Business owners are often told to talk about the features and benefits of their product or service when looking to make a sale. I feel this is the wrong way around and we should be talking about Benefits before features.
When people are looking to buy, they have a need that has to be met, they want to know if you can meet that need, and how they will be better off after engaging with you and your company. This is why it is better to start with the “benefits” you can bring to their business, ahead of the “features” or how your product or service works.
An simple example of this would be selling someone a light bulb. Why would a person want a light bulb? They could want one because they are fed up spending too long trying to find things in a dark room. They are tired of bumping into things they cant see, and they are tired of trying to find their way back out of the room and the time this all takes.
If you ask them them what it is they are looking for, whats the outcome they want from you and your light bulb, then start explaining how your light bulb can do that for them, in other words the “benefit” of the light bulb, they are more likely to listen.
In the traditional “features and benefits” scenario you would start with the feature of the light bulb and say something like; ” The light bulb is made of glass with a metal casing at one end which has two pins. The bulb is then pushed into a plastic casing in the ceiling. This casing has a wire that is connected to it and this wire is hidden behind the ceiling and runs to a junction that is attached to a switch on the wall. This switch is a half inch piece pf plastic that when you press it it sends a current of electricity along a wire back to the bulb and the lightens up the room.
Most people don’t care about this and will have switched off half way through what you were saying.
If you explained benefits first, you could explain that the light bulb could help them save time, make them more productive, save their shins, and make it easier for them to find the door.
When explained in this way the conversation is a lot shorter more engaging and more likely to emotionally land. You may then be asked to to explain the “features” however because an emotional connection to the benefits has been made first you are more likely to gain the sale.
Remember people are emotional beings so explaining the benefits of your product and service first engages the brian emotionally which increases the opportunity for the sale to be made.
If you enjoyed this blog and would like to how to get the most from your networking then you can download my free ebook “47 Networking nuggets” by clicking on the link below.
https://merseyside.asentiv.com/networking-nuggets/
To your continued success
Dave Verburg
Asentiv