A key concept surrounding the world of business is being concise. The outside world doesn’t care for all the inner-workings of a business like sales reps do generally speaking. A sales rep may be fascinated by the way their product gets from point A to B, but the person their selling to is really only concerned about the benefits they’ll receive. Ineffective ads ramble on and on about the process for their product and hardly hit on what it does for the consumer. Certain demographics do care about quality and attention to detail, but this should never be at the expense of the end result. The customer should know exactly how the problem is solved from the start so they don’t get lost in details. And as far as details go, they should never clutter a product pitch or ad. They should work like evidence for a thesis, only supplementing the problem statement.
Clarity is strongly connected to being concise. The goal of clarity is to help others see their situations in fresh and more revealing ways, and to identify problems they didn’t realize they had. This is why it’s important to communicate a lot with few quality words. A sales person should get right to the core of a client’s issue with insightful identification. For example, if they see the issue present in the supplier’s ability to meet a manufacturing deadline, they shouldn’t get lost in contract confusion if the client suggests that. This is an opportunity to be concise and demonstrate why the sales person’s company is better. The only thing to be weary of is being rude and coming off as dismissive of the client. In the end, a client will be more appreciative of a concise and helpful sales conversation than a passive, confusing one.
BoweryJE22
This is so true. Customers really expect a totally different thing than what we think that they want. I also read the sentence “This is why it’s important to communicate a lot with few quality words” and had a crazy experience. I was literally in the middle of a conversation about how it is hard for me and my friend to write a ton in papers with a lot of words. For us it is easier to do exactly what you said.
I think that this is a great blog post. Being concise is a skill that many sales people overlook. Many prospects do not want to see a sales person, let alone be bogged down by one. The is an art of getting in and getting out, while taking care of business. I really liked your point on clarity and its connection to being concise.
Love this. I’ve always believed it’s better to say something that means a lot with few words than it is to say something with a lot of words that means little. Being concise is key in sales!
This is true I really hate to wait for people to get to the point and I think this points back to Sandler rule ( never answer any unasked questions