In a recent working session, we worked up a ‘soft’ sales pitch for a software company to deliver to an existing client.
Hiding inside are some useful lessons that will help you increase the value you deliver when communicating.
To illustrate the point from the get-go: which is more useful to you?
- The most outstanding lesson to me is the difference between structuring our communication around ‘categories’ versus around ‘messages’.
- The most outstanding lesson to me is way we can ‘amp up’ the value we deliver by structuring our communication around ‘messages’ rather than ‘categories’.
My hope is that you went with #2!
The first is a bland statement, and the second offers a clear point of view. Let me unpack that more for you using today’s example and a couple of other recent ones also.
Today’s example emerged from a visually stunning template that hid the messages
Today’s initial draft that used the organisation’s ‘classic’ template had some terrific things going for it. It was stunningly branded and designed, had very little information on each page and was visually crisp. It had super short titles like:
- Product name
- Problem
- Team
These are useful categories to cover but hide the message. What are you saying about the product name or the problem? In fact, what IS the problem you propose solving?
This is something I see a lot across all of my clients, especially when templates are in play, so I thought worth raising here.
Using message titles massively ‘amps up’ the value you deliver when communicating
The ‘amp’ comes from delivering a point of view rather than just data.
This requires us to take a risk when thinking through our communication which might feel a bit scary, but which demonstrates we are in a ‘thinking role’ not just a ‘doing role’.
If we want to transition from operations – or deliver maximum possible value in our operational role – I suggest that this is essential.
Business leaders who compliment their team’s communication are rarely first and foremost focusing on their language use.
They may comment on the polish as an aside, but they focus on the substance – the value-add.
You go from ‘product name’ to ‘Product X is a great fit for you, or perhaps Product X is well placed to solve Y problem (that you currently face)’
Or, perhaps, from ‘Team’ to ‘Our team can integrate seamlessly with yours given our existing relationship’
This is also relevant outside sales environments, such as this one.
So, let’s amp up your own communication by using 3 steps to layer messages onto the categories
- take advantage of your ability to categorise at the outset by jotting down the high-level categories you want to discuss in your communication. This will help you get started while also helping you assess whether the ideas are MECE.
- describe your observation about that category
- now go further and draw out your insightful message about that observation.
Here’s an example from a non-sales setting:
- Category: Current landscape
- Information: We need to understand the current landscape from everyone’s perspective
- Insightful message: Understand that the current process isn’t serving anyone’s interests
You may also like to visit this post where I talk about the communication value ladder. It offers more insight and examples to illustrate the sorts of communication that adds value.
You will notice that ‘category' doesn't even make it to the bottom of our value ladder.
I hope that helps.
Have a great week.
Davina
