Message Decay

Sometimes, the cause of falling revenue is obvious – a major client fails, a sales channel quits, input costs increase, a new competitor enters your market. But more often, the cause is really hard to pin down and it can be really frustrating. Far too often we leap to price (our competitor is undercutting us), or sales effort (let’s have a sales promotion), or not enough leads (let’s do more trade shows). But before you go there … consider this. 

A frequent, but not obvious, cause is what I call Message Decay. It’s hard to see and often overlooked. The good news is, it’s surprisingly easy. 

Read on .... 

Where it Begins

When you first launched the product or service in question, it was done with great care and attention. You crafted a market position (I hope!)  to guide its development and commercialisation.  

You developed the product’s features, pricing, branding and messaging based on: 

• The exact target market
• The problem you solve for them
• How you solve itWho else could solve it
• Why your offer is the best choice for them 

The trouble is, that was months or even years ago. Message decay has started to creep in. The result is inefficient sales activities and lower revenue.  

How message decay creeps in

Like any sophisticated machine, the settings drift, the components wear, and efficiency tails off. Some of the causes include:

• Your ‘old’ market has evolved (no one’s buying fax paper today 😉 ).
• Promotions or lead generation aimed at the wrong audience (gotta love those creatives).
• Messaging that addresses the wrong problem or wrong competitors (clarity is essential).
• Sales and marketing drifting out of sync (“I thought we were selling to engineers not accountants”).
• Overly long or unmanaged sales channels letting your story get diluted (the misery of extended distribution networks). 

How you can check for decay 

1 - Internal Interviews: 

• Ask sales, marketing, and support to describe what you do and why you’re the best choice. Are they all saying the same thing?  Consistency means alignment; variation means decay.  
• I love talking to sales reps. I ask them who they sell to, why people buy their product, who they are competing against.  I NEVER GET THE SAME ANSWER. 

2 - Customer Interviews: 

• Ask why they bought your product and if they would buy it again? Ask them what has changed in their world that would affect what and how they buy now.  
• One client learned that their pricing had not increased enough to remain credible.

3 - Trust Signals Audit: 

• Look at your proposals, case studies, and testimonials; are they still powerful enough to remove hesitation?  
• Is ‘building trust’ designed into your end-to-end engagement process? 

4 - Simplicity check: 

• Have internal layers and jargon made your message harder to grasp? Can a customer repeat it after hearing it once?   
• Are you happy saying it to your personal friends? 

Why it matters

Unchecked message decay means:

• Your “fresh” campaign underperforms because it’s speaking to yesterday’s needs.
• Sales teams waste time chasing the wrong leads or fighting irrelevant competitors.
• The trust you’ve built quietly erodes as customers feel you don’t understand them anymore. 

Your call to action

• Review your market position. 
• Interview all customer facing departments – are they aligned with the product’s market positioning.
• Interview selected clients
• Why did they buy from you?
• What has changed in their world? 
• Would they buy again?

 See you next time, 

Andrew  

Note: We have interviewed clients and prospects around the world in diverse market verticals.  As a third party, they tell us things they won’t tell their vendors. We learn about competitive threats, margin opportunities, new product ideas and a host of things your sales and marketing team aren’t equipped to discover.  Let me know if you'd like to explore this.