Don't Shoot The Messenger; Shoot The Message
Selling complex technology into risk-averse institutions requires more than a sales team that believes in what they sell.
Your sales team understands the intricacies of your technology, and they believe in it. But if they haven’t been given the problem their customer needs to solve and a clear position against the competition, they’ll naturally fall back on features and benefits. And each salesperson may tell that story a little differently.
That becomes a bigger problem when you’re selling a first-of-a-kind technology your customer has never bought before.
You may be asking a utility to change a process it has used for 30 years, a municipality to adopt a water technology without years of operating history, or an industrial customer to put a new material or process into a production line where downtime costs real money.
These aren’t impulse purchases.
They can take months or years and involve engineers, operators, procurement, finance and senior management. Your initial contact may love what you’re selling, but that person still has to convince everyone else inside the organization that changing is worth the risk. And each buyer brings a different definition of risk.
The utility engineer may need to know your technology will integrate with existing infrastructure and perform reliably for decades. Procurement may be wondering whether a startup will still be around five years from now.
A municipality may have operators who are comfortable with the system they already have, elected officials who have to justify spending public money, and a procurement process designed to favor proven solutions. Your technology may perform better, but “better” has to overcome the comfort of “we already know this works.”
An industrial customer may see the potential savings immediately but also see the consequences if your technology disrupts production, requires retraining, or fails to perform as promised.
In each case, your salesperson isn't simply selling technology. They’re helping someone inside a risk-averse institution make the case for change.
That requires more than a sales pitch. It requires a message your entire company can carry through a long sales cycle.
If your website describes the company one way, the CEO another way, and three salespeople give three different versions, you’re making an already difficult sale harder.
That’s why we created our one-day Message to Market Intensive.
We put founders, marketing and sales in the same room and work through:
- Who you’re selling to
- Why the status quo isn’t working for them
- How your solution helps them achieve their goals
- Why they should choose you
- How to reduce the perceived risk of change
After the session, we turn that work into a practical message workbook with customer profiles, key messages and a unique value proposition your team can use from the first conversation through close.
Because when you’re asking a risk-averse institution to adopt something new, clarity and consistency aren’t marketing niceties. They’re part of how you reduce the perceived risk of change.
Learn more about our Message to Market Impact Story Sprint
