I was reading a recent marketing article from raintoday.com that stated the majority of decision makers require some form of an answer to five key questions before purchasing a product or service. As I read each question, which I’ve listed here below along with a response to each, my mind conjured up all the conversations and reasons clients have chosen to do business with us over the past 16 years. Since I’m sometimes guilty of being too “wordy”, I made a concentrated effort to see if I could eliminate most of the typical marketing verbiage and pinpoint an exact answer to each question in one or two sentences. Here’s what I came up with:

1. How will this product/service help my company? We deliver a better result in terms of time, performance, and cost.
2. Why do we need it? Administrators are tasked with improving operational efficiencies. Our service allows you to do it cheaper, better, and faster.
3. Is there another company out there that is better? There isn’t a single non-vendor professional services firm that offers the scope of our sourcing and contract management expertise within the document equipment industry.
4. Will the solution really work? Can you prove it? We’ve been successful in 100% of our client engagements and have the client references to prove it.
5. Can we afford it? We guarantee our services will reduce current operating expenses while improving overall fleet performance.

Although my answers really didn’t tell the buyer anything about my company’s services, they did succinctly address the underlying questions prospective clients need answered. Since decision makers will require technical details as well, I created a second “bullet-point” version answering the same questions, once again making an attempt to eliminate the sales and marketing verbiage.

1. How will this product/service help my company?
   1. Identify / Resolve Contract Performance Gaps to Achieve Optimal Result
      1. Cost
         1. Aggregate Purchasing Power
         2. Optimize Device Utilization
         3. Optimize Contract Utilization
         4. Extend Equipment Lifecycle
         5. Eliminate Hidden Costs
            1. Price Increases
            2. Erroneous charges
            3. Billing mistakes
            4. Copy charges
            5. Lease escalations
            6. Lease Returns
      2. Increase Performance
         1. Clearly Define Expectations (Benchmarks)
         2. Measure / Monitor / Enforce Accountability
         3. Device Performance
         4. Service Calls
         5. Response Times
         6. Images between Calls
         7. Parts Replacement
         8. Utilization Benchmarks
         9. Lifecycle copies
   2. Reduce Administrative Effort
      1. We do most of the work, so you don’t have to
         1. Analysis
         2. Sourcing
         3. Management
2. We’re doing OK. Why do we need it?
   1. Desire / Need to do better
   2. Operational Visibility
   3. Improved Efficiencies
   4. Accountability
   5. Budgeting
   6. Free-up Administrative Resources
3. Is there another company out there that is better?
   1. 16 years Experience
   2. Wealth Industry Knowledge
   3. Automated Web based System
   4. 24/7 Access
   5. Level Detail Management Reporting
      1. Organization
      2. Locations
      3. Buildings
      4. Departments
      5. Devices
         1. Contract Details
         2. Cost
         3. Utilization
         4. Performance
         5. Service Histories
            1. Response times
            2. Impressions Between Calls
            3. Parts Replacement
      6. Suppliers Contacts
         1. Sales
         2. Service
         3. Billing
         4. Leasing
4. Will its solution really work? Can you prove it?
   1. 100% Client Success Rate
      1. Reduce Operational Costs
      2. Improve Accountability / Performance
      3. Reduce Client Administrative Effort
   2. High Client Retention Rate (95%+)
5. Is the company credible?
   1. Established 1992 / 16 Year History
   2. Over 700 client locations served
   3. $100M+ in Contract Acquisitions
   4. Recognized by both Buyers and Suppliers as Sourcing and Contract Management Experts
   5. Customer References
6. Can we afford it?
   1. Guaranteed to Reduce Current Cost
   2. Guaranteed 30% ROI

Now that you read both versions, which did you prefer? Are both versions required? Does the second compliment the first version? Is there something missing? Your comments and feedback are welcome.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.