Sales Minimalism

I was at the gas station filling up.

A man approached me and launched into an overwhelming, non-stop sales pitch about a waterless car cleaning spray. I got no chance to speak. When he took a breath, I saw a gap and quickly said, “Not for me today, thank you,” which only launched him into phase 2 of the pitch. This repeated a few times and I eventually just rolled up my window.

This overwhelm-your-customer-into-making-a-sale might work sometimes, but it won’t get you repeat business. It’s a dirty tactic.

It was the same in the infomercial era: long ads about the same thing bombarding you with 100s of features until you eventually buy.

But those days are gone; our attention spans are shorter, our lives busier, and the amount of information we consume much greater. 

(Just like this newsletter is already too long - are you still with me? Oh good, you’re attention span is longer than average…)

---------------------

I want to advocate Sales Minimalism. 

Less is more. Less cuts through the clutter. Less can impress.

Apply this to every aspect of your marketing and sales materials and you will see an increase in your success rate. Many scientific studies have shown that the more complex a decision is, the more likely we are to avoid making it. Another case for simplicity.

Practical tip:

Instead of listing the 20 features that set you apart, mention the one thing you solve:

• “We’ll cut your spend by 30%.”
• “It will be 3x cheaper than what you currently spend.”
• “It will consolidate manual processes and save you up to 10 hours a month.”
• “I streamline your B2B sales systems to maximize success.”

In round two you can get into the details.

I am an aspiring minimalist. Why aspiring? Because I mostly fail at it the first time. It goes against our instincts; we think we need more to survive. But we’re no longer in the stone age. Our modern world has overwhelmed us with stuff, so having a minimalist attitude takes discipline.

This week I urge you to:

• Say less about your product/service and more about what you solve for your client.
• Review your sales materials and evaluate whether every word works hard or takes up space.
• Look at your sales efforts. See where you can do less to get more.

When I first wrote this newsletter, it was 710 words. Then I went for a walk and rewrote it. Now it’s 500 words.

500 words I hope resonate with you today. Until next week.

Yours in less,

Elna