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⚡️ Today’s level up ⚡️
Writing effective narratives for my Mobilizers was a key tool in my toolkit as a 7 figure earning seller. Today’s system is about deconstructing the PR/FAQ as a creative narrative memo you can use to progress deals with your Diamond Accounts.
Let’s go!
Read time: <7 minutes
What is the PR/FAQ?
“Be stubborn on vision, but flexible on details” – Jeff Bezos
The PR/FAQ, or Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions, is a document that outlines the benefits of your SaaS company’s transformation and answers common questions that your prospects or customers might have.
The PR/FAQ was popularized by Amazon as a tool for product development and marketing.
According to legend, Jeff Bezos would require his teams to write a PR/FAQ before launching a new product or service. This document would outline the benefits of the product or service, answer common questions and objections, and explain how the product or service would impact customers’ lives.
Bezos believed that the PR/FAQ was a powerful tool for ensuring that his teams were focused on the customer and the value that the product or service would bring.
By requiring his teams to think deeply about the benefits of their product or service and to articulate those benefits in a clear and concise way by working backwards, he believed that they could create products and services that truly resonated with customers.
Over time, the PR/FAQ became a staple of Amazon’s product development and marketing process. It is still used by Amazon teams today, and it has been adopted by other companies and organizations as a powerful tool for communicating the value of their products and services (including my old company).
Why does the PR/FAQ format work?
Even though it wasn’t created for sales teams, the PR/FAQ can also be used by sellers to help progress deals with Diamond Accounts, because it’s a forcing function to:
1. Work backwards from the end solution, and
2. Share it in an easy-to-understand narrative format
The PR/FAQ format works so well too because it helps you communicate the benefits of your solution in a clear and concise way. The exercise satisfies the 3 necessary components of Aristotle’s Persuasion Triangle and all the basics of a good executive memo:
– A focus on the end user
– Considers stakeholders ability to share and add
– Sets a vision
– Addresses pain points
– Quantifies success
– Delivered in narrative format
By outlining the benefits of your transformation in a creative, narrative format you can show your Mobilizers how your transformation can solve specific initiatives they’ve shared with you or you’ve researched on your own.
Additionally, the PR/FAQ allows you to be proactive in answering common questions and objections in the FAQ section, something busy executives will appreciate. It’s also easy for the document to be shared internally – helping you to sell when you’re not in the room.
I was introduced to the PR/FAQ in 2020 from former Amazonians who joined my old company, and it was widely used as an internal communication tool to get ideas and projects moving. I saw the value in bringing it into my sales motions, and it helped progress a few of my early stage deals that had stalled, especially useful in the new Zoom-only connection reality we had been experiencing back then.
By sharing the PR/FAQ with your Mobilizers, you can get their feedback and insights on how to best position your product or service within the organization. It becomes an invitation to sell with your Mobilizer vs sell to them, something my friend Nate Nasralla talks about all the time.
I have used the PR/FAQ at the early stages after I have had a thorough discovery, or when an account has gotten stuck and I need a creative way to regain their attention.
The anatomy of an effective PR/FAQ:
When creating a PR/FAQ, it’s important to focus on the big idea (your prospect’s key initiative brought to life with your transformation).
Use language that is clear and concise and avoid technical jargon or buzzwords and acronyms that only people within your organization would know. Tailor the document to them using terminology they use. Before sending, be sure to get feedback from internal stakeholders and subject matter experts to ensure that the PR/FAQ is accurate.
Here are the key components of a good PR/FAQ:
1. Headline: The headline should be attention-grabbing and clearly communicate the big idea aligning to an initiative the prospect or customer cares about.
2. Sub-Headline (Value Proposition): This section should communicate the key benefits of the transformation and explain how it solves the prospect’s challenge(s) crisply.
3. Forward-Looking Date: This should be a date in the future from one-year from now (showing the prospect what the future will be like as a strategic partner with your company).
4. Press Release: This clearly communicates the why and what of the transformation within one page. Be sure to include a relevant quote (either the CEO, one of their customers, or one of their employees depending on the solution you are offering).
5. Frequently Asked Questions: This section should address the how via common questions and objections the prospect might have about the transformation, providing clear and concise answers to each.
To help you get started with using the PR/FAQ in your own sales engagements, I’ve created an actual sample template that you can download and customize for your own use.
Remember, it will take several iterations to get this right. Practice writing these internally before you send them to your Mobilizer. Use Sunsama to build in a recurring task on your calendar for 25 minutes to work on your PR/FAQ every morning before checking email or Slack.
For those that are a part of Make More Hustle Less Club, you can use the special coaching link in your hub page to book an hour strategy session with me at a deeply discounted rate ($300 vs $1,000) where I will help you iterate on your PR/FAQ.
That’s a wrap – see you next time!
🐝
When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1 | Unlock the 7 Figure Seller OS
This combines the 7 Steps to 7 Figures system along with a lifetime membership to our Make More Hustle Less Club where we put the system in action as a community (big changes coming and prices will increase very soon!).
2 | Book a 1:1 coaching session right now
You can book a 60 minute strategy session with me here.
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