Your Message Needs to Go On Tour Without You
Your prospect may understand what your company does, but can they explain it to everyone else involved in the buying decision? On a recent episode of Persuasion by the Pint, I talked about how to create a message clients can understand, remember, and repeat, so your firm has a better chance of making it into the next conversation.
Table of Contents
Your message has to travel without you. The words don't have to be complicated. Give your prospects words they can repeat.Make it easier for other people to advocate for you.Let your message get into the room before you do. 
Your message has to travel without you
You have a great conversation with a prospective client. They understand your approach, see how your leadership development program could help, and ask all the right questions. You leave the meeting feeling pretty good about where things stand.
Then they walk into another meeting without you.
Maybe someone else controls the budget. So now, your contact has to explain your firm to people who weren’t on the original call. Someone asks, “So, what do they do?”
What does your prospect say?
This is one of the messaging challenges I see with leadership development firms. You offer nuanced, high-value work, but you’re often selling that work through a buying process involving multiple stakeholders. During my recent interview on Persuasion by the Pint, I talked about leadership development firms that may need approval from three or four people before an engagement moves forward.
That means your message has to keep working after you leave the room.
The words don't have to be complicated.
But I get it. It is hard to get down to the brass tacks when it comes to talking about your business.
“It’s really important that you figure out what you’re saying in a way that other people can understand, remember, and repeat.”
You probably don’t do just one thing. You might offer executive coaching, assessments, workshops, team development, facilitation, consulting, keynotes, or some combination of them. Your methodology may draw on years of research and experience, and different clients may hire you for very different reasons.
So when someone asks what you do, it makes sense that you want to give them the whole picture.
The problem is that the whole picture can become … a lot.
I saw this with one firm whose proposals had become incredibly long. There was plenty of good information in them, but even the people inside the company couldn’t consistently remember what they were supposed to say. Different members of the team were explaining the company differently.
Your leadership development work doesn’t need to become less sophisticated to solve this problem. You need to decide which words your audience needs first.
That’s a distinction I learned long before I started Downstage Media. I spent about 15 years performing professional improv, where you find out very quickly whether your words are connecting with an audience. Thousands of performances taught me to listen for what works for the audience, what people remember, and what gets a response.
Today, I apply much of that same thinking to messaging. You don’t need to communicate everything you know at once. You need to give your audience just enough to follow the story.
Give your prospects words they can repeat.
So how do you make your message easier to carry into the next room?
Start with the problem you solve.
During the podcast, I talked about choosing one problem rather than trying to account for every reason someone might hire you. You might choose the problem clients bring up most often or the one with the greatest consequences when they leave it unresolved.
For example, imagine a leadership development firm that helps new managers become stronger leaders. It could start by explaining its assessment methodology, coaching model, workshop curriculum, facilitator credentials, and research.
Or it could start here:
Your best employees keep getting promoted into management roles they were never taught how to handle.
Now I know why I should keep listening.
Next, give your prospect a simple way to describe your answer. Give them the sentence they can use when somebody else asks what you do.
Then tell them where all of this leads.
If you help new managers lead effectively, say that. If you help executive teams make better decisions together, say that. If your work helps companies retain the leaders they’ve invested years developing, say that.
Your prospect needs the basic story before they need all the supporting details.
Make it easier for other people to advocate for you.
When you get this right, your prospect easily remembers what you told them. They already have the language.
They can leave your sales call and tell the higher ups, “They help newly promoted managers learn how to lead people, so we don’t keep losing good employees because they had a bad manager.” (Maybe those aren’t your exact words. But you get what I mean.)
You’ve got to make your controlling idea strong enough that it survives the trip.
That’s why I’m less interested in whether someone can recite your tagline perfectly and more interested in whether they can communicate the idea behind it. As I explained during the interview, when you know what you do well enough to relay it in plain English, you make it much easier for other people to speak about your company when you aren’t there.
At the end of the day, your referral partners have better language to introduce you. Your facilitators describe the company more consistently. Your team knows what to emphasize at a conference. Your clients have an easier way to tell another department why they should bring you in.
Your message starts doing some of the traveling for you.
So many good ideas for your business never see the light of day. Set aside one dedicated hour to go from thinking to doing and make your business happen.
We open the doors once a quarter for new members to the Business Made Simple Accountability Group. Meeting every other Tuesday (pretty much) at 11 AM ET to share wins, solve roadblocks, and set goals. Save your spot and start making real progress toward doubling your revenue.
Read more. Get ideas. Improve your business.
Each month, we get together to discuss what we learned, what we questioned, and what we might actually put into practice.
October’s choice: 10X is Easier Than 2X
by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
No judgment if you skimmed.
— Nashville, TN —
StoryBrand Your Business
A Hands-On Messaging Workshop with Donald Miller, Facilitated by Annie Figenshu
Spark (Downtown Nashville)
In a market flooded with noise, your brand has to stand out to survive.
Once you get your message right, sales will follow, because customers will understand what’s in it for them. In this workshop, you’ll create a short, simple message that removes confusion. When you stop making customers think, they start buying.
You lose clients when you over-explain what your firm offers. It’s easy to do because it’s hard to encapsulate everything you do succinctly. In this session, you’ll learn what prospects need to hear so you can go into every conversation confident. Ultimately, you make it easier for the right prospects to say yes to you.
Can’t attend live? Reserve your spot anyway. The session will be recorded and sent to everyone who registers.
Let your message get into rooms before you do
You won’t be in every conversation that leads to your next engagement. In fact, some of the most important conversations about your leadership development firm may happen when nobody from your company is there.
A past client recommends you to a colleague. An HR leader forwards your proposal to the CFO. Someone who heard you speak mentions you during an executive meeting. A contact you met six months ago suddenly has the exact problem you talked about.
In those moments, you don’t have another 20 minutes to explain your methodology. You have whatever they remember.
So give people words worth remembering.
Your message doesn’t need to contain everything your firm does. It needs to give the right person enough to understand the problem you solve, remember why your firm matters, and repeat the idea to someone else.
Because your leadership development firm can’t be in every room. But your message can.
If explaining your leadership development firm has gotten more complicated as your work has grown, Downstage Media can help you find the words you want your prospects, clients, and team to know by heart.
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Annie Figenshu
Annie Figenshu is keenly aware that many companies are pressed for time, and every minute counts. She helps brands make the most of their content marketing so that their hard work is shared with the world. Annie is certified in both StoryBrand and Mailchimp, has two kids with Beatles-themed names, and is afraid to think what a day without coffee would look like.
Your message needs to work even when you’re not in the room. Learn why it’s important to use words someone else can understand, repeat, and share.