Don’t talk to customers about Features and Benefits. It reverses the sales process.
In my Mystery Shopping business I often see customers asking questions about whether or not the staff members asked the customer about Features and Benefits.
Customers only care about what you can do for them – value. When a staff member sells on ‘features’ first, they go into sales spiel mode, mechanically listing (or reading) a list of features, many of which are not relevant to the customer.
If your ‘features’ are not relevant, then customers don’t care. You would not sell a 4WD vehicle to someone on the basis of its off-road ability if the customer never intends to go off-road. They may be interested in towing capacity rather than off road ability.
When we bought our last family car, my wife was interested in a seven seater with ample back legroom. Nothing else mattered.
The first step is to understand what the customer wants. Try this order instead.
- Determine what the customer wants (do more listening than talking),
- Describe the ‘benefits’ of your solution,
- Describe the specific features which provide the benefit.
Talk about the benefits (value) and use the features to validate what you said. Simple.
Features and Benefits are important, but in the right order.