Lesson One assessment. Before we begin, let's take 10 seconds for a pre lesson quiz. How effective do you think you are b2b messaging is today. Give yourself a great, be honest. Now let's get our hands dirty. I'm going to ask you to conduct three important self assessment exercises.

Please follow the instructions carefully and take as much time as you need. These are very important, as they will help you learn how to apply that b2b messaging techniques. I will introduce later, I'll lead you through each one. Exercise 110 words. The host of marketplace. Public Radio his program on business and the economy frequently asks executives and company leaders this seemingly simple question in 10 words or less, tell me what your company does.

While he is always diplomatic. Answers he often gets are surprising, and not in a good way. This can be a very challenging question to answer. Let's see how you do. Stop the video and take as much time as you need. Write down your answer.

Together. We'll critique it in the next slide. All right, are you ready? Great. Now let's see how you did. If you wrote your company's tagline, you get zero points.

Taglines are not what we're looking for here. If you produce the concise answer in 10 words or less, give yourself three points. This means you were focused and concise. If your response was less than 15 words, but more than 10 give yourself two points, your answers a little less focused. If you drafted an answer that is more than 15 words, but less than 20 words, give yourself one point. Now you've lost a little bit more focus.

And finally, if your answer is more than 20 words, you get zero points, your text is just too long. Write your score at the top of the page and continue to assessment exercise number two. Exercise two is a materials review. You may have more than 100 marketing examples at your fingertips, but will only require a few of them for this exercise, please gather the following hardcopy, marketing and sales materials so you can lay them side by side on a table. Take all the time you need to gather these up. This is very important.

Do not skip this exercise. Your corporate brochure a hardcopy printout of your company's homepage. a printed copy of your solutions or product page from your website. You choose which one I don't care about any other pages on your website at the moment. Talk to your best sales rep and get a copy of the standard email he or she uses when reaching out to a new prospect This out. This is a tricky one because you may be thinking now wait a minute, I don't control what our sales rep say.

And then my friend is exactly the point. your press release boilerplate about your company, pick your latest press release printed out, and then cut out the final paragraph that explains about the company. And finally, print out the first three slides of your corporate presentation. I don't care that your corporate deck has 50 slides, I only want to see the first three. Stop the video while you gather these materials. restart the video when you're ready to score your work.

With all six items laid out in front of you, let's score your work. Other than your company logo appearing in the corner did these items look like they could have been created by different companies. If these items appear wildly inconsistent in their messaging brand look and feel then you've earned zero points. If on the other hand, your selection of materials is a perfect representation of an integrated marketing plan come to life, then give yourself three points. Three points means that all six materials echo the same messaging theme. They clearly fit together to tell a story, and they look like they were generated from the same company.

They work well together. If your samples share a high degree of message cohesiveness, although it is not perfect, and at least four of the six pieces reflect a level of messaging consistency, then give yourself two points. So a four pieces fit well together, but to appear somewhat random, you've earned two points. And finally, if you've achieved partial success, where at least two of the items appear part of the same story, give yourself one point. So gather your six samples used an exercise to show them to a friend, colleague, spouse or significant other who does not Work for your company. Take them out to lunch, meet them for a drink after work and share your materials with him or her.

Then ask them the following question. Based on the materials in front of you, can you tell me what my company does? Here are the materials with your reviewer. Do not make any comments Do not try to influence them. Do not explain the materials. Let them look them over and respond to your question.

When they do respond. Do not correct them. You must remain silent. Their first reaction is the most important. One last item before you start the exercise. Let's review the scoring so you'll know what to look for.

When they respond to your question. Pay careful attention to how they answer it. Do they understand your story? Here's how you'll be able to tell. Are they without any prompting from you able to correctly identify who your target audiences are. Can they Tell you what problems you help your customer solve.

Can they summarize what your company does? If your reviewer says I have no idea, or they're confused, or if they respond with a clearly wrong answer, then give yourself zero points. Your story is lost, confusing or non existent. Again, just don't judge your reviewer. their perception is reality. If on the other hand, they clearly and correctly understand your story and can play it back to you in two minutes or less, give yourself three points.

If they can respond, and it is mostly correct, but it takes them four minutes or less. Give yourself two points. And finally, if they sort of get the answer, but it takes them longer than four minutes, give yourself one point. Stop the video and take as much time as you need to complete this exercise. This may be the most important thing you learn from this course. Restart The video when you're ready.

Now let's total your scores by combining the scores from exercises one, two, and three. If your total was eight to nine points, Congratulations, you've done a great job. If your total was between three and seven, then it's time to roll up your sleeves to reevaluate and tune your approach to b2b messaging. And if your total was between zero and two points, well, it's time to get serious, but do not despair. Together, I'll guide you in your journey to developing the best b2b messaging possible. And now let's conclude lesson one with a short quiz.