Sell the benefits, not the features
Introduction
Businesses and consumers don't buy on price alone. Your customers want to
know what your product or service can do for them, not just how it works.
They want value for money and that
could include paying more for the benefits or advantages
they gain from buying your product or service.
This guide tells you how to sell the
benefits of your product or service in order to maximise your sales.
How to analyse your
product's benefits
The key to selling the benefits of
your product or service is to look at them through the eyes of the person
you are selling to. The more you know about your customers' needs, the
easier this will be.
Step back
For example, you may be fascinated
by the specifications of the PC printers you sell and their 1200 dpi print
quality. But the benefits you'd want to emphasise to the customer are
professional-looking documents and the ability to produce marketing
material in-house instead of going to the local print shop.
Match the needs of the individual
customer to what your product or service can offer.
Another example - if you're running
a same-day stationery supplies service for other businesses, what you are
really selling are the benefits of:
- uninterrupted workflow
- general business efficiency
- happy staff who aren't frustrated
when the copier runs out of paper
- office space not taken up by
piles of paper, staples and toner cartridges
Softer issues
You may need to look at softer, more
emotional issues when identifying the benefits of a personal
consumer product.
For example: a mobile phone may have
Internet access, but unless it looks cool it's dead in the teenage market.
And some businesses may incorporate
softer issues into hard-nosed buying decisions.
For example, if you're running a
graphic design agency you may pay over the odds for funky PC screens and
stylish furniture because you want clients to know you have high design
values.
Matching benefits to the customers' need
Understanding and meeting
customers' needs is the essence of marketing. Your marketing
activities need to highlight the ways in which your product or
service meet those needs. You need to match benefits to a customer's
needs when you're:
- researching marketing
literature for a target audience
- having conversations with
customers
- preparing a sales proposal
- making a sales presentation
Find out what the customer
wants and don't try to bend their wishes to suit your product or
service. Ask questions to find out what they're hoping to
achieve from the purchase. Encourage them to ask lots of questions
too.
Ask more general questions
about the customer you're dealing with - don't just talk about their
needs in relation to their use of your product or service. The
answers may give you clues to unexpected benefits.
Do homework beforehand
on the customer and their marketplace so you can ask informed
questions and make them confident you have some understanding of
their needs.
Use this information to
analyse your product and identify what factors are most
likely to make the customer buy.
It helps if you can
quantify any benefits in money or time terms, especially where
the advantages of a particular product or service outweigh the
costs. Let your customer know if buying your product now will help
them make cost savings or boost their own turnover.
And remember that businesses
in particular can feel more confident about buying if you can show
how other businesses have benefited from what you're selling.
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