Tom Gabriele, Product Manager
Keep it short and simple; keep it simple and straightforward; keep it short and sweet, or an American hard rock band formed in January of 1973 in New York City. No matter how you slice it, KISS has its place in today's business environment. The "keep it simple stupid" (KISS) principle is a rule of design that implies that systems perform their best when they have simple designs rather than complex ones. The acronym in and of itself is not meant to imply a lack of knowledge (or stupidity) but rather the fact that an intelligent system can be construed as stupid because of their simplistic design.
The KISS Principle is meant to deter or prevent creep in features, system failover or other IT development issues. Attributed to Kelly Johnson who formulated the principle in the mid-1900s while working as an engineer, he coined the principle by designing systems with simple repair capabilities, using tools and skills available to average, every day mechanics. In today's world this term is frequently associated with software design, where function/scope creep can render programs unmanageable over time.
The KISS Principle tries to recognize two things:
People (including product and service users) generally want things that are simple, easy to learn and use, and . . .
Companies that make products or furnish services may find this simplicity an advantage for the company, since it tends to shorten development time and reduce overall cost
Too often people over-complicate things in an attempt to display greater capability, when in reality they end up overcomplicating a solution and losing credibility. A common area where the KISS mentality is also useful is sales. Keeping a sales pitch simple and focused on how it impacts the customer's life for the better is the best way of making the sale. Spending too much time focusing the conversation on product or company rather than focusing on how the product or service will directly benefit the customer, is a common pitfall. A great example of this simplified approach was how Apple approached the sale of their iPods. Rather than concentrating on the number of gigabytes that a particular iPod had they focused their strategy instead on explaining how many songs each one could hold making it a personal benefit that was simple for every potential customer to understand. As Steve Jobs once described his design idea of the company's products: "It all comes down to this: Let's make it simple. Really simple."
We can boil the KISS principle down to the following three key principles when applying it to the sales function, since customers want quick, easy, painless, and simple.
Watch your words - most sales people get caught up explaining all the features and details of their service or product that they forget to concentrate on why the customer is talking to them in the first place: They want to solve a problem. That's it.
Embrace content – most buyers are anywhere from 65% to 90% through their buying process before they talk to a salesperson. They know as much and are probably already familiar with the features of your offering. They've done the research, put in the time, and are now just looking for guidance.
Tell a clear story – clarity outdoes persuasion. The best salespeople bear this in mind when writing emails, delivering demos, and negotiating. Human beings are wired to crave logically flowing narratives and that's what should be positioned.
Many others have coined similar phrases to the KISS principle such as:
Albert Einstein: "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." This means that we should simplify the design of a product and that success is achieved when a design is at its maximum simplicity
Occam's (or Ockham's) Razor: A 14th century theory that states that in a series of hypotheses, the simplest one is most likely to be correct unless the burden of proof rests on a more complicated theory
Leonardo da Vinci': "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
Mies Van Der Rohe: "Less is more"
Bjarne Stroustrup: "Make Simple Tasks Simple!"
Antoine de Saint Exupéry: "It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"
So whatever you choose to call it just remember to keep it short and sweet.
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