You go to a party of a good friend at their house. It’s not very lively
but, hello, who’s that over there, they look interesting. You decide to go over
and introduce yourself.
You ask one question – and bam, the person talks for ten minutes without
pausing for breath. They talk non-stop about them, their interests, their
history, their achievements. They ask you nothing!
How do you feel?
Pretty uninterested might be a kind way to put it. If you’re like me
you’d probably devise a snappy reason to make yourself scarce or visit the
restroom! And you avoid them like the plague for the rest of the evening!
And yet how close is that to any of the networking events you might
attend? Only recently I went to a networking event and within ten minutes had
four business cards thrust into my hand by people who didn’t know me, didn’t
know about my current and future challenges but were only too willing to
smother me with information about their company
... “we are this, we do
this, we’re brilliant, we can do that for you” and so on.
This affliction is commonly known as ‘Excessive Weing’. It will
certainly be costing you sales success. You’ll be pleased to know there is a cure.
Make sure you’re ‘clean’
Do you suffer from Excessive Weing? In your pitches? On your website? In
your sales conversations? In your ads? In your brochures and flyers? In your
emails? Oh yes, and when networking?
Most ‘weing’ offences take place on a company’s website. Check yours. Is
the language something like “we’ve been established 125 years”, “we’re
an award winning company”, “we’re the world’s leading xxx”
“we do this” “were great at that”? Yes? Oh dear.
If it is, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that, if your
website is stuffed with those types of “we” statements, then sadly, up to
now you’ve been turning off a massive proportion of those who visit your
website. The good news? Well, you’re here, you survived, think how much better
it will be once you’ve sorted this!
Who are you boring?
The words you use and how you use them are telling your prospective
customers where your focus is. So if you’re talking just about you and ‘weing’
everywhere, well guess what, you’re the boring one at the party that everyone
avoids.
You might be thinking “well it’s our website how are we supposed to
promote our products and services”? Great question. You just need to think up
new ways of demonstrating your expertise and value to the browser.
Examples
Examples of how you could re-write your web copy...
Instead of “We’ve been established 125 years” ... change to something
like
“you’ll get the benefit of 125 years of experience in your industry”
(You, You’ll, Your are all acceptable)
Instead of “We’re an award winning company” ...change to something like
“You
get the expertise of an award winning company”
Instead of “We’re the world’s leading xxxx” ... change to something like
“You’ll get the added benefit of working with the world’s leading
xxx"
These are subtle but very crucial changes – losing the we's and adding
the you's - and I urge you to make it a priority to make them. And though I’ve
emphasised the importance of getting your website language right, the
principles I’ve outlined today are just as valid in all of those other
communication tools I mentioned earlier.
Remember, however you communicate with your potential customers, it's
not about you, it's about THEM.
It’s all about the psychology of selling.
Until next time
Leigh
020 7903 5426
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