is, on average, 24+ messages that must be on point, consistent, and crystal clear. Otherwise, it’s like you are starting from square one every time and potential buyers will never truly understand who you are and what you sell. This results in frustration for all parties involved and most importantly, no sales.

Here is how it plays out in the real world.

Michelle (CEO), Janet (Master Marketer), and Kim (Sales Superwoman) have a meeting to talk about their strategy plan to get more sales in, more quickly, for their bakery. They talk about their offering and pricing. Let’s say the offer is chocolate cake.

They talk about what the price is and the overall sales goal. They decided that the chocolate cake will be $4 per slice next Tuesday. To prepare and educate potential buyers, they agreed that Janet will put together an email and social campaign with some one-page flyers and Kim will begin reaching out to people who like chocolate. Michelle agrees to bake extra slices and schedules another meeting for the three of them to reconnect on Wednesday.

Everyone leaves the meeting feeling pumped and energized. They each go their separate ways to work on their pieces with the goal of selling more chocolate cake next Tuesday.
This is what happens next.

Janet goes to her office and begins creating these amazing images of a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. It is a 4-layer decadent, rich looking delight. She adds all the descriptions on the flavor, the size, and the overall luxury experience. Her emails, social posts and flyers look incredible and are all sharing the same “rich” messaging. She quickly sends them out in a bulk automation series.

Kim begins to reach out to potential buyers from the bakery database individually. She generates some interest from those who like chocolate, and during these conversations the potential buyers begin asking more questions about the specifics of the cake. Kim describes the cake as a light and fluffy yellow cake with a low-fat chocolate cream frosting. She speaks about how the cake is “guilt free” and will not add any extra pounds. She has piqued interest and gotten commitment from the potential buyers to come into the bakery for a sample on Tuesday.

Fast forward, it’s Tuesday. All three ladies are in the bakery and see a line of people out front. Michelle is excited because there has never been a line, period. Janet sees some of the people holding her flyer in their hands, and Kim identifies some of the people as who she spoke with on the phone in their exercise gear.

All three ladies are smiling and feeling hopeful they will reach their sales goal.
When the people come in, Michelle sees that some are carrying flyers of a rich, decadent chocolate cake. Others are looking around the bakery in search of something and appear curious, then confused. Michelle knows something is off, but has no idea what it is.

The first person steps up to the counter and asks for the “guilt free” chocolate cake. Perplexed, Michelle shares that they only have one chocolate cake currently. It’s a German chocolate cake. She begins to cut samples and offer it to the line of potential buyers.

All of a sudden there is a lot of chatter in the bakery. People are throwing up their hands with the flyer, and talking loudly amongst themselves saying something about “only German chocolate”.
The entire crowd leaves the bakery. Michelle is scratching her head as to why. She makes an amazing German chocolate cake and specifically told Janet and Kim to tell potential buyers that the chocolate cake was what she wanted to sell.

The three ladies meet on Wednesday. They are all frustrated. They have all worked very hard individually and have sold nothing. The morale of the story - Make sure you and all of your representatives communicate to your potential buyers the exact cake you are selling. Otherwise, you will find yourself in an empty bakery.

If you would like to learn more about creating consistent and effective messaging, reach out at [email protected]. If you would like to join our free professional women’s network for free training, resources, and to connect with other women just like yourself, visit the Power Your Pay Group.