Speaking Whale

Whales listen for a special language when they buy- Whales buy money, they buy time and they buy risk. For a whale, it doesn't matter what you sell to them, they will translate it into these 3 ideas-

However, we have a bad habit of selling what we think that whales want to hear- Quality, Service, Capacity, Innovation, On Time Delivery, Guarantees.... the list is a long one. But the fact is that these are not the reasons that whales buy- in their minds they are speaking an entirely different language.

When you use these words you are asking the whale to translate what you believe is valuable to what they believe is valuable- For example, for a whale,

• Quality means Time - production lines not going down because of faulty parts, customer service calls not received because products work and so on
• Quality also means money - repeat purchases, reduced waste in production and so on
  
• Quality means Risk - or really risk management - fewer product returns, investment confidence and so on

The more complex your offering, the more difficult it is for a whale to hear the three things it needs to hear to understand and purchase. Our job as whale hunters is to talk to a whale in its own language. We have to do the translation of value based upon what result is produced by what we deliver. The results that a whale cares about are Time, Money and Risk. For us that means doing the translation real-time when we are presenting the benefits of what we sell- Every benefit needs to be accompanied with an impact statement that translates to Time, Money or Risk in the whale's business.

Simple exercise- Pick a marketing piece or Power Point that you are using currently to interest a whale. Read through it and circle every feature/benefit that your company is highlighting for the whale. Draw a line from that circle to the clear statement you are making about Time, Money or Risk. If you can't connect the circles, neither can the whale.

If you are interested in learning more about how to Speak Whale, attend our workshop on July 24th, Building the Unstoppable Harpoon - register on our website, www.thewhalehunters.com.