What Are You Selling?

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I remember back in my early days of selling when I was fresh, young and green my manager took me to one side and said;

“Don’t sell the features, sell the benefits.”

I am confident you have heard that term too. If not, let me explain.

Every product or service has a feature. A feature is a distinctive attribute of a product or service. This feature is ‘what it is’ or ‘what it does’. Each feature, then has a benefit. A reason as to why your customer will profit or will gain from that said product or service.

So for example, lets say you open up a coffee shop with free wifi. The feature is the wifi aspect of your offering. The benefit is that your customers can work, study or chat to friends and family whilst enjoying their coffee. Or let’s look at the original iPod. When it was released, the key selling point was that you could; “Fit 1000 songs in your pocket”. This is the BENEFIT of the iPod. The Feature was that it offered 1GB of storage. If you look around you at every advertisement or marketing copy you can lay your eyes on we are led by the benefits of the product or service; it is the benefit that makes the customer wants to buy.

If you can utilise this in your sales pitch then you will see a much better rate of selling in your business and for that I am sure. No one really cares that your shop is open for 24 hours a day. But they do care that they can pick up a pint of milk at 5am when they want to pour their cereal. No one really cares that your IT company offers unlimited phone support. But your customer does care that when their computer breaks during the write up of an important proposal with a deadline that they can call you for support straight away.

Taking this one step further, I encourage all of my clients to think deeply about what it is they are really selling. No one ever in the history of man-kind has woken up and decided that they want to buy a spade! You wouldn’t walk into B&Q and think to yourself; “you know what? Today is the day I treat myself to a spade!” But, the likelihood is that when buying a spade, you actually want a hole. The same could be said about a drill. You aren’t really buying a drill. You are buying the ability to create a hole.

Does that all make sense?

Once you crack the code of what you really sell, selling becomes so much easier!

So, I urge you; go away and look at your product or service and think about what you really are selling. Are you selling a photography service, or are you selling memories? Are you selling a mobile phone, or are you selling the ability to communicate? Are you selling business cards, or are you selling a marketing opportunity?

What are you really selling?

 

 

Paragon Sales Solutions are Leicester’s leading sales consultants, offering:

– Sales Contracts

– Sales Training

– Social Media Management

– B2B Telesales / Telemarketing

We cater for any size business, and what makes us stand out is that we truly care. Our services can be catered for your business and our sales professionals will work tirelessly to ensure your sales targets are met. Be sure to visit our website for more details on how our sales solutions can help your business. 

paragonsalessolutions.co.uk

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