CHAPTER 13

Rehearse the Script

It’s the intersection of technology and liberal arts that makes our hearts sing.

—Steve Jobs

On March 2, 2011, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2, the second generation of its pioneering tablet. The first iPad had sold 15 million units the previous year and was hailed as the most successful consumer product ever launched. Although his health was declining, Steve Jobs took the stage because as he told the audience, Apple had been working on the product for a long time and he didn’t want to miss it. Although the iPad had a 90 percent market share and was one of the fastest-selling consumer products in history, Jobs had an even better model ready to roll.

The iPad 2 trumped its predecessor in three ways: thinner, lighter, faster. Those three adjectives provided the script for Jobs’s presentation as well as all of Apple’s marketing, advertising, and in-store materials. Jobs spent seven minutes revealing the benefits of the iPad 2 in more detail:

The iPad 2 Script

Although it took Jobs only seven minutes to reveal the previous information, the script served as the narrative for Apple’s key messages, press releases, in-store signage, television commercials, websites, and conversations on the sales floor.

Creating a script, crafting a compelling narrative, and sticking to it resulted in millions of conversations echoing the key messages “thinner, lighter, faster.” Following are some samples of the headlines from major blogs and newspapers that ran after the iPad 2 introduction.

When I walked into an Apple Store after the iPad 2 went on sale, the Specialist had internalized the product’s messages and delivered them perfectly. “Why is this model better than the original?” I asked. “It’s better for several reasons,” said the Specialist. “The processor is faster than the original, and it’s really noticeable when you’re playing games. It’s a lot thinner. In fact, it’s 33 percent thinner. That’s dramatic. And lighter. Go ahead, pick it up and see for yourself.”

One Apple Store employee told me that reviewing and rehearsing the script was one of the most important concepts he learned from my book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. The script comes from the top. Key messages will be created at Apple headquarters in Cupertino and delivered publicly by the CEO or one of the division leaders. The announcement will be followed by press releases, marketing, advertising, and in-store material. The message customers hear on the sales floor should be no different. Employees have the flexibility to personalize the messages, but the key benefits behind each product remain consistent.

The Twitter-Friendly Headline

Apple CEO Tim Cook follows the same process as Jobs did. What’s the iPhone 4S? According to Cook on October 4, 2011, “The iPhone 4S is our most amazing iPhone yet.”4 The Apple press release for the same day read: “Apple today announced iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet.” The front page of the Apple website featured only one product, the iPhone 4S. The copy read: “It’s the most amazing iPhone yet.” Apple created a television commercial for the phone highlighting Siri, the personal assistant. The commercial ended with the words, “Say hello to the most amazing iPhone yet.”

You might have noticed something about both the phrases used to describe the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S. Both are short enough to fit well within a Twitter post of 140 characters. Simple messages are more easily processed by the brain. Simple is more memorable and easier for employees to repeat to customers. Apple makes sure its key messages are concise, typically one short sentence. Although Apple doesn’t purposely use Twitter as its test, it’s uncanny how every product description as far back as 2001 can fit easily within a Twitter post:

An Apple-like approach to the marketing and sales conversation starts with developing key messages about your service, product, company, or cause. The Twitter-friendly headline—the overarching key message—should be no more than one sentence and 140 characters in length. When the company Reckitt Benckiser, which makes products like Calgon, Lysol, and Woolite, introduced a new Clearasil face-wash dispenser, its executive director stated publicly that the campaign was modeled on Apple. That meant creating one key message that would be repeated in YouTube videos, commercials, and other marketing channels. The repeatable key message in the Clearasil campaign was, “The perfect dose for visibly clear skin” (thirty-nine characters). When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced a new look for his site’s homepage called Timeline, he said, “Timeline is the whole story of your life on a single page” (fifty-seven characters). It was memorable, and yes, many observers compared Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs. The Timeline description turned up in thousands of blogs and news articles. Zuckerberg had succeeded in concisely framing the narrative. Steve Jobs, who gave Zuckerberg business advice, would have been proud.

In Apple Store Oxford Circus. Always amazed at how the staff are so expert, friendly, and charming. —Breffni W.

The Message Map

I could spend the rest of this chapter giving you more examples of effective scripts, but it won’t do you much good unless you can implement the technique for yourself. So here goes. I’m about to introduce you to a powerful and effective communications technique that will help you create your own script and to share the script with your team and your customers. It’s called the message map: a one-page visual depiction of your story.

The message map is stunningly effective. One client of mine—a global wireless brand—laminated its final message map and would simply pass it across the table to potential customers in face-to-face conversations. I nearly passed out when I heard it, because the message map is meant to be kept internal and to be used to create presentations, ads, and marketing material. But my clients reassured me when they said, “It worked fine. In fact, it helped us win several multimillion-dollar accounts!” Following are the steps you need to create your own message map:

1. Create a Twitter-friendly headline. You should be able to describe your service or product in 140 characters or less. Before Twitter there were the Google guys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They intuitively understood the importance of this exercise. When Brin and Page were looking for funding, they pitched Google to investors at Sequoia Capital. One investor told me that the investors “got it” in one sentence: “Google provides access to the world’s information in one click” (sixty-two characters). The description was so persuasive that the investors now demand a one-sentence pitch from any entrepreneur seeking funding for a company or product. Keep your headline concise, specific, and descriptive. Above all, make sure it does not exceed 140 characters.

2. Create three or at most four supporting points. In short-term memory, people can only recall about three or four pieces of content. Cram too many message points in your narrative, and it will run off the page. In some cases your Twitter-friendly headline can preview the supporting messages. For example, the iPad 2 was “thinner, lighter, and faster.” It works as a headline and fills out the rest of the message map.

3. Develop three or four details for each of your supporting messages. These details should include data, stories, and examples.

image

Figure 13.1 Message Map Template

4. Cut-and-paste the content you developed in the first three steps into the four to five bubbles of a message map template (Figure 13.1). A template like the one in Figure 13.1 can be created by using Microsoft Word or Pages for Mac; it can also be created using Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote software.

To show you how to apply these four steps, Table 13.1 shows how Apple could have created a message map for the iPhone 4S.

Figure 13.2 shows step four—all the content from the first three steps listed in Table 13.1 positioned in the appropriate place on the message map for the iPhone 4S.

And there you have it. Message mapping is one of the most powerful communication techniques you will ever find. A message map can provide the foundation for a thirty-second elevator pitch, a ten-minute conversation, or a twenty-minute presentation. Best of all, every member of your sales staff can speak from the same playbook. Keep in mind that every spokesperson for the brand should be encouraged and given the flexibility to use different examples and stories that mean something to him or her and that are relevant to his or her customers.

Table 13.1 Message Map Steps One to Three for Apple iPhone 4S
Step One
(Headline)		 Step Two
(Supporting
Points)		 Step Three (Sub-Supporting Points)
The most
amazing
iPhone yet.		 1. Dual-core A5 chip • 2× faster performance
• 7× faster graphics
• Games look fantastic
2. All new camera • 8 megapixels
• Full 1080p HD video recording
• A true replacement for most point-and-shoot cameras
3. iOS 5 and iCloud • Notification center
• iMessage
• 200 new features
• Store your content and push it to all your devices
4. Siri • Your personal assistant
• Use your voice to send messages, ask questions, get information
• Siri understands what you say and mean

image

Figure 13.2 Complete Message Map for iPhone 4S

Creating a Brand Message Map

If your company carries only a few products like Apple (Macs, iPods, iPads), then you should have a message for each product or at least each product category. But what if your brand carries hundreds of products like the soap company Lush? The brand does spend a lot of money sending new products to the homes of its employees so they can talk about the products from personal knowledge, but it would be impossible—and unpractical—to create a message map about each bar of soap. So in a case like Lush, the company could create a message map to share its brand and core values—a messaging template that would apply to every product in the store. Figure 13.3 shows what a message map could look like for values that the Lush brand represents.

This message map has only three key points that reinforce the headline. Three is a good number. Four is acceptable, but try to avoid creating a message map with more than four supporting messages. Make it easy for all brand spokespeople to remember and deliver the story.

image

Figure 13.3 Brand Message Map for Lush

In Chapter 8 we revealed the Apple five steps of service. Step three is to “present a solution.” The solution includes a clear description of the benefits. It answers the question, “What product is right for me, and why should I care?” You and your staff will have a hard time explaining those solutions clearly and persuasively without a script. Rehearsing a script does not imply that your employees must stick to a predetermined template (that’s why car salesmen and phone solicitors annoy us so much). But it does mean that everyone—every customer facing employee—knows the key messages, internalizes the narrative, and delivers the story consistently.

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1. Script a story. Make sure that every product, service, or program has a story—narrative—that has been scripted for it. The script must use clear, simple language that is repeatable and memorable.

2. Create a message map. Make a message map for the product, service, or company. You can use a small team of people to help you craft it, but be careful about circulating the message map among too many people to get their buy-in. The goal is to have just the right amount of content that can fit easily on one page. Too many points defeat the purpose.

3. Share the message map. Circulate the message map, and coach the team to repeat the key messages. Everyone in a position to discuss the product should have at least three or four key messages ready to deliver and a story or example to accompany each message. If they don’t get to each message in every conversation, that’s OK. It’s more important that they are armed with the story when they need it.