Complexity in your message keeps your customers from buying. Whenever there’s complexity, there’s confusion. And, confusion slows down the decision-making process.

A confused buyer cannot buy. So, you need to make it simple for your prospect to make a decision. How? Have you ever noticed that when someone says, “I don’t understand,” someone else gets up and draws a picture?

One of the great tools that you have in your messaging toolkit is a concept called the Big Picture. But, just knowing why pictures are important doesn’t mean they will be executed well. Look at this picture below to see what can happen when a big picture goes wrong.

OK, OK.  I know this was drawn by a grade-schooler. But, it still makes a great point. Big pictures are powerful tools that can have tremendous impact. Just make sure it’s the impact you want.

You need to be aware of how your customers’ strategic agenda, responsibilities and experiences affect the way they see things. They are always wondering, “How will this work in my world?” They don’t care about your world and the way you’ve ordered it.

Many times you are too steeped in the details and nuances of your specific products and services to realize that your customers see a forest, and have no understanding or appreciation for the subtleties surrounding your tree.

Here are some important lessons for making sure your big picture helps strip out complexity and confusion among your buyers, not add to it:

1. Use Contrast – Before and after imagery is very powerful in communicating value. Make sure your customer sees the “pain” they are currently experiencing without you, and then clearly contrast it with the “gain” your solution provides. Make sure you use dramatic contrasting colors so that the viewer can literally see the difference. Don’t use blacks and blues; rather, use the drama of red to make your contrasting point.
2. Beware of Metaphors – Using a metaphor in your big picture may seem like a good idea at first, but they often drag down the image with too much superfluous detail that distracts from your core idea and makes it harder to remember. Seriously, we don’t want to see another company claim to work like a “pit crew” to make sure their customers succeed and then proceed to draw a detailed analogy of a pit stop.
3. Catalyze Action – Remember, you are messaging for a decision, not just to inform. How does your picture inspire your customer to want to take action? What are you doing to show a clear path moving forward, away from the status quo and toward you? And, did you remember to make it look really simple? Make sure your customer can redraw it after you leave so they can inspire their team to move forward.

Use a big picture whenever you need to make abstract ideas more concrete, and complex concepts more simple.

It can be the breakthrough you need to communicate your solution story in a more remarkable, memorable way that will be retold and sold by your customer – even when you’re not there.

- Tim Riesterer
CMO and SVP Strategic Consulting and Products
Corporate Visions Inc.

Do you recognize this short story?

One day, a man walking through the forest came upon a logger (lumberjack) who was sawing away at a large tree and not getting very far at all. The man approached the logger as he stopped for a moment to rest and observed that the logger would get further if he sharpened his saw. The logger replied that he just didn’t have the time to sharpen the saw because he was busy cutting down the tree, and went back to his work.

This story is from Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the 7th Habit, Sharpen the Saw.  We learn that if the logger had taken the time to sharpen his saw, he would have achieved his goal in a more effective manner. Instead, he chose the status quo.

Often times, we learn something, practice it for a while, gain success and then go back to doing things the old way, simply because it’s easy or we’re tired.  This is the best time to sharpen your saw.  Find ways to do things differently.  Add a new skill to your portfolio, refresh an old skill that was working for you, attend a conference that offers a fresh perspective, take a class, read a book… and so on.   If you’re not sharpening your saw, you’re not growing, and if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

We did an informal poll of a group of salespeople, asking them what they did on a day-to-day basis to keep their messaging skills sharp.  Here are some of their ideas:

1)  Mix it up. Some sales techniques you learn can seem cheesy, or even intimidating at first.  Try them anyway.  They’re only cheesy when executed poorly, and sounding the same as everyone else is far scarier.  Prospects will appreciate that you sound different from everyone else.

2)  Teaching is learning. Explaining a concept to someone else is one of the most effective ways to ingrain that concept in your own mind.  Look for the opportunity to coach one of your peers on their messaging.

3)  Peers are the toughest critics. When’s the last time you gave a sales presentation to your manager, or a fellow salesperson?  That can be far more nerve-racking than presenting to your prospects.  But your toughest critics are your best coaches.  Volunteer to do a practice run of one of your upcoming sales presentations on one of your weekly team sales calls.

My daughter recently appeared in The Wiz, an updated, musical retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While the story is similar to the original, all of the music is different, and contains a distinct mid-1970s urban, disco feel. It’s a trip.

In one scene, the Wicked Witch of the West, named Evilene, sings a song called, “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.” Watch this clip to get a flavor (don’t worry, there’s a point to be made here):

Before The Wiz ever hit Broadway, Shakespeare was penning these words for his play Henry IV: “Come hither, sir. Though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news.” Before that, the Greek philosopher and writer, Sophocles, created this dialogue for his character Antigone, “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.”

Bring Your Client Bad News

Some of you may think it’s your job to always keep the client happy. You think a successful client relationship is one where everyone is always smiling. In other words, don’t nobody bring me no bad news.

You might even avoid bringing in that smarty-pants from the Headquarters Products Group because she’s always stirring the pot, challenging the client, pushing them to think differently. You don’t want her to “screw up the relationship.”

Then, one day, you are caught completely off-guard when you hear that your great client is piloting a concept with one of your competitors. “Don’t worry,” you’re told, “it’s just a small side project the senior executives asked for because they were at some conference and heard about a new approach that supposedly addresses some problems we didn’t even know needed fixing.”

What just happened?

Deliberately Provoking the Client

Someone else was willing to challenge your customer’s status quo. Someone other than you was able to get the senior executives’ attention by telling them something they didn’t know, about a problem they didn’t know they had.

In other words, they were able to gain strategic executive altitude and wrest your client’s attention away from you by bringing them some bad news:

• They were willing to push the customer out of their comfort zone.
• They helped the customer see their competitive challenges in a new light.
• They highlighted specific painful situations and made them unmistakably urgent.
• They had the guts to create constructive tension and use it to their advantage.

This is counter-intuitive to many companies and salespeople, who are afraid the customer will shoot the messenger. And, put all of your current business at risk.

Throughout history messengers have been vulnerable to attack. In ancient war times, news would be carried by fast runners, who would be sent to battle fronts to report back on victory or defeat, or to request reinforcements. If the news was not good, and the receiver chose to vent their anger, these messengers could meet an untimely and violent death.

But in today’s hyper-competitive, increasingly complex selling environments, where you need to cut through the clutter of sameness and overcome the rise of risk aversion to get your customer to care about your message, you might have to be the bearer of a little bad news.

A March 2009 Harvard Business Review article titled, “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers,” captured the essence of this concept and coined the phrase “provocation-based selling.”

Briefly stated, the provocation concept contained three components:

• Identify a critical problem facing your customer – one so ominous that, even in a downturn, they will find the money to address it. Critical problems meet the following criteria: they seriously jeopardize your customers’ ability to compete, they’ve proved stubborn to solve, and you are a credible source of advice on them.
• Formulate a provocative view of the problem – a fresh perspective that frames the problem in a jarring new light. Rather than finding out how your client’s executives currently view the problem you’ve identified, you determine how they should view it and deliver insight around it.
• Lodge your provocation – to win support, convey the magnitude, difficulty and urgency of the problem with an executive who has the power to approve the solution you’re proposing – without putting him on the defensive. First, you may have to convince a sponsor/referrer of the idea and get them to make an introduction.

During the early “Warring States” period of China, the concept of chivalry and virtue prevented the executions of messengers sent by opposing sides. This continued as an invisible code of conduct in war where a commanding officer was expected to receive and send back emissaries or diplomatic envoys sent by the enemy unharmed.

Today, your customers are essentially saying, “If you want my attention, tell me something I don’t already know, about a problem I didn’t even know I had.”

They aren’t looking to shoot the messenger. Take your messenger role seriously. Provoking and challenging your customer will be rewarded.

By Tim Riesterer
CMO and SVP Strategic Consulting at Corporate Visions Inc.
Co-author of Customer Message Management