Messaging and Positioning for sales

As a bootstrapped business, we have to be so perfect with messaging and positioning because we can’t afford any misses. One small slip where the conversion rate goes down, and there goes our profits. It’s not like we can brute force our way to general zeitgeist knowledge and get into the ear of our customers that way. We have to break through the noise.

I’ve always observed this with our customers at Interact, the ones who get the real money are the ones who break through the noise and just speak directly to their audience in a way that makes their audience respond, get up off the couch, move. It’s pure magic when it happens, and the dollars follow.

As I’ve observed those who get the outsized paydays, one thing is clear. They talk to their customers a lot. Not like a little bit, but every single day, and in every single channel. This is something I’m reminded of over and over again. Whenever we start slipping, and our messaging and positioning gets out of sync, and the conversions start to drop, I go back to the drawing board and talk to more customers.

And it works, whether the customers are telling me verbatim stuff, or I can read between the lines of what they are not saying, there is always a solution to our issue. As long as you talk to a statistically significant set of customers, or potential customers, which means 30+ within one vertical, you will get the information you need to get your positioning and messaging back on track.

This is one of the most simple lessons in business that I have to learn over and over again. When things are going right it’s easy to get a big head and think you know. Only to be crushed by lowering conversions and have to go back to the source once more.