Several years ago we were engaged by the senior sales executive of a high growth supply chain software company. His company was transitioning to a new portfolio of products and a sales strategy focused on executive buyers. Marketing had created messaging for this strategy, but the sales team was not converting the messaging into successful executive meetings and targeted sales results.

The sales executive decided to join customer meetings to see what was really happening in the field. What he found was a team whose only messaging consistency was no consistency at all. Most salespeople were making up their messages and presentations on the fly. Given the company’s legacy, it was not too surprising that the messaging was still product-oriented and not appropriate for solution-oriented conversation with customer executives.

The sales executive realized he had to find a way to ensure key sales messages were consistently communicated by the organization. A key element of his solution was the development of sales-oriented messaging tools that his top sales performers developed in collaboration with marketing. Due to the direct involvement of top-performing salespeople in creating and validating practical sales messaging tools, the broader sales team ultimately embraced the new messaging.

Are your sales people delivering consistent, compelling messages in customer conversations?

Sales messaging is a word thrown around a lot these days and like any other term its usage defines it. But that said, we believe sales messaging is at its core something really simple – the conversations between salespeople and customers. When salespeople meet with customers they are presenting your company, they are explaining what you do and how you do it, and they are doing that on more levels than just the words they say.

Are your salespeople talking to someone in the front office or the corner office?

Do your salespeople serve your customers as a good product rep or do they provide insight and develop a solution to a business problem?

Do your salespeople lead conversations or give presentations?

Do your salespeople listen actively?

Are your salespeople comfortable with improvisation?

The answers to these questions say something important about your sales messaging. Unlike “messaging” (the ideas, concepts, capabilities, positioning a company tries to present to the marketplace), sales messaging converts strategy and messaging into something salespeople will actually say in a customer meeting.

Once there was a CIO who read a magazine. He saw an ad for a new server tool that would revolutionize his business. The ad said “Simplify Your Server” and featured a picture of a server tower falling into a rippling pool of water. The CIO saw other ads and he began to hear some buzz about this new tool from colleagues. But the CIO wasn’t certain exactly how the tool would solve his problems.

Then one day the CIO got an email from a salesperson for the server tool company. The salesperson asked for a meeting. The CIO said yes, he’d like to learn more. He had many questions.

The CIO got some of his staff together in a conference room and was ready to meet with the sales person. The salesperson arrived with rolling briefcase filled with information packets. He handed them out to the staff and CIO. He hooked up his laptop to the projector and began to talk in a polished, clear voice about the features of the product and the common problems it solved. The salesperson talked about all of the ways the tool simplified server functions. The CIO jotted down some questions he had. He could see the common problems the tool solved, but he wasn’t sure if the tool would address his unique problems.

The sales person droned on and the CIO began to look at his watch. He had a meeting with the CEO. He slipped out of the meeting as the salesperson continued to flip through power point slides.

The CIO was still interested in the product, so he put the salesperson’s information in a letter tray on his desk to get to later when he could sort through it and determine whether or not it would be helpful.

A few weeks later he was contacted by another company that promised to simplify his server tools. The salesperson asked for a brief meeting. The CIO reluctantly agreed. The salesperson came in with a small shoulder bag and began to ask the CIO about some problems he might be having with his company’s servers. The CIO said, yes, those were the kinds of problems he was having. The salesperson continued to ask several critical questions and the CIO was increasingly interested in what he had to say. Then the salesperson took out a pad of paper and began to sketch some diagrams, incorporating what the CIO had told him about his problems. The salesperson showed him how his company’s tool could solve the unique problems the CIO was having and the potential business impact for the CIO’s company.

The CIO said that he would talk to the CFO and in a few months they had purchased the tool along with up-front consulting services and a long-term support plan.

The first salesperson’s packet of tables and information sat on the CIO’s desk, until he cleaned the desk, and threw the packet in the trash.