Why grandma should understand what your company does.

Too many companies get lost in the minutiae of jargon speak when they talk about their product or service. I’m sure you know the type- you log onto their website and you see plenty of fancy words, but you have no idea what they actually do.

This happens for a few reasons. Experts sometimes struggle to realise that most people don’t know their domain as well as they do. Other times, they don’t care.

But I think the example of doctors is a good analogy. Do you prefer if your doctor tells you that you have Pharyngitis or Strep Throat?

Another driver is non-experts trying to sound knowledgeable. This is dangerous and often backfires. It is easy to lose credibility with real experts by pretending to be one. This is a particular problem for salespeople, especially for those working in complex or highly technical fields.

So, what should you do instead? You should explain what your company does in plain language that your grandmother will understand.

Give it a try: it isn’t as easy as it sounds. However, the results are powerful. This exercise creates your company benefit statement: one line that communicates what benefit a customer receives when they use your product or service.

The best statements come directly from your customers. You should start by asking your clients how your product or service helped them. For example:

“Gong helped us close more deals by monitoring and standardising our qualification process”.

or

“Gong gave us a level of insight into each rep’s process that allowed us to improve our forecasting”.

It is rare that you’ll get:

“Gong’s AI-driven, SSO secured tool, GDPR compliant software pulled information from our CRM and analysed individual rep performance across email, phone, sms (thousands of data points) to provide us with a holistic picture of what was going on”.

It sounds ridiculous but look at a few company websites or overview decks and you’ll see jargon all over the place. Very few customers buy because of your product spec. The reality is that most products have similar features and capabilities.

So, what sets you apart?

The research shows that 53% of customer loyalty is attributed to their experience in the buying process.

That’s right, your success is driven more by the sales process than your product. Why? Because customers buy the benefit(s) you provide them.

Even if we look at more technical aspects like integration, the customer isn’t buying your technical delivery of the integration. They are buying the ease of use that your technology provides.

The benefits are even more important in an enterprise sales environment where you’re working with multiple stakeholders who are not technical experts. They need to understand the benefits you deliver in layman’s terms. Let’s go back to Gong.

Their benefit statement is “we help you win more deals”. They also say they “turn customer interactions into _______ insights”. The blank is filled with Deal, Team, and Strategic…

These are level 1 and level 2 benefit statements. I know that I’m getting when I buy Gong.

The third level communication says: "Make critical revenue decisions powered by the deepest understanding of sales conversations, the most accurate AI models, and the largest integration ecosystem on the market."

Multi-level benefit communication shows that you understand your buyers. Ideally, they feel like you've been in their meetings or are reading their minds. Because you've established credibility the conversation starts at a different place. I like to think of it like field position in sports: you are starting on the 50 yard line and it is much easier to score from the 50 than your own 10 yard line.

So, what is your company benefit statement?

How closely would your benefit statement align to what customers say about your company?

How many of your team members can easily deliver it?