Benefits vs. Features

The easiest way to describe your service or product is to simply list the "features".  To most salespeople, putting together a bulleted feature list of things that you supply to the client seems like the most effective way of conveying value.  

Prospect clients want to know the features that you can offer.  It's what they always ask for and need to hear, but it's not all they need to hear.  Many of your competitors have nearly the same set of features.  If your set of product/service features are all that you use to identify your company and products, then you are simply left to compete on price and availability.  That's never a good position to be in.

Running down a set of numbered services will need to be done, but for the most part, clients will not be able to recall much of this list.  What your prospect client REALLY wants to know is what this feature will do for them.  What are the benefits?

Learning the client's needs

Before you can determine the benefits of your service to the client, you must determine what their needs are.  You can list your features, but knowing how each will benefit the client means that you have to understand their current situation and be able to identify their needs. 

This means asking and listening, something that many salespeople completely forget to do.  If you do not ask and listen, you do not know how your services will benefit your client, and you will make some needless mistakes in describing the benefits.

Also ask general questions about the customer you are talking to, and do not focus on their needs in relation to the product/service that you are selling.  General questions can elicit a great deal more information that can give you unexpected insights into benefits that you otherwise would have missed.

When selling personal services, also ask about lifestyle and let them keep talking.  Personal services agreements are generally for the benefit of more than one person.  Home care services are provided to a single client, but the benefits often reach into extended families.

Tell the feature, but sell the benefit

Imagine your prospect client with a big sign on her/his forehead... "What will this do for me?"  Even if they don't ask about benefits (and they won't), they will not buy from you without a clear understanding of them.  Some clients can take a set of features, analyze them in light of their situation and needs, and determine the benefits.  But don't leave this task up to them.  It's your job... sell them!

Don't be in such a rush to get to the contract or the door.  Take the time that you need to give a full set of benefits.  Take one feature at a time and explain the benefits.  Then relate it to the customer's need and ask for their agreement.

"Our caregiver takes your grocery list to your store (FEATURE) and buys the food you want so that you don't have to make that weekly trip (BENEFIT).  Getting to the store is quite difficult for you right now (RELATE), isn't it?" (ASKING FOR AGREEMENT) 

If you have properly done your initial Q&A, by the time you have completed your presentation of features and benefits, you will have delivered exactly what the prospect client is looking for and received numerous statements of agreements from them.  

This of course is when the fire is the hottest.  Your prospect knows that you are on the same page, they know that you understand their needs, and this gives you enormous credibility.  With this in hand, the sale is generally for the asking.  So ASK!

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