The
Right Words to Win
It's
What They See, Not What You Show
By
Ken Wax
Published
in VARBusiness
The
first few sentences your salespeople utter when talking with
customers are crucial. They need to know what they're talking
about, project confidence and know their customers. In short,
they need to engage their audience, not just present facts
and claims.
Furthermore,
it doesn't matter what they are selling. To illustrate my
point, let me take you on a 'round-the-world cruise.
This
is a story about selling cabins on the QE II luxury oceanliner,but
it's really a lesson about words and the effect they have
on prospective customers.
This
new cruise was one that would travel around the world. It
was scheduled to visit exotic ports, and everything about
it would be luxurious. As you can imagine, it was expected
to be quite expensive,not to mention it would require a substantial
commitment of one's time. So how do you market this new product
to attract enough customers to fill such an enormous ship?
The
knee-jerk reaction would be to whip up a slick brochure filled
with striking photographs of beautiful people in those wonderful
locales. But the organizers of the trip didn't want to do
that for fear it would make the cruise seem like every other
big tour, only much slower because it was by sea.
Instead,
they chose to make their case with words alone. An ordinary,
typewritten letter,without a single picture. Many in the travel
business thought they were crazy. How on earth could something
so low-impact bring in sales?
Ah,
but so much effort was put into those words. The writers imagined
themselves as recipients of the letter. What would happen
in the mind of the readers of that letter? What would it take
to capture their attention? To engage their imaginations?
To bring them to action?
It
turned out that the letter broke all sorts of "rules",at
nine pages long, it was more than twice as long as conventional
wisdom said people would read. But, sometimes, conventional
wisdom is broken by the unconventional approach: The response
rate exceeded all expectations.
Why?
Because the letter engaged the readers' imaginations. They
had to create mental pictures. A section about visiting Paris,
for example, described the feeling they would have strolling
along a cobblestone street toward the Eiffel Tower, right
down to the delicious aroma of bread baking. The marketing
strategy counted on the power of mere words sent to just the
right target. The launch was remarkably successful.
Smooth
Sailing
What
words do your people use? Do they intrigue, or merely assert?
Do they engage the customers' imaginations? At most companies,
management doesn't know,each sales rep is winging it. That
means a bell curve distribution. A few are terrific, a few
quite weak. The rest, sad to say, are in the mediocre middle.
It
costs your company a small fortune to meet with a prospect
who could become a customer. Can you really
afford to leave to chance the success of that meeting?
People
make sweeping judgments based on the first words they hear.
First impressions can be difficult to overcome.
Help
your salespeople truly obtain the gift of gab. Get them training
so they can launch your product with finesse, rather than
send it floating adrift. Please, Captain, guide this ship.
Ken
Wax is president of Total Quality Selling Inc. and an internationally
known speaker on customer creation.
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