Writing doesn't sell!
Everyone knows the old saying: ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’. It’s true that we don’t have much use for swords in our offices these days, but what if a pen isn’t the best tool to use for creating price quotes?
Written quotes
I've spent hours putting together written price quotations for prospective clients, each more elaborate than the last. Writing and rewriting that stubborn sentence until it fits perfectly with the rest. And figuring out how to tweak a general pitch into one tailored specifically for this prospective client. Well, you can stop writing: it's a waste of your energy. We try, with all that text, to convince the prospect of how fantastic we are – when the important thing, really, is how effectively you can embrace the client's particular goal or challenge and deliver a solution to address it. But how do you express that on paper?
Following the inventory stage – the initial interview(s) – with a prospect, you should have a good idea of what their goal is, what challenges the prospective client is facing in achieving their ambition, and which solution you can offer to eliminate that challenge. Right?
A picture's worth
We can fill up endless pages with text, but we all know that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, don't we? So why don't we draw – or in office-speak, visualise – our ideas instead?
Only 10% will stick
Especially when you want your solution to be remembered by the prospective client, it's essential to draw that solution: people tend to remember over 50% of an image, whereas often only 10% of a text will stick in their minds.
Let me give an example. You can write entire essays on achieving a particular goal. I can already picture the big chunks of text. Or, you could apply a single visual to clearly express what you want. Maybe supplement it with three or so key words, but that's all.
It's the same thing we do on social media: take Instagram, for example. Instagram is simply a photo accompanied by a snippet of text, nothing more. To be (and stay) successful in business, we must take up our drawing pencils – and leave our pens in the drawer. So will you keep writing or will you start drawing? The choice is up to you!
Wondering why I didn't draw this blog post? I’m still practising...
Daniel Mens