I am pulling my hair out. Banging my head against the wall. Writing... erasing... writing again. I just can’t seem to get it right.
What’s causing me such distress? Words. My value proposition. How I entice people to do business with me.
I’m in the process of changing my website to emphasize my speaking. When my targeted prospects pop onto those pages, I want them to say,
If only it was that easy. Here I am, a wordsmith and sales expert, yet everything I write feels wrong. Awkward. Clunky. And, as much as I hate self-serving words, I still catch myself using them.
Why am I telling you this? Because it’s hard work developing strong sales messaging that really resonates with your prospects. You never get it perfect the first time.
Finding the right words is a constant process of iteration. Whether it’s an email, a voicemail, a conversation or a website, we have to constantly be fine-tuning what we say and how we say it.
We also have to pay attention to the reactions elicited by our words. Do they pique our prospect’s curiosity? Do our prospects use our own words back to us when describing their issues or the help they need?
Or, do they create obstacles that make it difficult to continue talking? Are we brushed off quickly? Worse yet, are we even in the game?
Because words matter – more than most salespeople know. I’m anal about them.
Prior to redoing the speaking pages on my website, here’s what I did:
First off, I visited dozens of other “expert” websites (not all in sales) to see how they described their services. Most did a mediocre job. If I was their targeted prospect, I would have yawned and moved on.But some caught my eye. When they did, I stopped to analyze why – “as if” I was their prospect. I looked at the headlines, layout, verbiage, graphics and videos. The whole works.
What were they doing to get me to stop my surfing and spend more time learning more? By pondering this question, I learned a lot.
You’d think I’d be done with my immersion, but I was still trying to figure things out. So next, I narrowed the field down to my top eight sites – which I liked for a variety of reasons.
Then, after printing them out, I highlighted the words and phrases that appealed to me as a discriminating, educated buyer.
Finally, I was finally ready to write. That’s where I am right now. Trying to find “my” words; ones that will appeal to my prospects.
We just launched my new website the other day. It's not totally done yet. I'm still iterating. Constantly trying to find more effective ways …to maximize my impact.
There is no easy way to be good at sales. It takes work. Thinking. Sometimes even agonizing. Just so you know.