“Features and benefits” is a common phrase used in sales. In the PRECISE Sales World, we do things a little differently. Therefore, we don’t talk about features and benefits; we talk about benefits then features. Average sales reps have no problem discussing the features of their solution.
Features are usually easy to find on a brochure, easy to remember, and easy to spew. Changing salespeople from B-52 feature bombers to PRECISE benefit dropping machines is not easy. It takes a fundamental change away from what most salespeople are comfortable with. A trick to being PRECISE is to get to the benefit before you get to the feature.
Let’s show an example:
You sell big screen televisions for a living, and your company has the finest selection of wide-screen, HDTV bad boys that any sports-loving freak could find. A prospect walks in the door, and you go through PRECISE Actions (P), (R), and (E). You get some topics to focus on and write down a few hot bullets. Your prospect tells you their current TV was too small for the room they live in.
The average sales rep readies the payload and begins dropping bombs:
“We have the perfect TV for you. It is sixty inches, diagonal, and is HDTV ready. It can be wired for stereo surround sound and has picture- in-picture. Just look at that baby. She’s a beaut!”
While I love this rep’s enthusiasm for his product, he is just feature dropping. He did not mention one benefit in his presentation. There is a better way.
The PRECISE Rep takes the benefit approach. After asking a few Consequence Questions, he then conveys his solution:
“You mentioned that your eyes are not what they used to be. I believe we have the perfect TV to suit your needs. It will allow you to watch comfortably from any couch in the room (benefit). It will also lessen the strain on your eyes (benefit) and as a result allow you to watch college football from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. (this benefit would get me). In addition, our TV will make you feel as if you are actually playing in the game (benefit). You will feel like Randy Moss (benefit…I think) catching a pass while focusing on the rotation of the tightest spiral passes coming right through your screen (benefit). We provide this vivid clarity (benefit) with our HDTV tuner (feature) developed specifically for our large sixty-inch PRECISE LT Pro TV.”
Notice how the PRECISE sales rep presents the benefits first and the features second. Stating them first makes them top priority; and that’s exactly what they should be. Oh, don’t worry. You will get to the features.
Just lead with the benefits and the feature will be close behind. But lead with a feature, and watch how easily the benefit gets lost. Benefits are much more temperamental and need spoiling. Don’t neglect them. They are the defense against customer confusion and boredom.
HDTHMP Will Bring Out the Benefit
Why should somebody get involved in your product, company, or solu- tion? Go ahead; take twenty seconds to think about it. Was the answer you gave a benefit or a feature? You will know you have arrived at the benefit only when you can no longer answer the following question:
“How does that help my prospect?”
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Keep going until you get to something that sounds almost too basic.
The TV example would look like this. The feature is:
• Sixty-inch screen
“How does that help my prospect?” The image is incredibly large.
“How does that help my prospect?” He doesn’t have to squint.
“How does that help my prospect?” He can watch more TV, more comfortably.
“How does that help my prospect?” I don’t know…I’ve had enough!
Okay, by continuing to ask yourself HDTHMP, you have arrived at the benefit. If you are doing a presentation on a sixty-inch big screen TV, you will want to start your presentation from the bottom up. So it sounds like this:
“Mr. Prospect, you will be able to watch more TV, more comfortably (4), and you will not have to squint while doing it (3). And this is all done with an incredibly large image (2) projected from our sixty-inch big screen TV (1).”
Try this exercise with your products or services and keep asking your- self, “How does that help my prospect?” This example only drills down four steps, but you may be surprised when you try this exercise with your product or service. In my seminars, I find most students end up digging down deep, and it often takes a bunch of “HDTHMPs” before they get to the core benefit.
Different Benefits for Different Buyers
There are many different types of buyers that you will sell to. Different benefits must be communicated to these different prospects. The higher up the decision-making ladder you go, the more important your delivery of benefits becomes. The leaders in the executive suite like to cut through the crap and get right to the benefits of your solution. These “chief ” types usually have risen to their positions because they are PRECISE. So to get the executive to open up, you too need to be PRECISE. Being PRECISE means spending more time on benefits than on features. If you are busy firing feature after feature at the CEO, you will not only bore her, but you risk never having an audience at that level again.
The further down the decision-making ladder you go, the more you can get away with feature dropping. But just because the consequences are not as severe, this does not mean it should be done. Before any sales call,
think of the features that you might find yourself discussing with your prospect. Then ask a few HDTHMPs. By thinking of them before the call, you will be more apt to focus on them during the call.
Be the Great Gazoo
Fred Flintstone was one of my favorite cartoon characters when I was a child (maybe because I am shaped like him). For those of you that are familiar with Fred, you might remember the small two-foot, green space alien known as the Great Gazoo that would occasionally show up and park himself on Fred Flintstone’s shoulder. Well, when demonstrating your product or service, there will be times when customers would rather turn their attention away from you and toward either the solution you are demonstrating or your brochure. It is at this point when you will let your customers figure some stuff out on their own. When they do this, look at yourself as the barely visible Little Green Man sitting on your customer’s shoulder. At this point, your only job is to help solidify and verbalize some of the thoughts that they may be thinking.
This is the perfect time to use Little Yes Questions. Remember those?
Those are the ones that are statements that end with a question and include phrases such as:
…couldn’t it? or…couldn’t you?
…shouldn’t it? or…shouldn’t you?
…wouldn’t it? or…wouldn’t you?
…isn’t it? or…aren’t you?
Let’s say the prospect just picked up your product and quickly and eas- ily got it to work. You might say subtly, “The product seems easy to use, doesn’t it?”
Or perhaps some prospects just looked at a financial analysis of using your service, and their eyes lit up like Christmas trees. You might say,
“Saving several hundred dollars a month using our service would help increase cash flow, wouldn’t it?” This is all done while their attention is focused away from you and onto your solution.
While these Little Yes Questions are effective, be careful not to overdo it. While it is effective to get “Little Yeses,” you do not want to sound patronizing.
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