About This Episode
What occurs when your staff can’t even agree on find out how to clarify what your organization does?
That’s not a branding hiccup, it’s a messaging drawback. And chances are high, should you requested 5 folks in your staff what your message is, you’d get 5 totally different solutions.
Unclear messaging results in longer gross sales cycles, misaligned groups, and prospects who bounce earlier than they ever perceive your worth.
So, what does “clear messaging” really imply, and why accomplish that many corporations get it unsuitable? On this episode of Countless Prospects, I sat down with Tom DiScipio, Managing Accomplice at IMPACT, to unpack what clear messaging actually means. We talked about what occurs when companies skip the foundational considering and soar straight into copywriting, and why that shortcut nearly at all times backfires.
We additionally explored how storytelling, construction, and mental property (IP) all tie into your messaging framework. And what to do when the best way you discuss your online business isn’t resonating with the folks you’re making an attempt to achieve.
For those who’re a enterprise proprietor, marketer, or gross sales chief struggling to get prospects to “get” what makes you totally different, this dialog is for you.
By the tip, you’ll know precisely what clear messaging means, find out how to construct yours from the bottom up, and why getting it proper could possibly be one of the best funding you make in your online business.
Why messaging is extra than simply copywriting
Most corporations assume their messaging lives of their web site copy or weblog posts. However Tom made it clear: “Your organization’s messaging, your perspective, your IP, the best way that you just suppose will not be your web site copy.”
Messaging is deeper. It’s your belief system. It’s the way you see the world and the problems you solve. It’s the set of principles that shape how you communicate and operate. Consider it as your inside compass. It influences each interplay you might have with clients, prospects, and even your personal staff.
A robust message exhibits up in each gross sales dialog. It offers your advertising staff a basis for the tales they inform. It’s what creates consistency between your homepage, your emails, and what somebody hears after they discuss to a rep.
Messaging says: that is what we imagine, that is who we serve, and that is how we assist. Copy is solely the way you share that message with the skin world.
When these two issues are in sync, the outcomes converse for themselves.
How storytelling and construction make messaging stick
Clear messaging sits on the intersection of two highly effective frameworks. As Tom defined, “It is the crossroads between two totally different frameworks that I’ve at all times leaned into and adopted.”
They’re battle-tested methods that, when used collectively, create messaging that clicks.
The primary is Donald Miller’s StoryBrand. It is about making the client the hero and positioning your online business because the information. “Which is absolutely about story and narration,” Tom stated, “and making the client your hero.” This storytelling method faucets into how folks naturally take up and bear in mind info.
The second is Peep Laja’s B2B Message Layers framework. Tom described this because the construction for a way folks need to eat info. It’s grounded in psychology and organizes messaging in a manner that’s logical, direct, and efficient. “Creating the fitting construction and movement for that info, whereas additionally together with story and narration, which is how people have handed issues alongside over time.”
Whenever you carry these two collectively, you get messaging that resonates. As Tom put it, clear messaging results in “resonance and understanding and validation.” It’s about being direct whereas additionally talking in a manner that aligns with how your viewers thinks and feels. It’s not fluff. It’s connection.
Story creates emotional funding. Construction gives readability. And collectively, they aid you converse to the fitting folks in the fitting manner.
However even with sturdy storytelling and construction, the panorama of messaging has modified, and quick.
Why as we speak’s messaging should transcend simply answering purchaser questions
They Ask, You Reply taught us lots. It helped companies reply the robust questions and begin constructing belief with their patrons. It gave groups a framework to align round and proved that transparency can drive critical outcomes.
However the panorama has shifted.
We’ve expanded past that method with the Endless Customers System™. Not as a result of They Ask, You Reply stopped working, however as a result of the surroundings wherein we’re speaking has essentially modified.
The largest shift? AI.
We used to write down for 2 essential audiences: our patrons and search engines like google. In the present day, there’s a 3rd participant within the combine, AI instruments like ChatGPT. As Tom put it, “It’s simply creating extra noise.” With a lot content material being generated so shortly, patrons are drowning in choices that each one sound the identical. Meaning your content material has to work more durable to face out.
To chop by way of, your content material can’t simply be correct or well-written. It has to replicate one thing actual. “AI can replicate the construction,” Tom stated. “However it might probably’t replicate your IP, your story, your beliefs.” That’s the distinction. Messaging as we speak needs to be rooted in a transparent perspective. It has to hold your organization’s voice, expertise, and considering.
Messaging is what offers your content material that edge. It makes your voice recognizable in a sea of sameness. Fairly highly effective when you consider it.
4 frequent messaging errors that confuse patrons and value you gross sales
When messaging feels off, it normally is. And as Tom shared, there are some frequent patterns that sign a disconnect between what corporations need to say and what their patrons really need to listen to.
First, the message is just too self-centered. “If I have a look at an organization’s web site and I see a lot of we’s and our’s,” Tom stated, “it’s very self-centered.” It’s simple to fall into the lure of writing about your providers, your awards, and your staff. Consumers don’t care about that stuff, at the very least instantly. They’re scanning your website for one thing else: proof that you just perceive their drawback and which you can assist clear up it.
Second, the message jumps straight to options. Guests don’t need a laundry record of what your software program does. Not with out context. They need to perceive what drawback you clear up and why it issues. Reply the questions your patrons are asking, like, “What does your product do for me? What does it assist me accomplish?” In case your messaging skips over that in favor of bullet factors and specs, you’re lacking the mark.
Third, there’s no emotional connection. Consumers don’t simply need info, they need to really feel one thing. Belief, confidence, alignment. Your messaging ought to converse to extra than simply logic. It ought to hit a nerve (in the easiest way potential).
And at last, your groups aren’t aligned. You may describe your organization a method, whereas your gross sales rep explains it one other. “Messaging needs to be a shared doctrine,” Tom defined. When everybody inside your online business is on the identical web page (gross sales, advertising, management), you come throughout as constant, reliable, and dependable.
Clear messaging isn’t simply to your clients. It’s a software to your staff. After they can all clarify who you might be and what you do in the identical manner, you don’t simply sound higher. You use higher.
Tips on how to construct messaging that resonates and aligns your staff
The excellent news is you don’t want to start out from scratch. You simply want readability, and some instruments to information the best way.
Begin by digging into the 2 assets Tom highlighted earlier: Donald Miller’s StoryBrand and Peep Laja’s B2B Messaging Framework. Collectively, they’ll aid you place your online business because the information and organize your messaging in a way that’s clear, relevant, and valuable—in the order your buyers expect to see it.
Subsequent, take a tough have a look at the messaging in your web site. Run a fast seek for “we,” “us,” and “our.” If these phrases present up greater than they need to, it’s an indication your content material is just too centered on you.
A superb rule of thumb: 80% of your messaging ought to converse on to your patrons—their issues, their objectives, their questions. The remaining 20% will be about you (what you supply, the way you assist, and why you’re totally different). For those who’ve obtained these numbers flipped, it’s time for a rewrite. Shift the main focus. Make your buyer the lead character. That’s the way you create messaging that connects.
Then doc your message. Create a model script. Get clear in your perspective. Outline the issues you clear up and the beliefs that drive your work. Share it throughout your staff. When gross sales, advertising, and management are all talking the identical language, they will talk about your organization with confidence and consistency.
What clear messaging seems to be like
When your messaging is evident and constant, every thing will get simpler.
You appeal to better-fit clients. Those who present up are already aligned along with your values. That results in fewer wasted conversations, extra referrals, stronger retention, and partnerships that really feel like a pure match.
You additionally create inside readability. Through the episode, I identified how messy issues get when two folks on the identical staff describe the corporate in fully other ways. That sort of disconnect confuses prospects and weakens your model. However when everyone’s speaking the same language, the whole experience feels aligned. Sales, marketing, and leadership aren’t just on the same page. They’re telling the same story.
And simply as essential, you stand out. In a world filled with auto-generated content material, the businesses that break by way of are those that sound human. They share actual tales, actual beliefs, and actual worth. That’s what makes folks cease. That’s what earns belief.
Your subsequent steps to clear, constant messaging
On the finish of the day, unclear messaging doesn’t simply confuse your viewers—it creates friction throughout your whole enterprise. In case your staff struggles to clarify what makes your organization totally different, or in case your content material sounds identical to everybody else’s, that’s an indication your message wants work.
Now you already know messaging isn’t simply copy. It’s your perception system, your construction, your story—and it must reside in each a part of how your staff communicates. When these items align, every thing flows. Gross sales get simpler. Advertising and marketing hits more durable. Your model feels stronger.
Begin by grounding your message in the fitting frameworks. Use StoryBrand to center your buyer. Use Peep Laja’s Message Layers to arrange your considering. Audit your website for “we” and “our” language. And most significantly, doc your beliefs and your values so your whole group can converse with one voice.
That’s the work we do at IMPACT. For those who’re prepared to chop by way of the noise and construct a message that truly connects, we’re right here to assist.
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