https://youtu.be/-AJ7gBiARGw

Episode 1069: If they can’t explain it, they can’t buy it

If your buyer can’t explain your offering to their boss, they won’t buy it.

Why buyers can’t buy what they can’t explain

Nobody in the history of buying has ever bought something they couldn’t explain to their boss. If your buyer has to present your offering to a manager, a board, or anyone else who signs off, your message has to survive that journey.

Most businesses never test whether their message actually travels. They assume it’s clear because they understand it themselves. But your buyer isn’t selling it internally the way you sold it to them. If it doesn’t survive being repeated by someone else, it dies before it reaches the person who approves the spend.

Make it easier to repeat: shorten the explanation

The first test is simple. Can people understand what you’re selling, and can you shorten that explanation. A useful trick is to take how you currently explain your offering, put it into an AI tool, and ask it to swap the words for simpler ones with fewer syllables. Keep cutting until a stranger could repeat it back after hearing it once.

Make it easier to remember: give it something that sticks

Understanding isn’t enough on its own. The second test is whether people remember it. A tagline, a strapline, a strong call to action, anything remotely memorable, gives your buyer something concrete to repeat when they’re in the room without you. Being forgettable is expensive, because forgettable messages don’t get repeated, and messages that don’t get repeated don’t get approved.

Test whether your message actually travels

Before your next pitch, ask someone who’s never heard your offering to explain it back to you in one sentence. If they can’t, it’s not ready to travel. Fix the explanation first, then work on what makes it memorable.

What’s the last thing you had to justify to someone else before you got the green light?

Take Action

Take your current explanation of your offering and run it through an AI tool. Ask it to simplify the language, shorten the sentences, and cut anything that isn’t essential. Then test it on someone outside your business and see if they can repeat it back accurately.

Rewrite your explanation until a stranger can repeat it back in one sentence after hearing it once.