Inconsistent messaging can profoundly impact businesses, not just in terms of their go-to-market (GTM) efforts but also in terms of how customers perceive them. When messages are inconsistent, it confuses clients and can ultimately lead to mistrust. To be successful, businesses must ensure that their go-to-market teams are all on the same page regarding messaging.
By aligning messages and creating a cohesive narrative, companies can better connect with their target audiences and achieve their desired results.
The impact of inconsistent messaging
Misaligned messaging and teams can profoundly affect business outcomes, leading to confusion and frustration among customers, prospects, and employees. Getting your go-to-market teams on the same page is crucial to avoid these negative consequences.
According to research, if companies simply presented consistent messaging across all platforms, they could increase their revenue by up to 23%. This means, inversely, that inconsistent messaging is costing companies at least this much in revenue. Let’s examine some more negative consequences of inconsistent messaging.
It makes it more challenging to generate leads
Inconsistent messaging can make it more difficult to create leads and sales. Your go-to-market teams must be on the same page to effectively communicate your company’s value proposition. When teams are not aligned, it creates confusion for customers and prospects. This can lead to a decrease in leads, opportunities, customer success, and revenue.
Consistency is vital
It’s hard to get your go-to-market teams on the same page if they aren’t using the same messaging. This can result in a lot of wasted effort and money. Teams using different messaging creates confusion for customers and makes it harder for them to understand what your company does. It also makes it more difficult to compare offers and decide which products or services are right for them.
Prospects will ignore marketing materials or sales pitches
Sales and marketing teams are the front lines of any company. They’re responsible for getting products and services seen and driving revenue. But when these teams aren’t working together, it can lead to inconsistencies in messaging that confuse prospects and causes them to ignore marketing materials and sales pitches.
Companies need to have a clear and consistent message across all channels. This means that the same key messages should be communicated by sales, marketing, customer success, and any other team interacting with customers. When there are inconsistencies, it confuses and can lead to mistrust.
Impact progress of prospects through sales pipelines
Sales teams are the face of your company to many customers and prospects. They’re often the first people they talk to and the ones who make the all-important first impression. So, when messaging from your go-to-market teams is inconsistent, it can significantly impact how prospects move through your sales pipeline – ultimately affecting your bottom line.
Misalignment can cause stalls and loss of sales
It’s not uncommon for companies to have multiple go-to-market teams, each with their own way of talking about the company, products, and services. This can happen for several reasons:
- Different teams may have different objectives. For example, one team may focus on selling to small businesses, while another is on enterprise customers.
- Teams may have different target audiences. For example, one team may be focused on selling to CIOs, while another is focused on selling to line-of-business managers.
- Teams may be located in different parts of the world. Because of their geographical differences, they may also have a different understanding of the market.
This inconsistency results in prospects receiving conflicting messages about your company, products, and services because they may be told one thing by one team and something completely different by another. Confused signals like this can cause prospects to disengage with your company.
How to get your go-to-market teams on the same page
If you’re like most businesses, your GTM strategy could be more consistent. And that’s costing you money. The good news is it’s not difficult to get your GTM teams on the same page. Here are five tips:
1. Define your value proposition and unique selling proposition (USP)
Your value proposition is the unique value your company offers to its customers. It’s the thing that sets you apart from your competitors and drives sales. Your unique selling proposition (USP) is your product or service’s specific feature or benefit that sets you apart from your competition and makes you more attractive to buyers. To define these, you must focus on answering two questions:
a. What makes your company or product unique? There are a few ways you can determine what makes your company or products unique:
- Look at your customer base
- Identify your company’s core values
- Evaluate your marketing efforts
- Understand what differentiates you from the competition
b. Why should customers buy from you? If your teams aren’t clear about why the customer should buy from your company, how do you expect your customer to be clear about it? Your GTM teams should focus on these important actions to ensure consistent messaging.
- Determining your company’s strengths and weaknesses. What do you do better than the competition?
- Focusing on customer needs. Have you identified what the customer needs or wants?
- Identifying your company’s core competencies. Time to pinpoint what you are uniquely good at.
- Examining your company culture: Can you describe your company persona?
- Assessing your brand equity. How well-known and respected is your brand?
2. Develop buyer personas for your target market
With a clear understanding of your target buyer, creating consistent messaging that resonates is possible. You can create a buyer persona by understanding the following:
- Pain points. You need to have a clear understanding of your buyer’s pain points. What are their biggest challenges? What are they trying to accomplish? Once you know this, you can develop messaging that resonates with them and helps them see how your product or service can help solve their problem.
- Buyer motivation. When a sales rep understands what motivates their buyer, they can tap into those motivations and connect them with the product or service they are selling. By doing so, they create a more personal connection between the buyer and the product, which can lead to more sales and customer success stories.
- Appeal to your ideal customer. When you understand your ideal customer, you can design a message that resonates with them, allowing you to connect with them on a deeper level and create a meaningful connection.
3. Create a consistent brand voice across all channels
A brand’s voice is its personality. It’s how a company speaks to its audience and should be consistent across all channels, from website copy to social media posts to sales pitches.
A strong, consistent brand voice will help customers recognise and remember your company, making your marketing more effective. To keep your brand voice consistent, use similar language, tone, and style in everything you write. For example, if your website is friendly and informal, your social media posts should be too.
If you’re selling products or services, ensure your sales pitches align with the rest of your marketing. A consistent brand voice will make your company more recognisable and trustworthy and help you build a loyal customer base.
4. Train all employees on your company’s USP and target customer persona
You must train all employees on the company’s USP and target customer persona, so everyone knows the message and can effectively communicate it to others in your go-to-market teams. Doing so will align your marketing efforts with your sales goals and ensure your customers receive a consistent message across all touchpoints.
Furthermore, this training will help build a foundation for success by ensuring that everyone in the organisation knows the company’s mission and values, resulting in revenue.
5. Provide resources that sales and marketing teams can use to generate quality leads and close deals
Sales and marketing teams need quality resources to generate leads and close deals. Resources like shared CRMs, lead capture forms, email templates, pitch decks, and case studies can help your go-to-market teams get on the same page.
Resources like these will, in turn, allow them to target their message more effectively to potential customers, which leads to revenue enablement, more sales, and a higher ROI for the company.
The message doesn’t stop with the sale
The client has been sold the product and is integrating it into their business. They’re excited about the potential and what it can do for their company.
However, inconsistent messaging can quickly kill that excitement and derail the project. To avoid this, you must get your go-to-market teams on the same page, which translates to having a clear communication strategy with the client before, during, and after the sale.
Once the sale is made, it’s essential to continue that consistent messaging. This follow-up will help the client stay on track and avoid any surprises along the way. It will also generate upsell and cross-selling opportunities.
It’s time to get consistent with your messaging
Inconsistent messaging is one of the most common and costly go-to-market mistakes. When messaging is inconsistent, it confuses customers and prospects, erodes trust, cancels any attempts at revenue enablement, and ultimately hurts sales.
To avoid these problems, take the time to define your company’s key messages and ensure everyone in your GTM organisation uses them consistently. This may require training and ongoing reinforcement, but it’s worth the effort to ensure that your go-to-market teams are all on the same page.
If you need help getting your go-to-market messaging aligned, contact Ellivate today. We specialise in helping companies develop and implement effective go-to-market strategies to take them to the next level in their business.
