325. Message Market Fit: Turning Great Ideas Into Communication That Lands

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

In this episode, Matt Abrahams interviews communication strategist Oliver Aust about the concept of 'message market fit.' They explore how t

Key takeaways

• Message market fit requires finding the right words and stories to make audiences care about a product or service.
• Effective messaging should focus on outcomes (the 'picture') rather than just features (the 'drill').

Main topics

• Message Market Fit
• Personal Branding

Notable quotes

People don't want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole.

Conclusion

Success in modern communication depends on shifting from product-centr

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hi, Matt here. I am super excited to share that our September newsletter is now available. Our newsletter shares exciting things we have going on in the next month or so, and you'll learn practical, tactical skills for handling conflict in your life. That's Think Fast, Talk Smart on LinkedIn or under resources at faster, smarter.io. And now a word from our sponsors. Their support covers the cost of production, allowing us to bring you this episode free of charge. The more time I spend thinking, teaching, and communicating clearly, the better I can do the work that really matters to me. And one thing that helps is spending less time just getting up to speed. Before I reply to an email, prepare for a meeting, or follow up on a conversation, there can be a lot of context to sort through. That's why Superhuman Go stood out to me. It's from the makers of Grammarly, which I've relied on for years. And unlike AI tools that require another tab and often require me to explain what I'm working on, Superhuman Go works where I already work. It's already up to speed and right there when I need it. I can make sense of a long email thread, prepare for a meeting, or draft a response without switching apps or losing my place. Go handles some of the most repetitive work that I do so I can stay focused on the work that actually needs me. Try Superhuman Go from the makers of Grammarly. Find out more at superhuman.com. Speaker 2 (1:28) Each of us has our own unique communication signature. What is your signature saying about you? My name is Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today, I am excited to talk with Oliver Aust. Oliver is founder of Speak Like a CEO Academy, where he coaches executives and founders how to refine and strategize about their communication. He's written several books, including Unignorable and Message Machine, and he hosts the popular podcast Speak Like a CEO. Welcome, Oliver. I am really excited to be chatting with you, and it's great to be here in person. We've done a lot of chatting over the years, and I really appreciate your work. Thanks for joining. Thank you for Speaker 1 (2:15) having me. It's so great to be face-to-face after usually chatting online. Normally 6,000 miles and nine time zones separate us, so it's great to be in person. Excellent. Shall we get started? Lovely. Excellent. Here at Stanford, Speaker 2 (2:27) we teach our MBAs a lot about product market fit to increase the likelihood that their offerings will hit the target and they'll be able to be productive. You talk about message market fit. What is this and how can all of us benefit by maximizing it? Speaker 1 (2:42) Every company that wants to be successful needs both product market fit, there's a market for your product, and message market fit, which means that you find the right words, the right story to convince top talent. customers and investors to work with you, buy from you, invest in you. And if you do that, then you can achieve message market fit and you need both. So in my most recent book, Message Machine, we looked at why 90 % of startups fail. Plus established companies, their lifespan gets shorter and shorter as well. And more often than not, it's the lack of message market fit, right? You have a product, it works, but there are just so many products out there. It's just very hard to get traction because let's face it. No one cares about us, our company, our products. We have to make them care. And for that, we need the right words. Speaker 2 (3:27) Have you found in your research certain words Speaker 1 (3:30) that work or certain ways Speaker 2 (3:31) of determining which words work? Speaker 1 (3:33) Yeah, a common mistake I see is that companies like to talk about the product, what they do and why it's great and why they're so excited about this. That doesn't work. You want to talk about the outcome. What's in it for them? What's in it for your customer? You probably heard the phrase. People don't want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole. But I think that's even falling short because who wants a hole in the wall? People want a picture nicely hung on the wall. So show them the picture. Don't just describe the picture. Show them the picture. Make them see it. Make them feel it and believe it. Make them believe what's possible if you work together, especially, of course, in the B2B space. So that's what I would aim for. The outcome, what's in it for them. Speaker 2 (4:13) Absolutely. So the stories you're telling, the help, your message fit the market is to make sure that it's relevant and you're explaining the value, not what it is, but the value it provides. Speaker 1 (4:25) That's right. And it's, you and I could probably develop an app this weekend on helping people how to communicate better, right? We could just do it. But would it be a commercially viable operation? Would it be a thriving company? It depends, right? It's so easy to produce. new services and products these days, but it's harder to find an audience and find customers for it. So you can see how message market fit is even more important than it used to be. Speaker 2 (4:49) Oh, absolutely. And in fact, I would argue that as you're developing your product, as you're identifying your market, you need to be thinking about the message and the messaging around it. Speaker 1 (4:58) Yes, do it in parallel. Don't create a product and then think about how you want to sell it and find investors, etc. Do it in parallel or the Amazon way. You create the press release first, right? And then see if there are actually words that describe it. But it's not easy, especially in the innovative spaces, in the startup world, because you're by definition creating something that probably doesn't exist. So finding the right words to describe it that people understand isn't easy. And talk to your customers, right? It's sometimes as simple as that. You need to go out, founders leave the building, talk to your customers. Right. And iterate Speaker 2 (5:30) as you go. Just like you iterate on the product, you need to be iterating on the message. In your book, Unignorable, you discuss the necessity of standing out in a crowded landscape, and it is getting more and more crowded every day. For founders and leaders trying to build their brand in today's fast-paced digital creator-first world, what is the first step to shifting from being overlooked to becoming truly unignorable? The Speaker 1 (5:53) word unignorable