Communication Hierarchy Model

Wanna make more sales?

Know when to say the right thing to an interested consumer. Sure, charm is great and education is fantastic, but do you know where to deliver them in the process to get the result you want?

Most People Don’t.

This document will show you when and how to communicate with your customer to maximize your effectiveness in making sales.

  1. Values and Interests

Knowing Who Your Audience is and Understanding Their Values: This involves researching and understanding the core values, beliefs, and interests of a specific avatar in your target audience.

This can be achieved through surveys, interviews, and market research.

Relevance: Building on the understanding of values, relevance ensures that the content aligns with the audience's current interests, needs, and pain points.

Example:

Does your customer avatar care more about:

  • Being eco-friendly

  • Saving the company money

  • Looking like a rock star at work

  • Doing as little as possible to get by / Not “rocking the boat”

  • Etc.

For Instance, if your customer avatar values looking like a rock star at work, the sales person does the work to make the coherent connection between how buying a sinelabs system will result in their desired outcome of looking like a rock star.

Relevance is in the coherent connection you make between how what we do gets them what they want.

Note: The values above aren’t mutually exclusive (one person can hold more than one, and to different degrees), They’re also not the only values someone could hold.

2. Engagement

Attention: Capturing the audience's attention with compelling headlines, visuals, and hooks that resonate with their values and relevance.

Interest: Maintaining interest through engaging content that promises to solve a problem, answer a question, or fulfill a need.

How to apply this:

Attention is a currency. No one owes it to us. We have to inspire it and keep inspiring it.

Get Attention: Based on the values of your ideal client avatar, how can you add compelling hooks, visuals, pattern-interrupts, hope, fear and controversy with a promise of delivering some kind of value, to get your readers attention.

Keep Attention: You must deliver on your promise to provide value, and continue hooking your audience. This can be entertainment, quick cuts, jokes, attractive people, surprising statistics, or some other value that is congruent with all human needs, AND SPECIFICALLY the personal and professional needs of your ideal customer avatar.

3. Information

Content Delivery: Providing clear, concise, and well-structured information that is easy to understand and digest.

Authority: Establishing credibility through accurate, trustworthy, and authoritative content.

Are you sabotaging your message by being unclear?

Clarity starts with understanding

  • who you’re talking to and

  • what they care about.

It’s not showing them how much you know. (That was useful for school, but they aren’t your teacher, and they don’t care.)

Clarity:

  • Respects people’s attention (that you have inspired and earned) by

    • Staying focused

    • Being Concise

  • Using relatable metaphors

  • Using words & concepts you’re very confident they know, or

  • Explaining words and concepts they may not know

  • Providing an appropriate level of context and background

  • Uses clear hierarchy, & explains nested concepts with care.

  • Be Precise and NEVER lie, (not even a misguided sales cliche.)

4. Education

Depth of Knowledge: Offering deeper insights, detailed explanations, and educational resources that help the audience understand the topic thoroughly.

Practical Application: Providing practical tips, how-tos, and actionable advice that the audience can apply.

Let the customer PULL information to themselves.

They are not your student, they are out of school. There is no assignment to learn from the salesperson.

If your potential customer is not inspired to learn more (or just complete the deal), consider it as a failure to complete of one of the above steps effectively. (there’s a world of difference between ‘trying’ to do it, and completing it effectively. Everyone is different, so nailing this is a moving target, and a skill to be developed.

5. Visualization and Reinforcement

Charts and Graphs: Using visual aids to reinforce and clarify complex information, making it more accessible and memorable.

Case Studies and Examples: Providing real-world examples and case studies to illustrate concepts and demonstrate success.

Different learning styles

Have charts, graphs, math scenarios, case studies and anecdotal stories available to help your customer understand, and advocate for the purchase in their organization.

6. Retention and Feedback

Follow-Up: Engaging the audience with follow-up content, newsletters, and continuous education to retain interest and reinforce learning.

Feedback Loop: Encouraging audience feedback to understand their needs better and improve future communication.

Get ‘em from every angle.

Continue to remind them of relevance over time, understanding their values and connecting the dots between a purchase from Sinelabs and their values.

Your job is successful at this stage when you get your customer to think like you and do you job for you in their organization. Equip your point of contact at the customer organization with all the relevant material they need to be a raving fan, and close the sale.

It’s NOT over

. . . until you get full, critical feedback about what worked in the sales process, and with the product, and what didn’t. Whether that’s a candid conversation on the phone, celebratory drinks, or a formal survey - pull this information toward you for both your benefit as a sales person, and the company as a product provider.