In Twenty-Five Words Or less
One of the best ways of loosing a sale is by talking past the close. This unremarkable observation has myriad applications. Software based products’ literature is a good example of this simple truth.
The 60-second elevator pitch has given way to the 30-second fast pitch, which may be a good thing. Having made a fool of myself doing both before gathering of VCs and the like, I can say, with some authority, that the shorter time does help focus on The Message, even though I never got anywhere close to presenting again to a smaller group. In retrospect, it seems that the longer time encouraged motor mouthing, cramming too much into too little, with the diction going faster as the time limit approached.
I read somewhere that, long ago, breakfast cereal companies had contests in which you had to write on a boxtop why you wanted what was being offered, in twenty-five words or less. Labor was not as dear then as it is today, because people usually located in Battle Creek, Michigan, actually read these boxtop missives, and some of them became the basis for other advertising and marketing campaigns.
These were smart people, lead by other smart people, and the twenty-five word limit was intended not only to speed the boxtops’ handling and evaluation, but to find other things, buried like treasure, in those cardboard missives. Things like a common vocabulary, regional variations, education levels, even financial status. All these were the grist and backdrop for discovering and refining marketing messages. Not surprisingly, virtually all of the ones they created that were sent out to the world were less than twenty-five words.
Software based products tend, unfortunately, to be complex, not always because they are in fact, but because that’s how they’re presented, explained, and marketed. Jargon and technobabel and structure that seldom flows, reflections of the developers, and their managers who once, perhaps, were developers, who themselves are comfortable with the complex and arcana of the tools and environments from which these products originate.
As a practical matter, creating useful collateral material, from brochures, help systems, frequently asked questions and answers, etc. requires talents and skills very different from the software foundries’ technical milieu. The good ones are rare, and worth what it costs to find and keep them. Their work can often be the differentiator that makes the sale. And far more often than not, the focus, clarity and appropriateness of their efforts, point for point, take less than twenty five words.
© Copyright 2009 Chuck Brooks for FutureWare SCG
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Tags: customer support, product promotion, program development, software collateral, technical sales