When You Have Too Much To Say…Try this 3x3x3 Messaging Grid Rubric!

Jan 26, 2019 | Breakthrough Marketing

Many of us just don’t know when to stop.  We have product messaging overload.   We are so proud of our babies and the myriad of features and amazing benefits we can talk, or write forever. But what we say doesn’t stick!

SO STOP.

Your listener only can remember so many things. There is a reason why phone numbers are only 10 digits long!

Messaging that breaks through needs discipline.  Structure can force this on you.  Try this simple structural rubric to ensure meaning and breakthrough:

Product Positioning Statement

• Value Statement 1
  • Sub-bullet 1
    • Feature/proofpoint 1.1 , Feature/proofpoint 1.2, Feature/proofpoint 1.3
  • Sub bullet 2
    • Feature/proofpoint 2.1, Feature/proofpoint 2.2, Feature/proofpoint 2.3
  • Sub bullet 3
    • Feature/proofpoint 3.1, Feature/proofpoint 3.2, Feature/proofpoint 3.3
• Value Statement 2 ….
  

Then repeat the above structure for Value Statements 2 and 3.  THAT’S IT! 

3 Benefit statements, 3 sub-statements for each, and 3 features for each.

So that’s still a lot, that’s 9 benefits and 27 features.

I’ve always said, messaging and positioning is as much about what you say as what you don’t.  Buyers can’t remember more than 9 things about you anyways.  The rest is all about filling in detail to support the 3 main bullets, which is the value you deliver that matters most anyways.

One of the reasons you need to spend time doing value filtering like I teach in my LinkedIn Learning course and write about in a whole section of Launching to Leading is to find the right 3 main messages.

So do the hard work, force yourself into this 3x3x3 messaging matrix and you’ll say less, but what you say will matter more and stick much better.

Make Your B2B Messaging an 8 Layer Cake!

Jun 6, 2018 | Breakthrough Marketing

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review called “The B2B Elements of Value” by Almquist, Cleghorn and Sherer, 3 Bain and Company consultants from San Francisco.  It’s a long somewhat complex article with one big take away for me, B2B buyers are people too, and they need to see PERSONAL value to their purchases.   That might seem obvious, but all too often I think it’s forgotten.  When I do value based messaging work with clients, I always push them to include one more emotional and personal statement in their key value messages, but this is often a tough sell.

The 4 Business Layers

I’ve been writing and talking lot about the 4 layers of Breakthrough Messaging, what I call Mythos to Method. In general, this framework applies to the business story and benefits, not the personal ones.  Here’s a quick overview complete with reference links for more on each layer.

Making It Personal – Another 4 Layers to Add

But, what about the other 4 layers, the personal.  It ends up, these layers are just the buyer’s personal version of the other 4.  Instead of asking “what’s in it for the business”, we shift our perspective to “what’s in in PERSONALLY for the buyer” at each of these levels.  What’s the foundational value of our product?  The How.  For example, the new agentless endpoint let’s you do updates instantaneously without bothering users.  What’s the Motivational Value to the buyer – You are PERSONALLY done with the update in minutes versus weeks, and there are NO mistakes due to out of date agents, the MONEY.   What’s the Transformational value, the magic, you are now invisible to users and highly efficient in the eyes of your boss. And the Aspirational destination, a place with protection without disruption, created by YOU.

The Bain study found up to a 6x improvement on NPS score and a 60% improvement on likelihood to repurchase on customers of vendors who communicate both business and persoanl value in their messaging.  So, while 8 layers of message may seem like a lot, it can really make a beautiful cake.

Ken