If you're like most marketers, you're probably struggling with the best ways to help your salespeople have more meaningful conversations with customers and prospects. Perhaps you believe your salespeople sell too tactically, offering piecemeal solutions and missing the opportunity to serve in a more trusted advisor role. Or perhaps you have great salespeople, but their messages are inconsistent across the field and don't reflect corporate strategy and vision.

Effectively articulating any company's true business value is a challenge for even the best salespeople. So what percentage of your sales organization can engage customers in discussions that carry them from high-level challenges down to individual solution areas, without leaving the customer lost in translation?

When connecting the dots from marketing vision to sales execution, you can use these five quick tips for creating scripted conversations to help salespeople more effectively communicate your company's business value to customers and prospects:

1. Avoid using your own corporate-speak

Many companies have developed messaging at the corporate level, which likely includes the invention of your own unique term and associated acronym. Unfortunately, that can lead to salespeople's spending their valuable presentation time trying to define and explain the messaging itself and not the associated business value to your customer.

Instead, try enabling salespeople to tell a story that explores business challenges and your approach to solving them. When it's appropriate in the discussion, sketch in the acronym and link it between the pains and solutions. Next, script a line that says, "Here at XYZ company, we call that...."

Remember, customers want to know how you solve problems (your unique approach to value). Analysts want to know what you call it (your brand category and acronym).

2. Use the voice of experience

Don't think for a moment that you can create this introductory dialogue without interviewing and gathering data from some very seasoned folks in your sales and executive organizations. They are best at sharing a good dose of reality in what an executive tête-à-tête can or cannot be.

But there is one caveat: Even your most senior executives can sometimes fall back on the same comfortable pitch. Stretch them to help you build an elevated discussion—one that sets your company apart. Make sure they can articulate what you are expecting your salespeople to present. In this role, you'll be as much of a strategist and facilitator as an interviewer.

Above all, keep this important project on track by owning the result, making decisions that keep it moving forward, and ensuring the project does not become victim of death by committee.

Remember, this scripted piece will evolve alongside your messaging. Thus, a six-month shelf life is appropriate for this type of sales tool.

3. Make it meaningful and memorable for customers

Two suggestions here. First, keep points brief and on target. For example, "We work toward solving three key business challenges" helps customers associate you with specific pain areas right up front.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jody Canavan is founder and president of Launch International (www.launchinternational.com). Reach her via 215-230-4340.