Pretty websites don’t sell things, words sell things…

And if you haven’t clarified your message your customers won’t listen. But clarifying your message is not easy.

We’ve spent the past 12 months trying to clarify our message for our affordable managed print service, ready for national scaling. And I can tell you, it’s been a right slog. And it wasn’t until we enlisted the help of product & innovation specialist Professor Simon Bolton of Edge Hill University, that we gained some clarity.

Once you get your message straight you can create quality websites, incredible keynotes, e-mails that get opened and sales letters people respond to.

You aren’t just in a race to get your products to market. You’re also in a race to communicate why your customers need your products in their lives. Even if you have the best product, you’ll lose to an inferior product if the competitors offer is communicated with more clarity.

The idea is to work out your customers (target market) story and place yourself right smack in the middle of it. Story is the one thing that can hold a humans attention for hours. Nobody can look away from a good story.

In your customers story will be a problem that they need help with, and it’s your job (as their guide) to provide them with a plan to solve their problem with no risk, that ends in success and makes your customer look great. Remember the customer is always the hero in this story.

Steve Jobs finds this out during his time at Pixar. When he went back to Apple after being surrounding by professional story tellers at Pixar, he realised story was everything. And Apple became customer-centric, being compelling, clear, simple and relevant in their communication to sell their products.

We are trying to do the same. We identified our customers are small organisations (small business, charities & school classrooms) who are uncertain about their total printing cost and don’t have a guaranteed level of service, leading to worry and concern.

And as their guide we have a plan to help them with our affordable managed print service, which provides certainty of their total printing cost, guaranteed next day service and comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which leads to complete peace of mind, and makes them a hero to everyone in their organisation.

Getting up every day to grow your organisation is difficult work. I know just how it feels to lose sleep wondering how you’re going to sell enough to make the bottom line so you can keep the team together.

And it’s true, if you confuse, you’ll lose. But if you clarify your message simply and clearly, customers will listen and just like in a good story you’ll win and sell plenty.

Who are your customers, what problems do they have, how can you guide them to become the hero in their own story?