Why would I buy what you're selling? Why should I buy it from you?

These seem like simple questions, right? Then why do so many salespeople lose the sale by not clearly and succinctly answering these questions? It's because these sales professionals are lacking a sales messaging strategy.

In yesterday's issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we shared three key elements of an effective sales message: value drivers, key differentiators and ways to address the pain points of the customer. Today, we'll share three more from business author Rachel Clapp Miller.

1. Outcomes of Doing Business With You. You've articulated your company's value. You've addressed the customer's pain points. What's next? Proof—or what I call "reasons to believe." This is the portion of your sales messaging framework that shows evidence of the authenticity and effectiveness of your product or solution. This can be in the form of a case study, key facts or even testimonials. As Miller says, a sales messaging framework should include these valuable references and make them consumable for the entire sales team.

2. Ability To Be Leveraged By The Entire Organization. The next key element to your sales messages is simple: consistency. It's not nearly as effective if you are telling a customer one thing and your team member is telling them something else. An effective sales messaging framework should drive message consistency across the organization. Whether it's the marketing department, customer service team or operations, ensure that everyone is using the same language regarding your organization, it's value to the customer and key differentiators. A framework that is customized and built with the right input intrinsically aligns your entire organization behind those value drivers.

3. Executives Who Manage To It, Inspect It, And Reinforce Its Use. The final key element to a sales messaging framework stems from the top of your organization—literally. Your leaders need to put the effort into adopting your sales messaging framework. As Miller states, the framework is only as strong as the leadership's ability to reinforce it. An effective sales messaging framework should have a plan for executives to drive adoption and front-line managers to reinforce the concepts.

By adopting these key elements in your sales messaging framework, you benefit from consistent messaging, engaged customers and bottom-line results.

Source: Rachel Clapp Miller heads up digital engagement for GrowthPlay, an organization that specializes in helping businesses to increase revenue, improve sales margins and gain market share.