I’ve got two clients right now where I’m reconstructing their overall messaging framework.  Positioning statement, unique differentiators, key benefits, etc., and I’ll then translate that into newly created websites and marketing and sales collateral.

As I have undertaken the projects I was struck yet again by how important it is to first put yourself in the mind of the potential customer for these products, and work backwards from there to isolate what makes my clients products and services better than their competitors.  Yes, it’s great if there’s a special “only we have it” thing that I can highlight – even better if that “only we have it” thing addresses the customer’s major pain point.  But that happens only rarely.

In most cases the key is to simultaneously convey in the client messaging a deep understanding of the key pain points of the customer and how we address them.  If we can get that right we have a customer who knows we think as they do and are much more likely to gives us that first meeting and/or convert to a sale.