Confused people don’t buy
When it comes to sales, it's not just about cost, speed, and personality. While these factors can grab a client's attention, they won't seal the deal if the potential borrower doesn't understand the value of your offering. Client education is essential in sales, and it's important to differentiate between features, benefits, and value to effectively convey the advantages of your product or service.
Features are the tangible aspects of your offering that can be listed in a brochure or product specification sheet. However, simply listing features won't necessarily convince a client to buy. It's important to take it to the next level by explaining how these features specifically address the needs or problems of the client. For example, if you're selling a mortgage product, instead of just listing the interest rate and loan term as features, explain how these features can benefit the client, such as by saving them money on monthly payments or helping them build equity in their home faster.
Benefits are the outcomes or advantages that the client will gain by buying your product or service. To effectively convey benefits, it's crucial to understand the client's needs, challenges, and goals. By blending their problems with your product's features, you can show how your offering can solve their specific pain points or help them achieve their desired outcomes. For instance, if you're selling a software solution, instead of just talking about the various functionalities as features, emphasize how these functionalities can streamline the client's workflow, save them time and effort, and improve their productivity.
Value is the overall advantage or benefit that the client will receive from your offering, and it goes beyond just the features and benefits. It's about tying everything together into a compelling package that demonstrates the ongoing advantages of choosing your product or service. This requires focusing on how the client's life or business will be different after they close the deal.
People won't buy what they don't understand. To effectively sell your product or service, it's important to go beyond just listing features and benefits and instead focus on the overall value that your offering can bring to the client. By understanding their needs, blending their problems with your features, and showcasing the ongoing advantages, you can educate your clients and persuade them to choose your product or service over the competition. So, remember to sell not just features and benefits, but also the value that your offering can provide, and watch your sales soar!
Let's take an example of a fitness tracker to illustrate the difference between features, benefits, and value in sales:
Features: The fitness tracker has a heart rate monitor, GPS tracking, and a step counter.
Benefits: The heart rate monitor helps users track their heart rate during exercise, allowing them to stay within their target heart rate zone for optimal workouts. The GPS tracking enables users to accurately track their outdoor activities like running or cycling, and the step counter helps users monitor their daily physical activity levels.
Value: The fitness tracker helps users improve their overall health and fitness by providing real-time heart rate monitoring, accurate tracking of outdoor activities, and monitoring of daily physical activity levels. This can result in better workout efficiency, improved performance, and a healthier lifestyle. Additionally, the fitness tracker may also offer personalized coaching, social sharing features, and data analysis that provides insights and recommendations for users to achieve their fitness goals faster and more effectively.
By highlighting the features of the fitness tracker, the salesperson can provide factual information about what the product offers. However, to truly convince the customer, the salesperson needs to communicate the benefits of these features. For example, by explaining how the heart rate monitor helps users optimize their workouts and avoid overexertion, how the GPS tracking allows users to accurately track their outdoor activities and measure their progress, and how the step counter encourages users to be more physically active throughout the day.
Furthermore, to convey the value of the fitness tracker, the salesperson needs to emphasize how these features and benefits can positively impact the customer's life. For instance, by highlighting how the fitness tracker can help the customer achieve their fitness goals, improve their health and well-being, and enhance their overall quality of life. This value proposition goes beyond just the features and benefits of the product and focuses on the long-term advantages and positive outcomes that the customer can experience by using the fitness tracker.
In sales, it's important not just to list the features of a product but also to communicate the benefits and value that it can provide to the customer. By understanding the needs and desires of the customer and showcasing how the product's features can address those needs, deliver tangible benefits, and provide long-term value, salespeople can effectively persuade customers to make a purchase decision.