There’s an old marketing saying: sell the sizzle, not the sausage. We buy sausages not because of what’s in them – for many of us that’s something we would rather not think about – but because of how we think they will taste. What matters is the benefit, not the ingredients.
Effective business communication does the same thing. It doesn’t have to be selling a product: it could be an idea, or a proposal. But it’s the sizzle that you need to think about before you start writing.
In this chapter you will discover the difference between describing what something does, and what it can do for the person you’re describing it to.
SELLING THE SIZZLE: AN IT EXAMPLE
Let’s return to Apple’s iPhone sales page. In many ways Apple are masters of corporate communication, especially when it comes to writing sparkling copy. Here are some more bits from the iPhone 8 page.
The glass back enables easy wireless charging.
True Tone technology automatically adjusts white balance to match the light around you. For a better viewing experience in all kinds of environments.
With a wide colour gamut and our best colour accuracy ever, everything on the screen looks more brilliant and vibrant.
iOS 11 is our most advanced, intuitive and secure mobile operating system yet. It’s designed to help you get the most out of iPhone.
Get to apps in Messages with fewer taps. Let Siri be your personal DJ. And discover new music with friends in Apple Music.
Have you spotted it? Each time Apple describes a particular feature it does so by saying what it can do for you. Easy charging. Matching the light around you. Helping you get the most from your phone. It’s selling the sizzle, not the sausage. The glass back is undoubtedly pretty and a great bit of engineering, but it’s there to make your day that little bit easier and that’s what Apple emphasises.
What Apple is doing here is selling a story. In this case, the story is that you should buy a phone and it will make your life better. Your story may be that investing in IT infrastructure will make the business more efficient, or it may be that a firm who uses your service will become more flexible than a circus contortionist.
When you’re telling your story, it’s important that you put yourself in the reader’s shoes. A product getting a new feature isn’t an interesting story, no matter how important or clever that feature may be. It’s what that feature can do for the reader that matters.
Let’s take a really simple example: the battery in a smartphone. If you’re technically minded, you’ll know that a phone battery with capacity of 3,750 mAh is a big improvement over one with 3,000 mAh, but to the average person those numbers are meaningless unless you translate them into something they care about. An extra 750 mAh of battery capacity isn’t interesting to most of us. A phone that doesn’t run out of puff, even on the most demanding days, is.
If you don’t know what your story is, then anything you write is a joke without a punchline, a thriller that doesn’t thrill, a band that noodles around on stage for what seems like hours when the audience only wants to hear the hits. The story is the message you are trying to send, and if you don’t know what it is then it’s impossible to communicate it clearly.
In most cases, the message you’re trying to communicate is the same:
If you do this, your life will be better.
‘This’ may be buying a product, subscribing to a service or not getting into trouble by using work PCs for personal shopping. It might be a huge investment in infrastructure or a change to the way things are done in a particular department, or ‘better’ could be something solid such as increased profits, something less tangible such as improved employee morale, or just the avoidance of disciplinary action if your daytime eBay habit is discovered.
Here are some examples of stories you might want to share:
• If we spend X on Y, we’ll save Z.
• We’re not the cheapest, but our product does more useful things than our rivals.
• If you buy this product, your working day will be easier.
• Switching from their service to our service will save you huge piles of money.
• Moving to new premises will be a hassle, but it’s a better location and the canteen’s brilliant.
• This job has your name on it.
• Once we’ve had a bit of training, the new system will get rid of that thing that everybody hates so much.
• You already know we’re brilliant at this, but did you know we’re the best at that too, so we can help you even more?
LIGHTS, EMAIL, ACTION!
In addition to knowing the story you want to tell, you also need to decide what you want the result of your communication to be. That’s where the ‘call to action’ comes in.
The call to action (CTA for short) is the bit of the document, email or social media post that asks the reader to do something. You might want them to click on a link to a product page, or to fill out a form for more information. You might be soliciting feedback about a new system that’s being tested. You might just want to stop people nicking your milk from the communal fridge. Whatever it is, it should be clear what the next step should be before you start writing, because the whole point is to get the reader to take the action you want them to take.
If you can’t think of what you want your writing to achieve, it’s worth taking a step back and asking whether the thing you plan to write is actually necessary. If it isn’t, don’t write it. You’ve just saved yourself and your readers a whole bunch of time and made the world a slightly better place.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Sell the sizzle, not the sausage.
• Effective writing shares a story.
• Establish what you want your writing to achieve.