Disagreements, strain, and stress often stem from making things too complicated. Businesses can create systems too complicated by involving what’s known as red tape – bureaucratic barriers that impede progress. Too much red tape leads to frustration. When things reach this breaking point it’s important to remember – Keep It Simple Stupid.
Yes, that old aviation phrase is still hanging around 70 years later.
As well it should, because Keep It Simple Stupid is an all-encompassing phrase that reminds us to reassess the situation, problem, and task at hand.
KISS isn’t about name-calling. Nobody should go around an office and call someone stupid. Nor should you get too down on yourself for getting tangled up in too many processes.
The KISS principle stretches into many fields. Sales, marketing, and general office management need elements of strict scheduling to work efficiently. Keeping things simple and sticking to a well-thought-out routine are not mutually exclusive.
We could list the top 10 Keep It Simple Stupid practices to improve your sales and marketing, but this post is all about cutting the clutter.
Here are the 3 ways to keep it simple.
Pitch Practice
Imagine you’re a sales strategist preparing to meet the next client on the schedule. What are you going to say? Veteran salespeople know how to move through conversations based on their client’s verbal responses and facial movements. Practicing your pitch before every meeting is crucial. It reduces your ums, likes and awkward pauses. Knowing what to say and when to say it keeps all parties involved and attentive.
Just the Facts
If this blog post were a verbal presentation, it wouldn’t include 75 percent of the words. One sentence at the top, followed by this list and a closer. Sometimes a few utterances are all you need. Explaining things in great detail is perfectly fine for scientific research or medical practice. This is marketing, advertising, and sales. This is changing someone’s mind in seconds, not years.
Condensation
A picture is worth … fill in the blank. Whatever you fill the blank with is vital to the success of your campaign. The right picture can say more than a thousand words. A picture that tells a 10,000-word tale can be as useful as an image worth one. Throwing any old image on a blog or website is fundamentally foolish. Imagery, whether digital or in the sales pitch, draws attention away from the written and spoken word, so make it stay on message.
