Too Much Information -or- Death Of A Sales message

Sally Salesrep slides in to the sales pit and Susie Salesrep (no relation) politely asks how her weekend went. Fifteen minutes later, during the retelling of the Great Bunion Attack, Susie is regretting she rolled out of bed that morning.

You know the problem – T-M-I … Too Much Information.

It shows up in sales pits, jock lounges, parking lot meetings – and on the air in the form of Too Much Information being crammed into the sales message. With use of short advertisements – fives and fifteens – TMI is easy to do.

Most of you still write your own commercials, so it’s up to you to stop the spread of TMI.

When it comes to fives and fifteens, remember the Four Fundamentals:

1. Client name
2. Location/Contact
3. Service/product
4. Call to action

Everything beyond that is a supporting actor.

“Metal pad brakes on sale - this week only - at Ray’s Auto Parts, Maple at Greenwood, Our Town.”

In this case – product, call to action, client name and location.

“Ray’s Auto Parts has metal pad brakes on sale – this week only! Maple at Greenwood, Out Town.”

Client name, product, call to action, location.

Anyone who uses the phrases “conveniently located”, “friendly and knowledgeable staff”, “for all your (product) needs”, or any of the dozens of other tired, bad, and overused clichés is wasting the advertisers time – which means you are wasting their money. Money that you may have worked very hard to get them to part with. Money you want them to continue spending at renewal time. So why would you even think to put such pandering pap in their sales message – especially when you may only have five or fifteen seconds?

Every word must carry the weight of the sales message or it does not belong.

A fifteen is – for all intents and purposes – two fives with a little honey on top. A fifteen gives you the ability to have an opening hook, bring in your Four Fundamentals, and reinforce any one of them a second time, preferably the contact information.

A thirty allows for a little vignette perhaps, wrapped around the content of a fifteen.

A sixty is almost an art form unto itself. TMI is a significant problem with sixties, and really shows the experience level of the writer – or lack thereof.

To sum up: Remember the Four Fundamentals, avoid useless clichés, make sure each word is important to the structure of the sales message.