Why Isn't My Sales Message Getting Any Replies?

You can get no replies because there's a chasm between what you HOPE your ideal prospects think and what they ACTUALLY think.

I call that the Messaging Thought Gap.

Join the NEGATIVE conversation already taking place in your prospect's mind — before you tell them the positives.

The message you hope they believe

Let's imagine you sell sales data. You quite reasonably hope your prospects think:

“Better sales data will get us better sales results.”

So you write a message saying exactly that. It's logical. It's positive. And it may be completely true.

But what are they actually thinking?

The prospect may instead be thinking:

“We've bought data before and half of it was useless.”

“Our salespeople don't use the data we've already got.”

“Every data company tells me theirs is better.”

If that's the conversation in their head, another positive claim about “better data” doesn't join the conversation. It interrupts it.

Start with the negative side of the gap

A stronger opening might acknowledge what the prospect already believes:

“Buying better sales data won't help if your salespeople still don't trust it enough to use it.”

Now you're starting on familiar ground. Once you've demonstrated that you understand the problem, you can explain the positive case for what you do differently.

The Messaging Thought Gap

Before you write your message, write down two things:

1. What do I HOPE my prospect thinks?
2. What negative thing are they ACTUALLY likely to be thinking?

Your sales message shouldn't pretend the second one doesn't exist. Start there — then earn the right to talk about the first one.