If you’re trying to sell something, it can be easy to talk about the features of a product, but what really sells it is talking about the benefits. The customer wants to know how that item, whatever it might be, will benefit them and bring advantages to their life. They can see the features already, and that may help them become more interested in the product initially, but unless it comes with benefits that can improve their current situation in some way, they won’t be invested enough to make a purchasing decision, and more often than not they’ll walk away.
If you know how to turn features into benefits, you’ll have a much better chance of securing the sale there and then, and of course, that’s a positive for any business and any individual. With that in mind, here are some of the ways you can turn a feature into a benefit and use that information to sell. Read on to find out more.
Think Like The Customer
When you want to turn a feature into a benefit, the first thing to do when you want to turn a feature into a benefit is to think like the customer. What is it they want to get from the product? What problem in their life do they want to solve? Take each feature in turn and work out what that would help the customer achieve. With this information, you can create an entire sales pitch that shows the customer exactly how their lives can be improved.
Take a piece of equipment that has a long cord attached, for example. The long cord is the feature, but what could it do for the customer? It would mean they don’t have to keep stopping their work to find a new outlet, or they can do more work because it stretches further. This is the benefit. Grand Seiko’s stunning textured dials are a feature, and the benefit is that it makes the watch unique and therefore, something few people will have; this can certainly be a benefit to some people.
Define The Feature
Although it’s best to turn each feature into a benefit if you want to sell more, you need to define the feature itself first. By looking deeper into the feature and talking about it in more complex terms, the benefits will often make themselves known.
This can be a risky tactic since unless you can think relatively fast on your feet, you might not come up with anything in time to persuade the customer to buy from you, but if you do have this skill, it can be ideal.
Ask Questions
Make sure you ask the customer enough questions to know what will be important to them, and you can tailor your responses to match their needs. You won’t initially know what it is your customer finds most important and what they need the item or service you’re trying to sell to do for them.
If you ask the right questions, you’ll soon get a much better understanding of their requirements, and you can ensure that each feature you mention has a benefit attached that will work for the customer.
