Have you thought of what your brand communicates to current and potential customers? Your brand messaging is an important, yet often overlooked, foundation of your sales strategy. This type of messaging really comes down to the value you are conveying through images and language. For it to truly make an impact, it needs to be strategic and consistent. Without it, the entire foundation is at risk of collapsing.
Many companies, however, struggle with messaging and this results in sales materials that flounder or never get used. Without a good brand message, sales reps may even turn to creating their own materials. In fact, these reps often spend 30 hours per month just creating their own materials. How is that a good use of their time? Additionally, only 15% of forecasted sales deals actually close. Think of all that wasted effort and creativity.
When it comes to brand messaging, it is important to understand some basics. In branding, you do the research and strategize to plant your flag in the ground to declare to the world who your company is, where it plays and the value it delivers. Then you package the results into succinct, repeatable messaging.
How does this happen if everything right now seems so scattered within your brand messaging attempts?
- Know thyself. Know who you are as a company. What are you really about? Think of your mission statement. Is it an accurate reflection? Don’t have a mission statement – now is a great time to create or even revise one.
- Know the sandbox you are playing in. Do you really understand the needs of your potential customers? Do you really see how you can make a difference?
- Know the other competitors in your sandbox. It isn’t just about what you are doing and the messaging you are sending. What are your competitors saying and offering? Where are they succeeding? Where are they failing? Websites, online reviews and social media give great ways to gather this type of insight without even leaving your own desk.
- Know your value over what others deliver in the same sandbox. As you work through the previous three steps, you will come to a better understanding of the value you deliver to your potential clients, even with competitors surrounding you.
- Stand out through your performance of serving clients in the sandbox. It isn’t just about the brand messaging but also about following through for your customers. That often means finding a way to stand out and make yourself different from your competitors. Now you may be concerned about bragging about your difference. That isn’t the point. The point is to quantify the value you deliver and being the company that actually works for the client and captures the success with the metrics.
The great thing is you don’t have to do this alone. Here at Zebrafi, we work with you throughout the entire process. We take those metrics and show the possible results you can create for that next client. This is all done through our guided selling platform where sales representatives and customer executives can all meet to visually review priorities, metric-based case studies and to illustrate future financial results of working together. Zebrafi is that platform.
Wondering exactly how guided selling and brand messaging through Zebrafi can help you find a more successful sales process and cycle? Let’s talk at 1-833-594-7120 or info@zebrafi.com to learn how we can help you achieve your goals to Find, Close and Retain the right customers by working together to gain faster sale cycles, larger deals and higher win rates.
