{"id":2512,"date":"2018-05-07T16:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:44","slug":"fundamentals-field-messaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/fundamentals-field-messaging\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fundamentals Of Field Messaging All Marketers Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thanks to the incredible power of GPS, sales reps will usually have no difficulty finding their way to customers and prospects when they\u2019re travelling outside the office. The intricacies of positioning their company\u2019s products and services, however, may be more challenging to navigate. In that sense, a strong field messaging guide is the best map the marketing team could possibly provide.<\/p>\n

Experienced reps may already know their territory very well, of course, but when companies launch new products, and particularly when they enter new regions or new industry sectors, the exact positioning can become a little more complicated. Even if the products and services they\u2019re selling could be applicable and valuable anywhere, capturing the nuances of a market\u2019s needs and how your firm is rising to the occasion calls for a little marketing finesse.<\/p>\n

The raw materials for a field messaging guide may be available in the blog posts, white papers, e-books and case studies the team has already been using to generate and nurture demand via marketing automation tools such as Marketing Cloud<\/a>. In other cases, the field messaging and content marketing assets may be developed in parallel. No matter how you do it, the important thing is to have a consistent theme to present to your intended audience about what makes your firm different and why this is the time to partner with you.<\/p>\n

Large organizations often have field messaging guides ready well before their reps begin aggressively setting up meetings and making pitches. The good thing is that even small and medium-sized businesses can do the same thing without a lot of additional expense. This is really a matter of capturing ideas and getting them on the page (or the screen) so no one is confused about what the brand is trying to communicate.<\/p>\n

These are the elements that will make your field messaging guide the go-to resource sales reps will practically memorize before they\u2019re through:<\/p>\n

Industry Definition<\/h2>\n

Everyone knows what \u201chealth care\u201d means, correct? What about the difference between a firm that\u2019s selling to health-care providers like hospitals versus those selling products and services, like fitness trackers, that are sold directly to consumers? Similarly, \u201cfinancial services\u201d today could span everything from big banks and insurance firms to smaller credit unions and startups.<\/p>\n

Defining the industry as granularly as possible will save reps a lot of time and avoid them pitching firms that don\u2019t fit the ideal customer profile. This only needs to be a paragraph or two in length but could include the names of some representative target customers and prospects, tiers of desired customers (from largest to smallest, for instance) and any exceptions. For instance, there may be a few customers who work in both the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) space, in which case the positioning might have to be handled a little differently.<\/p>\n

Industry Dynamics<\/h2>\n

Imagine you\u2019re a messenger who is coming back to bring intelligence to your team about the inner workings of a select group or a tribe that has long remained mysterious to outsiders. That\u2019s kind of what creating field messaging guides are about. Whereas sales reps might know all about their traditional customers, they could be completely green when it comes to new industries, particularly the niche sectors where SMBs can often find golden opportunities to establish themselves as market leaders.<\/p>\n

In your Industry Dynamics section, try to offer at least three trends that might prepare reps for the kinds of conversations they\u2019re going to have. This could include:<\/p>\n