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Think about the messages you might see on posters at a retail tire store:

“We’ll beat any competitor’s price.”

“Free rotation for the life of your tires.”

“Cityville’s largest tire selection since 1982.”

These are muscle statements — bite-sized marketing messages that help define a business and its strengths and credibility. Wherever you plan to use them, from a sales presentation to invoice stuffers or tweets, here are valuable tips for crafting muscle statements for your equipment rental business.

Identify why your rental business is a customer’s best choice

Even before you start forming statements, make a list of what you do best. What sets you apart from your competitors? If you think you provide the best service, dig deeper than that. Look for tangible examples that bring that claim to life. Do you provide 24-hour emergency service, but other rental businesses in your market don’t? Do you have a service satisfaction guarantee? During that exercise of listing your strengths, you might even come up with new services or policies to offer and promote to differentiate your business.

As you consider potential muscle statements, always remember to put customers and prospects first. What would a given statement mean to them? Does it promise a benefit to your audience or is it just something you want to brag a little about? It’s one thing for a car dealer to boast that they’re the largest dealer in a five-state area; it’s another for them to communicate that their huge volume buying saves customers money.

Get to the point

Salespeople often refer to their elevator speech — what they would say to a prospective customer in the short time it takes to ride up a few floors. Just like that kind of speech, the beauty of muscle statements is they boil everything down to what matters most. As we develop shorter attention spans as customers in the immediate-communication world today, that’s a plus.

If you think of sending out a series of four or five mailings, or a series of image-oriented social media posts, muscle statements provide the perfect focus. Drive home one overriding statement — and support it with details underneath as needed — per mailing, post or other communication.

Effectively conveying your business’ strengths will generate results. In a noisy environment of messages that your audience is exposed to daily, muscle statements cut through and leave a clear impression. Determine yours and use them consistently throughout your mix of marketing messages.