Customer Benefits

The key to sales success is to sell the benefits of your products and services. That sounds simple and straightforward, but surprisingly, many sales people don’t “get it.” Too often, a sales person is so enthused about their product or service they want to talk only about it and its features. I call this approach “spray and pray” or, even more unappealing, “show up and throw up.” Features are the product’s capabilities and bells and whistles, but they should not be confused with benefits.

The only way to understand the benefits of your product and service is to know your customers’ needs. When a sales person does all the talking, they can’t get the customer information they require to determine those needs.

As you chat with prospects and existing customers, they should do at least 60 percent of the talking, which gives you the opportunity to ascertain their issues and challenges. Customers have problems they want to solve and needs they want to fill. Once you understand these needs, you can convey the benefits of your products and services.

If I held up a runner’s watch and asked what its features were, you might say it’s light, it’s black, it tells the time, day, and date, and has a stopwatch and a lap timer. If I asked about the advantages of those features, you might say that it is light and comfortable, has an easy-to-use stopwatch, and helps a person get to where they need to be on time. If I asked about the benefits, there should be silence.

Why? Because you can’t really know the benefits of the watch until you know why the customer needs the watch. My runner’s watch has no appeal to someone shopping for a Rolex or Movado. If you know the customer’s need - whether that is to impress people or to time their morning runs - then you can determine if the runner’s watch has benefits for them.

Let your customers talk to you. Ask about the issues they face, so you can gauge their needs and properly position your products and services. Ask questions based on key words they use. If a customer says “productivity” is a problem for them, probe that issue through conversational questioning. If you engage the customer in a real conversation - not subjecting them to a speech or conducting an inquisition - your chances of gaining credibility and building a relationship grow exponentially.

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