Question 3 is “How do I know that this is real?
You’d think that we wouldn’t need to tackle this. Not in B2B, anyway, right? We’re an established firm. We’re serious business people.
Yeah, whatever.
Customers are smart. They know that we don’t have every feature that other vendors do. They know there are some things we don’t build, or even start building, until a customer agrees to buy it first.
They know about us needing to hire people, new people, or contractors, to deliver or deploy what we sell to them.
They even know that we don’t even make or have what we’re showing for some things because we use a partner company to handle that part.
Customers know all that.
In a world of bullshit, the proof is king.
This question goes along with the “How do I know I can trust you?” question. And it needs to be joined at the hip with it. Once you establish that you’re real, you need to prove that what you’re talking about right now is real, too.
If it’s a product or service that won an award or was written up somewhere, show that.
If you have customers already, definitely show that. Say what percentage of the company’s revenue it represents. Or what percentage of the workforce is dedicated to it. Or tell the story of how it was first invented. Or tell the story of how it was changed from what it started as to what it is today.
We’re moving the audience from not-believing to believing. That takes evidence and storytelling.
So spend a little time establishing that what you’re talking about exists. That people have seen it, touched it, bought it, worked on it, used it, set fire to it, whatever. The unspoken message here is, people like you buy things like this. People like us do things like this. By listening to me talk about this, you’re on the same journey that other people went on.
How do I know I can trust you, and how do I know that this is real? The twin questions in this section. Only the “Why is this different” question has a higher priority than these two. Get them right, and never, ever skip them.
Okay, that’s the first three questions done. Let’s keep going.