Sales people love to talk, generally they talk about themselves and then the features of their product or service – “Yes, this device has 3 flux capacitors” (a joke going back to my old PC World days – I genuinely heard one of my sales colleagues say that to a customer!) but guess what, people don’t care about the features.
As a species we are selfish, we want to know what is in it for us – how many times has your boss “done you a favour” but then in the cold light of day there are strings attached? We’ve all been there –
“Here is an iPad as a reward for all your hard work”…….. The reality “It’s so you can work in the evening and at weekends easier” – Gee Thanks!
So when talking to a prospect, talk about the benefits, the “Why” they need it and “What” it will do for them
Take a can of Diet Coke – WOW! It’s low in calories! So what
The Benefit? Well you can drink diet instead of regular and you won’t be as bloated or have that fuzzy teeth feeling – ok cool, pass me a can
Not everyone will see the benefits you mention as benefits to them though. Before you start taking about the benefits, you need to get to know the prospect first – what are their pain points? What is the problem they need solving that you can solve?
If you don’t have a basic understanding of the prospect, you can’t match the benefits that will actually matter to the prospect.
But what if you aren’t sure what is a benefit or a feature?
Try this little exercise: –
- Write down the feature IE Email Marketing
- Ask yourself “So What” Why would that be of interest to someone?
- Write down the benefit / reason why that would work for them
- Keep going to really drill down to the benefits
IE
[Feature] Email Marketing
“So What”
[Benefit] It helps you communicate with your prospects
“So What”
[Benefit] Communicating with your prospects, helps to promote your services and to build relationships with the prospects
“So What”
[Benefit] Building relationships with prospects leads to more sales
BOOM! Result
If you don’t understand what the benefits of your features are for your target audience, then every conversation you have, every communication you send will be hit and miss, meaning the sales cycle will take longer and will not be consistent
Understand your benefits, so that your customers will too
