Old Fashioned Sales: Features and Benefits
Kenrick Cleveland
There's an old wives' tale that suggests you can tell when dinner is ready by throwing a piece of spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks. If it sticks, it's done. If not, keep cooking. Whenever I think of 'features and benefits' selling, I think of someone throwing a whole pot of spaghetti noodles against the wall and trying to see what sticks. Stupid, right? I think so.
What is 'features and benefits'? Well, Dale Carnegie would say that by listing all of the features of your product and all the benefits that will come to you as a result of using this product, that you'll finally say enough and hit on something your prospect may find important.
Features and benefits is the quickest way to expose yourself as an old-fashioned sales person. Does it work? About as well as throwing a whole bunch of pasta against the wall. And as an added bonus, it makes you seem smarmy and outdated.
There's a 'Simpsons' character by the name of Gil Gunderson. He's a nervous, beaten down old-fashioned salesman and has had no luck whatsoever with the way he's been working at the dozens of different sales jobs he's had. And yet, he continues to employ the same tactics. He sweats, begs, lists all the reasons why someone should buy his product or the house he's selling or the used car. . . etc. The thing is, it's always about Gil and never about his potential customers or clients. He never creates rapport and always fails.
Features and benefits doesn't work, first and foremost, because it focuses on you. You're not the one you're trying to sell. Secondly, features and benefits puts you in the perspective of continuing to ask the wrong questions.
Try this instead of 'features and benefits'--elicit your prospect's criteria. It's that simple. This is true across the board in life--in business, in love, in family relations--the truest and deepest way to understand what the values and criteria are for a specific context, is to simply ask. By doing this, you increase your odds immeasurably with predictable results you can count on each and every time.
So my new theory says, if you throw enough stuff on the wall, you've got dirty walls. Features and benefits, for the most part, are baloney, they're not effective, and they simply mark you as someone who is unskilled and unprofessional.
The exception to the rule is when the prospect knows absolutely nothing about what it is that they're there to buy from you. They've hardly ever seen or heard of the service or product, and they've come to you to ask you about buying it. Under those conditions, you might use some features and benefits, to help them to learn about the product, but even then, I'll tell you, that would be the second step, not the first step.
Give yourself the ability to aim directly into their heart, straight into their emotions, their deepest desires. If I can speak directly to you about what it is you want, if I can talk about persuasion, and about the benefit to you of being able to master it, all of the sudden I might start having a little bit more of your attention.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion strategies. This and other http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=25418&b=79 unique content 'persuasion' articles are available with free reprint rights.
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