“Customers’ buying processes have evolved in our world of ubiquitous global communication, but companies’ selling processes have for the most part stayed the same.” --Thomas Stewert, editor of Harvard Business Review

In a marketplace where companies are increasingly losing their product advantage, how you sell is as important as what you sell. Traditional sales training focuses on skills and what sales people should do to make a sale--talk to the decision maker, differentiate, sell value. Sales messaging focuses on how to sell--say the right thing, to the right prospect, at the right stage in the sales process, to motivate the right behavior, at the right value point, do it right now.

The answer to every sales challenge already exists. One of your sales people already has a great value statement, an effective way to position you against your competition and a unique way to overcome and objection.

Develop a message
• Mine those answers
• Debug—determine if it is true and meaningful
• Synthesize the message—put your English on it

If you have separate sales and marketing department, the tasks should be split between them. If you do not, delegate one person in your organization to collect information. Create surveys for your customers and conduct customer interviews. A second person should mine the sales force for tactics that work best for them.

Create a cohesive message that combines your sales force’s answers and information gathered from your customers. Then you must disseminate the message. If you have a small agency, you can do this at a weekly meeting. A larger agency can create tutorials and scripts for their sales force.

The key factor is that this is not a project wit ha beginning and end. The audience’s needs will constantly change, and so should your message.