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The Six Elements of High Impact Messaging

 

How do we craft outbound prospecting messaging that gets buyers to engage and act now?  That’s the question we have been discussing.

This week I’m excited to show you a messaging framework based on brand-new, cutting edge research that you can use for all your messaging.  And while you can use it for all your messaging, it is especially good at addressing the Why Change and Why Now questions we discussed previously.

In fact, very recent studies have proven that the formula I’m sharing with you today is the best so far discovered at getting customer to:

  • Consider changing and engage us,
  • and to act now rather than continue to wait.

Those two qualities make it especially good for what we need in outbound sales prospecting.

The Six Elements of High Impact Messaging

There are six elements to high-impact messaging.  Here they are:

  1. Driver / Trigger Event
  2. Problem / Goal
  3. Insight / Unconsidered Needs
  4. Value Prop / Outcome Statement
  5. Feature / Mechanism of Action
  6. Proof / Results

High-Impact Messaging Framework

Let’s break these down.

Driver / Trigger Event – This is the factor, trend or trigger event that is causing the need for change.  They are external to the customer and difficult or impossible to influence.  They include things like Regulation or Economic Conditions.

Problem / Goal – This is a key initiative or priority for the person or organization.  These are typically near-term objectives.

Insight / Unconsidered Needs – This is new understanding and possibly new needs or requirements around a challenge or opportunity that the customer is unaware of.  It could be a new challenge or opportunity they didn’t know about, or maybe a risk that makes their current path unsafe.

Value Prop / Outcome Statement – This is a simple and concise statement that communicates the tangible results you produce for your clients.

Feature / Mechanism of Action –  This is the means by which the positive change (your value) is affected.  It’s the process by which your solution delivers its effect.  It’s your secret sauce.

Proof / Results – Proof is evidence that you can deliver the results you’re claiming.

These are the six elements of high-impact messaging.  If you master how these elements inter-relate, you will be able to craft high-impact messaging using any channel of communication.  Whether that’s telephone, email, social or just having a conversation, leveraging this framework will maximize your interaction.

How to Implement The High-Impact Messaging Framework

All right, so how do we implement this thing?  Well, it’s a little counter-intuitive, but we start with the second element with the problem or key initiative our customer has. We do that by researching.

Then, we work backwards and identify the external drivers and/or trigger events that are causing their problem or affecting their key initiative.

Presenting Insight & Unconsidered Needs

Presenting Insight and unconsidered needs requires some work.  We need to understand the problem or goal well enough to introduce some insight or some needs they hadn’t considered.  It’s very important that it be new to them.  As we’ve discussed previously insight must be:

  • New
  • Relevant
  • Actionable

This is a big deal.  Huthwaite research has proven that when we help customers identify an unrecognized problem they are willing to pay a premium for the solution.  Unrecognized needs are potential bear traps or potholes buyers can fall into.  So when you share these with customers, you are literally adding value on-the-fly and making your meeting inherently valuable.  This carries over to your solution.  So you are literally building value in your solution when you present insight and unconsidered needs.

The Psychology of Insight & Unconsidered Needs

From a psychology perspective what introducing Insight or unconsidered needs does is it sets the customer off balance a bit.  The new information creates a gap of uncertainty that they want to fill and this makes them open to solutions.

In this context the timing is right for us to deliver our value prop or outcome statement.  We’ve already discussed this in previous articles.  Your outcome statement should clearly and concisely articulate how we address both their stated needs and our newly introduced unconsidered needs.

Skepticism & The Mechanism of Action

Regardless of how good your value prop or outcome statement is, the natural reaction to any value prop or outcome statement is skepticism.  So after you’ve made your outcome statement the prospect is primed to receive the next messaging element.  They’re saying to themselves: “Ya, right.  How do you do that?”

This is the time we introduce the mechanism of action by which we actually produce the outcome they’re seeking.

And then we back all that up with proof.  And as we’ve discussed in previous articles there are lots of kinds of proof you can use, but the most impactful come from objective 3rd party sources like:

  • Recognizable, referenceable clients.
  • And objective 3rd Party Endorsements.

Study Details & My Experience

All right, so how do we know this works?  The science behind this framework is relatively new and I’m excited to share the details behind the study and work that revealed this framework in my upcoming book Tactical Sales Prospecting.

The approach has been very beneficial for me and my own teams.  We, just like you, are out there in the street selling every day.  Using this model as the foundation of our messaging I was able to my team from 3 turnkey sales the year before I came on board to 51 the following year.

That’s a 1700% improvement.

I want that same level of success for you.

Which brings us to the key point and our prospecting secret for this article.

Prospecting Secret – Messaging done right will have a massive impact on your success.

Get notified when Tactical Sales Prospecting comes out by signing up for my newsletter at PureMuir.com .

Until next time!

James

Get the #1 book on closing sales now at Amazon.

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