A simple message is a sticky one.

We humans must cope with a lot of information, but for the most part, we’re only good at remembering things that interest us; a lot of guys can remember minutiae from a football game from 20 years ago but can't remember the milk.

A simple message is portable and fits easily in your pocket. If your message requires bullets and charts and circles and arrows, then you’re asking too much of your prospect. Since people have only so much attention, they like to have something to easily grab hold of: “Oh, that Obama guy? He’s for change? Hey, I like change. He’s my man.”

It’s not that people can’t process nuance if you give it to them—they certainly can, but only if it’s nuance they’re interested in. Which brings us to insurance: Most people want the bare minimum of information that will allow them to make a confident choice.

So when it comes to selling your service, less is more. While you want to make sure they understand the details of your quote, you also want to limit your sales pitch to as few words as possible.

Do give them a pitch that fits in their pocket.
Don’t give them the equivalent of a 24-slide PowerPoint lecture.

An example: Yesterday a guy give me an estimate for some hardwood floors. He asked some questions, took measurements and wrote out the quote. Then, as he’s starting for the door, he thanks me for considering A Plus Hardwoods. As if in passing he says, “We’ve been around 20 years and have never had a complaint from the Better Business Bureau. We guarantee everything we do, so if in 10 years something breaks, we’ll come back and fix it.”

Simple and sticky, and he even limited his message to three (the magic number) points—longevity, no complaints, and a guaranteed product.

The theory of the unique selling proposition encourages an even further distillation of your message. What one feature or characteristic makes your service or product unique? Can you condense it to one thing? How about one word?

Presidential candidates have this mastered—it’s called staying on message. To illustrate how good they are at delivering a concentrated and memorable message, see how well you do on the following quiz. I bet you have a much better handle on the candidates’ stump themes than you would guess:

Quiz
Match the campaign message with the candidate:

1. Change and hope
2. Experience, leadership from day one
3. A leader who’s not afraid to make hard choices
4. Together we can stick it to the man
5. They’re out to get us, just like they did on 9/11
6. Chuck and I share your values
7. I’ll run the country the same way I run businesses

A. Mitt Romney
B. Rudy Giuliani
C. John Edwards
D. Hillary Clinton
E. Barack Obama
F. John McCain
G. Mike Huckabee