In the rush to sell your capabilities and solutions, there is intense pressure to create massive laundry lists of solutions, expertise, methodologies, and so on in the communication. This does nothing but firmly place you back in the quagmire of commonality, where every services company is saying the same stuff.

So, let us stop for a minute and ask ourselves:

• Are customers interested in your capabilities? Yes? No. They are interested in solving their problems. So why should your capabilities interest them? The first purpose in your communication should be “Benefit.” What is in it for your customer to spend time reading your communication that can benefit them in their businesses? The trick here is to turn your capabilities into business benefits for their interest.

For example, the most common business many of the IT companies engage in is staffing. This cannot be anymore vanilla-flavored, as no company can make a significant claim to be different than the rest. And here is the tough part: how can you turn your staffing capabilities into a customer benefit? One way could be to show how many different clients you serve—and yes, it means you should be brave to tell the world your customer list and survive competition’s onslaught. If you focus on testing and QA support (by staffing), why not put up a rolling ticker on the number of bugs your team has resolved? The point is, the customer should be able to see a significant value in spending his or her time on your website or to answer your cold call.

• If you manage to stop customers with your first level communication, you have achieved a good deal of success. The next challenge is to retain that interest. An example is when we shop for food. We have two thoughts running in parallel—the boredom of need (we need food) and the expectation to be surprised (we will find something new). Check if your communication has an element of “Interest.” Do you build a theme? Is there a philosophy? Have you created a new method of resolving common business challenges?

Some of the larger companies follow some themes. While they may not completely agree with my call, the themes are fairly accurate, nevertheless.

Accenture: the company promotes excellence in execution and focused vision. They landed a hit with Tiger Woods (and here’s wishing his game and handicap remain unsullied), and the company’s theme has positioned them as one of the leading consulting firms globally.

Wipro: A few quarters ago, the theme was all about awards and achievements—riding on the industry’s recognition. Recent themes include frameworks for organized innovation.

Cognizant: the U.S.-based services company leads with customer success stories, providing proof-of-concept directly.

• Do customers believe in what you say? Yes? No. Today, decision making is a tough choice for your buyers, and they have numerous compliance issues to deal with too. So how will you prove yourself? The next purpose of your communication should be “Testimony.” If you can provide sufficient layers of belief in your communication—from case studies to analysts’ calls to industry awards—you are making it easier for the customer to make a choice. We have seen many client sites use their web-based content like case studies and whitepapers as lead-capture services. What were you thinking? Will a prospective client freely give away his or her identity to receive information about you to help him or her make a decision about you? Well, no.

• Are your past customers and prospective customers truly aware of your expertise and experiences? As they have evolved, so have you—in business, capabilities, process maturities, and so on. Many of you have moved on from pure staffing to business consulting and other value-added services. How do you showcase your growing maturity in front of the client? Consider the element of “Evangelism.” If you have gained deep experience in a particular vertical, and are slowly gaining repute as the go-to company for that particular service, you should be evangelizing your service capabilities. Your communication should move to a higher plane, where customers can freely read about how your service model or engagement helps businesses gain distinct advantages.

A company like Xoriant was predominantly engaged in the staffing business for a long while. As the industries changed, so did the company’s business model. Today, the company has emerged as a leading product engineering outsourcing services provider, and has built deep content in framework-based development, vertical-focused successes, and so on. Through a mix of webinars, newsletters, and presentations, the organization is highly successful in its sales process.

Review your current set of material—from website to case studies to whitepapers to your sales presentations. Are they filled with “bite” that will engage your customers? Are you selling features or are you delivering customer benefits? Are you hawking wares or are you convincing your prospects?