Seven Step Guide To A Powerful Sales Message
Written by Dave Lorenzo on October 8, 2016 / Communication / Sales Strategy / Sales Superstar
When was the last time you gave any thought to your sales message?
Have you ever delivered a sales message to an audience only to have them misinterpret your intent?
Did you ever communicate something to a group, expecting them to take action, only to be disappointed with the results?
These scenarios are quite common but few people make adjustments to their sales message as a result.
Today we are going to focus on how you deliver your sales message to your target audience. Our goal is to improve your message delivery regardless of the media you choose.
The ideas we will exchange today will work in print (direct mail, email or articles), oral (speaking engagements, radio and television interviews, podcasts), and one-to-one communication.
Here are the seven steps to delivering a powerful sales message that helps you make more money.
Step One: Bring Your Passion
You must let your passion come through during your delivery.
You don’t have to be a motivational speaker, jumping up and down, getting overly excited. But you do have to vary your voice inflection and tone, and you have to let your passion for the topic come through. I don’t care if you’re talking about quantum physics, or if you’re trying to get somebody fired up about a charity. You’ve got to be passionate about the topic and the audience has to feel that passion.
Step Two: Use a Personal Tone
When it comes to selling, a personal tone always wins the day.
Too often I see people put out sales material that looks very sterile and academic, and they wonder why they don’t get results. The reason is because the tone of the message doesn’t resonate with the audience.
You must produce marketing material that is conversational. Use the first person tone of voice. The pronouns “I” and “you” are not dirty words. They may be verboten in academia but they are critical in marketing. Speak to people as if they’re people, whether you’re doing it in a written format or in an actual conversation from the stage, or on television.
Pretend you are having a conversation with someone who is sitting directly in front of you. You’re not receiving an academic grade. The grade you get is when people come to you with money in their hand.
The way to motivate people to come to you with money in their hand is to develop a relationship, and the way to develop relationships is through conversations. Write in the first person. Speak in the first person as if you’re just having a conversation in a one-on-one setting.
Right now, in this article, I’m speaking directly to you. I’m talking to you, and I thank you for being here, and I’m glad you’re with me. We’re developing a relationship right now. This is how you want to develop relationships with all of your clients.
Step three: Share a Strong Opinion
The third element in a successful communication style is your opinion. Being neutral is not a way to go through life. If you have no feeling for any topic, you are the dullest person on the planet.
You have opinions on everything. People you meet know that you have opinions on everything. When you don’t share your opinions with people, you appear to be guarded. It’s as if you’re hiding something.
You must share an opinion. Yes, people will disagree with you, and yes, you will drive some people away. But you will also attract people to you in droves. The people who are magnetically attracted to you will be even more attracted, and more loyal if they share your point of view. Regardless of who you are and what your opinions are, people will be attracted to you.
The example I give all the time of this comes from radio at two different ends of the spectrum.
On the right you have Rush Limbaugh, a conservative, right-wing figure who agitates people all the time. He gets people on the right very, very excited. He gets people on the left really, really angry. People listen every day. Why do they listen? Some listen because they agree with him. Some listen because they hate him. All of them listen because they want to hear what he has to say next.
The person on the left who does the same exact thing is Howard Stern. He doesn’t generally take political positions, but he is outrageous. People who are liberal, people who enjoy that type of humor, listen every single day. Why do they do it? They want to hear what he has to say next. They want to hear his opinion.
Both men, different ends of the spectrum, express their opinion, and people come back for more. And guess what…These people sell tons of products and services. They command high advertising rates. People take their word on the quality of the goods and services they advertise because they appear genuine.
You don’t have to be a controversial talk show host. You don’t have to be a fanatic. But you do have to express an opinion because people know it’s there, and they want to hear it from you. The folks with whom your opinion resonates will be people who are magnetically attracted and loyal to you.
Step Four: Reinforce Facts with Stories
If you’re trying to make a point to someone, if you want to bond with people, if you want to create a relationship, you have to be able to tell stories.
You have to have things in your life that have happened to you that have created the beliefs that make you who you are. Tell those stories to folks. If you want to stress a point to someone, whether it’s an academic point or a passionate point, you must have a story. You must have a narrative that goes along with it.
Stories engage a person’s emotions.
If you want to get people to come over to your side, if you want to sway their opinion, if you want to develop a relationship with someone, you have to be able to connect with them at an emotional level. If you connect with them at an emotional level, you can help them understand through logic and reason why they’re feeling the way they’re feeling. Once you do that, you have a relationship.
Connecting to people on an emotional level is important. Doing it through narrative is critical. You have to build stories into your communication, whether it is written or spoken word.
Step Five: Tell Them What To Do Next
Action is the ultimate goal of a sales message. Every communication tool you use, every message you put out, has to have a call to action.
You must answer the question: What’s next?
That’s the question going through the mind of your client after he is hit with your marketing message.
He wants to know what he should do next. Tell him in plain language.
Step Six: Use Lots Repetition
People don’t remember things. That’s why repetition is critically important. People follow messages they hear first, messages they hear last, and messages that are repeated over and over and over again. I’m not saying you have to say things the same way over and over and over again. You can change the way you say things, but repeating your message is critical.
Saying things multiple times will help it resonate with folks. Repeating things in writing multiple times will help it resonate, will help it sink in, it will make sure that it connects with people in a way that they can understand.
Rephrase your message and your call to action. Say it multiple times. Use different voice inflections each time.
The minimum number of times to communicate a call to action is seven. People must hear a message seven times before their brain processes it.
Don’t worry about the repetition making people uncomfortable. It won’t. People may hear the message on the sixth or the seventh time, for the first time, so they won’t know it has been repeated.
Step Seven: Keep It Simple
Finally, we’ve come to the last aspect of communication style. This is really important and most people don’t get it.
Your message has to be focused, simple and concise. You only want to convey one point at a time and you want to do it in a way that resonates with people.
Create a message that has punch, resonates with people, gets you into their mind quickly and motivates them to take action.
I know this is a lot to think about. It is a lot to mentally digest. But this style, this formula, is the recipe for successful communication. Read it. Re-read it. Use this article as a checklist.
Following this seven-step guide to building a powerful sales message will help you close more deals and make more money.
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