Customer range as proof claim
Client companies range from two to 2,000 employees.
I am going to create a section on proof claims, which are pieces of evidence you include in your prospecting conversations to demonstrate results in an attempt to convince prospects of the value of your products.
In a prospecting call, you have very little time, and you must find the most valuable piece of information that can prove you are a reliable partner and someone worthy of doing business with.
A very popular proof claim to build credibility for your services is the size or the type of customer served. That is good evidence. Nothing helps you attract big customers with deep pockets than showing you are already serving big customers.
However, most times the metric used in sales presentations is the range, rather than the average. “Customers served range from two to2,000 employees” or “from one million to five billion revenues.”
Range is misleading because it does not show distribution. Most sellers use range manipulatively when they have a skewed distribution. Ninety percent of the customers have five employees, and only two clients have a size above one thousand employees. However, if you show the range, you are misleading and hiding the distribution of your customers. It’s an old trick very much used in sales. It’s a trick, as the word says. You are misrepresenting information in the hope that customers perceive the reality as better than what it really is.
This website is all about building trust, and you don’t build it by misrepresenting information.
So, give details that help you build trust. Reporting the average size is better than the range when it comes to building trust. Otherwise, you could use another metric that is perceived as less misleading but still could work if you have a skewed distribution: the percentage of business coming from large customers. “80% of our business comes from clients with more than2,000 employees.” If you sell more to large customers, a larger portion of your business could come from them. In this case, you can offer a very precise estimate that is not perceived as misleading and builds trust even if you have a skewed distribution of customers.
Remember that lowering uncertainty is what gets prospects onboard. Using the range does not lower uncertainty. The more precise you are, the stronger your arguments.
