A couple of quotes from really smart people crossed my desk recently. They highlight a core challenge sales and marketing people need to solve with the messages they create and deliver. Here they are:

“While our access to raw information has grown exponentially, our time to process this information has declined rapidly, which has placed an unprecedented premium on the act of meaning-making.” (George Dyson, Futurist)

“People are information-rich and theory-poor. If you can give them a way of organizing their experience, then their minds are wide open.” (Malcolm Gladwell, Author)

So, the question for you is… Are you a meaning-maker? Do you turn information into theory?

Test yourself, are you a confuser or a clarifier:

• Confusers pile information on their prospects and customers assuming that more is better. Clarifiers cut through the clutter and make sense of the data to present usable insights.
• Confusers use lots of industry jargon because they assume their prospects and customers like the lingo and it adds credibility. Clarifiers know better and instead use simple, concrete terms along with metaphors and analogies to make sure their audience understands.
• Confusers ask lots of questions, expecting their prospects and customers to blurt profound pains and answers they are looking for. Clarifiers know their audience is wondering if they need to change and are looking for relevant, unique ideas on why they should do something different.
• Confusers use lots of words in their campaigns, communications tools and presentations. Clarifiers tell engaging stories and use lots of visual support including hand drawings and infographics.

This is especially important for your marketing lead generation efforts. Brain science research proves that people respond better to emotional, visual and spoken-­word messaging, yet most B2B demand generation still relies heavily on volumes of written content like whitepapers. Talk about being a confuser. If you want to engage prospects and disrupt their current status quo you have to do better. Check out this video to learn about a new visual storytelling approach for your lead generation programs.

Do you have a confuser vs. clarifier example?
Share it with us and we’ll post it so others can test themselves and their messaging.

Corporate Visions’ CEO, Joe Terry, recently spoke at Forrester’s Technology Sales Enablement Forum. He held up a brand new iPad 3 and said, “I stood in line, in the rain, for three hours on Friday to get this. It’s got a Retina display. A 5MP iSight camera. And 4G LTE. Who wants it?”

Several people raised their hands.

“No really, who wants it?”

The hands started waving around a bit.

“Come on now. Who wants a free iPad?”

Finally, someone (who had seen Joe do this trick before) stood up, ran up front, and yanked it out of his hands.

“That’s what I’m talking about. I’m trying to give you one of the hottest pieces of technology on the market — for free. And only one of you out of a room full of people was willing to break the mold and take action.

“Do you see how powerful the status quo is? How hard it is to get people to step outside of their comfort zones and do something different? Even when the value and benefits of doing it are so clear?

“Now, what if I told you that I smelled something… in fact, I think I smelled smoke? What if I told you that this building was on fire? And that the fire was going to get to this room in three minutes?  But fortunately, I had been trained by the hotel on the best route to safety, so you should line up behind me.

“I bet you’d stand up and take action, wouldn’t you? And if some guy was standing in the back of the room saying, ‘Who wants a free iPad?’, who would you listen to… me, or him? Me, obviously.

“Once we were safely outside, let’s say I held up an iPad again. And the guy from the back of the room was there as well and held up his iPad. Who would you accept the iPad from? Me — because now you trust me. I was the one who told you about the threat and led you to safety.”

There’s a time and a place for extolling your products’ features, value propositions and fantastic ROI. But first, you have to get your prospects’ attention by identifying and amplifying the challenging context surrounding their status quo approach — context that creates urgency to do something different. Bring advanced insight to your prospects… help them smell and see the smoke. That a threat to their desired business outcomes is coming, and it’s coming fast. Then, and only then, have you earned the right to lead them to the safety and value of your solution.

Get your prospects to see and smell the smoke!
Attend this free 90-minute virtual preview of a new, advanced Power Messaging workshop from Corporate Visions, Power Deal Creation. You’ll learn how to proactively deliver a “distinct point of view” that loosens the status quo and provokes your prospects to do something different. By attending, you’ll get a chance to win a free pilot or two free passes to the Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference for your company!
April 23, 2012 – 11:00 AM PST
REGISTER >>

If you are like many marketers today, you have created fictional characters with names, demographics, attitudes and behaviors to help frame and target your messages.

The question is: Does your prospect’s persona drive the way they respond to your messages or the reason they buy something?  Just because they share similar personal and professional characteristics, is that what causes someone to re-think their current approach and consider your “new way” to solve their problems?

Our response is an emphatic, “NO.” In fact, focusing your messaging around personas may actually lead your content astray.

Status Quo Profiles – A New Messaging Starting Point

The biggest motivator for whether a prospect responds to your messages is if they believe their status quo is at risk, and whether they are convinced they may need to do something different than they are doing today.  This has little to do with demographics and attitudes.

The most overlooked “design point” for customer messaging is a “Status Quo Profile.”  It’s not your target’s title, not their segment, not their persona that you need to aim your messaging at; rather, it’s about why they need to see their current approach as limiting enough to put their objectives or desired outcomes at risk.

Here’s what you need to determine before developing any customer messaging, content or campaigns:

1)     How are decision makers solving the challenges your product or service offer to solve today? Your prospects think they are already doing something to solve problems and meet business needs before you come along with your story. So, you need to have a precise understanding of how your most likely potential customers are doing it currently.  Your messaging will have to take aim at dislodging an incumbent, so know your opponent.

2)     Why do they think it’s great?  Remember, prospects live in their story.  They were doing something before they chose the way they are doing it today, and they assume they already have a better solution than the one they had before.  So, chances are you are sending messages to people who don’t really think they have a problem.  Or at least, they still remember the “benefits” they based their last decision on, and assume they are getting that value.

3)     What issues, challenges, threats, risks or missed opportunities have arisen since they likely purchased their current solution or implemented their existing approach?  Not everyone is a prospect for your solution, just those who have a certain “installed” approach that can cause limitations due to a changing business environment.  You need to focus on the ripest opportunities for change, so document those things that are changing in their industry, their environment, their competitive space, the global marketplace, anything that their status quo approach may not have taken into account, or is ill-equipped to handle.

4)     What gaps exist in the current approach that will keep them from avoiding these potential problems, or capitalizing on new opportunities? The first reaction of prospects will be to see if their current approach or solution can “stretch” to overcome the challenges you identify.  So, you have to identify and amplify clear gaps in their current approach that will prohibit them from resolving these risks.  These gaps need to lead to your unique strengths or advantaged capabilities. Creating gaps that are too wide to cross with the existing status quo is essential for developing messages that will compel prospects to change.

By answering these questions, and using it as the “starting point” for crafting the messages used in your content marketing campaigns and sales tools, you will significantly improve your ability to move prospects to consider change, and choose you.

Compare this to the direction you get with a persona-based approach, and you’ll see a significant difference in the relevance and impact of your customer conversations.