Products As Solutions: Sell the Benefits, not the Features
The entire sales process is based on solving problems for your customers. Those solutions are not always the obvious ones inherent in your product. A financial planner may see the real benefit of her work as a significant increase in future income for a client. The client, however, may see it very differently. He or she may have been experiencing stress about not preparing properly for their future. The stress may be related to fear or ignorance that keeps them from taking action to help themselves. The financial planner solves that problem by coming in and relieving that stress by offering them a way to take the first steps. The planner thinks she’s selling future security but the reality is that she is selling stress relief right now. By tailoring her product presentation to address these immediate fears in addition to the long term benefits she’ll give her client the relief they need now.
Everything you offer to any prospective client is a product including things, services, advice, psychological benefits, increased income and other less tangible results. Before you go out to sell you must consider your products from every angle with particular focus on how they look from the customer’s viewpoint. We tend to know our own products from a features point of view whereas our customers think of them in terms of what benefit they will derive from them. This Features/Benefit pairing is a classic advertising technique that you should learn and use when developing and promoting new products and services.
Feature/Benefit Comparison
Analyzing what you do from a features/benefit point of view may be an enlightening experience because the things you consider powerful features may not resonate with your customers while things that you haven’t considered can be vital selling points. A powerful sports car may have a 300HP engine, leather seating, GPS system, etc., all of which are features. The benefits of those features are a different story. They tend to be much more visceral and emotional and include a return to youth, a feeling of personal power, a statement of status and success, etc. While you might cover the technical features of your product in your ads and sales presentation, you must address these emotional benefits as you cover each technical item. For instance you’d stress the feel of the cool leather, the powerful acceleration and throaty roar of the engine and the limited exclusivity of owning such a rarefied beast.
There is a simple exercise you can do to learn more about how a customer might view your products called a Features/Benefit comparison. This exercise is often done by advertising copywriters before they sit down to write compelling ad copy about a new product. It helps them identify the ‘hot button’ benefits of that product that will grab attention and create immediate interest in owning it.
Start with a blank sheet of paper for each product or service you offer. Divide it into two vertical columns and title the left hand one Features and the right Benefits. On the features side list all of the technical features of your business. Specifications, specialized experience and skills, tools you have, locations, previous client names and any other things you think are important about what you offer. On the Benefits side, next to each feature, write down the actual benefit to the customer of that feature. Benefits include saving or making money, saving time, relieving stress, enhancing self-esteem or business success, fixing emergencies or broken items, etc. Their must be a clear benefit for you to write it down. If a feature has no corresponding benefit put a line through it: It has no place in your sales presentation or marketing.
A good example of a feature that may have no real benefit is the fancy office. If you have a nice office in a prestigious location but seldom have clients in that office for meetings, it is not a benefit. It may make you enjoy work more which benefits you but it is not a selling point. In some businesses the appearance of success is very important because it conveys a sense of security and the feeling that the customer may share in your success, both of which are compelling benefits. In other cases, the appearance of excessive prosperity may turn off customers. I remember one very successful local real estate agent who saw her sales of middle class homes slide after she purchased an expensive German car. Her clients had the perception that she was a little too concerned with getting their money. When she switched back to a mini-van similar to the ones her typical clients drove, she started selling again.
Once you start to learn the benefits of your products you’ll have a clearer idea of how they appeal to your customers and you’ll spot areas where you need to strengthen them. Look at all the things you are selling and at the demographic profiles of your best customers and change the things that don’t directly benefit those customers. You may not have to eliminate anything, you’re more likely to add benefits or only sell the features that you know will appeal to a specific customer.
Never Leave A Feature Hanging
From now on, there is rule you must follow until it becomes a habit: Whenever you mention a feature of what you do, you must immediately describe the benefit to your customers of that feature. Never leave a feature hanging. If I tell a prospect that my recording studio has a web site I must immediately follow by saying it offers instant information about our capabilities, past experience, equipment and scheduling. All the prospect has to do is look us up on the Internet to schedule a session or check on the availability of a piece of equipment, saving them time. The benefits? Saved time and instant 24 hour access.
Ultimately, the buyer, when faced with a product feature, asks themselves this: What’s in it for me? If you follow up each feature with a benefit, you’re anticipating and answering this critical question.
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