Don’t get this wrong! - Prospects buy benefits not features / People buy what they want, not what they need.

In the sales discussion you would want to remind your prospect of all the benefits of your products or services. When you do so don’t confuse benefits with features. A product will have features but it is the benefits that your contact will buy. A consumer does not buy an electric drill, for its features, he buys it for its benefits! Certainly he might like the features of the drill such as the colour of the drill, the drill bit sizes, the variable speed and hammer function. But nowhere in these features does it say what benefits he would derive should he buy the drill. Here it is: the drill’s most important benefit and the reason he would buy it is because it makes it easy for him to make holes in concrete walls and other materials. He will also buy the drill that he wants, that is, the 300 horse power twin turbo automatic motorised with digital chuck in Ferrari Red, when all he really needs is a hand drill.

In future think about every feature or benefit that you wish to put forward and anticipate your contact responding with “How does that help me?”  If the benefit is of no value to him it will not motivate him to buy it as he doesn’t need it, neither does he want it. So ignore that feature as it has no value to the client.

All sales should be based on an identified need that the contact has. Find the need that he or she has, state the benefit and how it meets that need. For example, if you need to make a hole in the wall to hang a picture frame, you would identify that the need is to make a clean, accurate hole in a cement wall with minimum mess and maximum convenience. You can’t simply say you need to buy a drill as the contact might ask why wouldn’t a large hammer and nail do? One they are convinced of the benefits of owning a drill you can offer them the additional benefits that are derived from the other features.

The more significant or the more graphic a benefit appears to your prospect the stronger your argument will become and the more likely you are to swing their opinion your way. If you can ascertain how your contact prefers to have information presented to them, you may also swing the sale by appealing to and satisfying their need for details and figures or his or her emotional or creative needs, as an example.