Reilly Newman | In reality, a lot of businesses are trapped by the pressure to explain their business.
They feel they must “sell” their audience on the value they deliver and put themselves in a desperate position of pitching their business with fingers crossed to be chosen by the buyer. It’s a sad state most businesses put themselves in — service businesses as well as product businesses. The sheer desperation for the sale leaves an odor which will either drive a buyer away or lead the sharks to take advantage of the business.
Businesses, when left to their own doing, will feel this need because they are only looking at their business as a provider. A vendor. So naturally, over-explaining is a knee-jerk reaction that is quick on the draw with any slightly interested thing that has a heartbeat. To put it in the context of dating, it’s like when an attractive woman starts a conversation with a man who is rather desperate. His mouth starts spewing words desperately not trying to lose the attention of the woman. Little does he know that his efforts are working against him. He soon disappears in the sea of awkward, single males who have the habit of blabbering about themselves too much or simply trying to hard and eroding the magic of flirting.
As odd as it may be, this same principle applies to your business. Sales is a dance. Sales is a flirt. It is the nuanced flow of perceptions and leading the other along while also knowing when to let the other party lead as well. This is why explaining ruins the magic. Explaining is to business as our poor man explaining himself. There’s no romance or perceptive nuance. It’s bland and doesn’t pique the interest of the receiver.
Explaining is probably one of the best ways to lose the interest of the audience. Explaining is school. It’s sitting at a cold desk made of metal and wood staring ahead wishing the time would go by faster. However, when curiosity arises in the student, learning takes a whole different shape. The student is driving the explaining through questions. They are hungry. They want to know.
Going back to our dating metaphor; it’s very similar. To attract, one must create curiosity. Any romance novel writer knows this. There are mystique and layers. It’s not just face value. It’s not just business. It’s perception and imagination. It’s brand.
In sales, the brand creates curiosity by only revealing some cards to the audience. Through signaling with its identity system and language it aligns and reveals to draw the audience in. Without the brand having to say how it is different, better, or explain the value it delivers, the audience is intrigued enough to simply ask. The ask is beautiful because in that moment, it is no longer selling. It’s simply answering their questions by revealing more cards.
The key takeaway here is that brand isn’t about explaining, and when you do choose to start any relationship that way, you’ll explain yourself into oblivion. Brand is the nuance. It’s the relational aspect that draws in the audience. The brand understands the audience so it knows just the right levers to pull and words to say to truly resonate. Through these tactics, it then creates curiosity and they ask the brand to tell them more. They desire the reveal.
As a business, stop explaining. Leverage brand to create the allure and empower your business to have the opportunity to properly introduce itself. The desperation of explaining is not appealing, but the confidence and allure of the brand drives your audience to be curious enough to ask questions.
