Tonight’s Main Event - Features vs Benefits

Welcome to tonight's matchup. We have a very exciting bout for you this evening.

In this corner, wearing the blue trunks. He's every cool thing you know about your product or service. He's every technical detail about your service or widget. He's everything you learned during your initial training and every nugget of knowledge you know because you read the product manual time and time again. He's every point of distinction between your offering and the competition....

He's the features of your product or service.

And in this corner, wearing the green trunks, is our future winner (sorry to ruin the suspense). He's every way that your product or service will help the customer. He's the answer to the customer's question "How will this help me". He's everything that's relevant to your customer. He's the solution to the customer's problem.....

He's the benefits of your product or service

A very common mistake that salespeople make is that they focus on the features of their products and services instead of it's benefits to the customer. This is an easy trap to fall into and usually comes about for two main reasons. The first is that salespeople spend a lot of timing learning the nuances of what they sell. Secondly, they also (if they are any good) have a lot of conviction and confidence in what they are working with and want to share that with their customers.

The result is that they spend a lot of time talking about the history of the company, where the product is made, the operational torque of the bolt that holds piece A and piece B together, the operational philosophy of the managing partners, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.

Here's what smart salespeople understand - the customer doesn't really care at all about all of those things. Here's the customer's main thought "Will this product/service help me and how will it do it." For example, a car salesman might know 20 technical reasons why the new car will get better mpg, but all the customer wants to know is that they won't spend as much money on gas.

The more time you can spend talking about the benefits to the customer, and more importantly, to the customer sitting in front of you, the more successful you will be. Don't get trapped talking about the features (which is really only exciting to you). Talk about what's relevant to the customer, and the customer will respond.

That's the knockout punch.

David J.P. Fisher is a business coach and president of RockStar Consulting, a personal development company dedicated to helping people become RockStars in their professional and personal lives. He can be contacted at dfish@rockstar-consulting.com or at http://rockstar-consulting.com

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