A Simple Test for Distinguishing Features From Benefits

Salespeople are sometimes instructed to promote advantages, not simply options. However the distinction can generally really feel blurry. Is the product’s capability to scale with a prospect’s development a characteristic or a profit? What about its best-in-class high quality? Or its ease of use?

Understanding the distinction between options, benefits, and advantages is essential to a rep’s success. A very holistic method to promoting means conveying all three of those parts to show the enterprise’s worth to prospects.

For a deeper understanding of options, benefits, and advantages, check out this video by Adam Erhart.

Examples of Options, Benefits, and Advantages

Utilizing HubSpot’s Conferences instrument for example, this is learn how to break down options, benefits, and advantages.

• Instance Characteristic – HubSpot’s Conferences instrument offers an interface that’s synced to your Google or Workplace 365 calendar.
• Instance Benefit – Prospects choose the assembly time that works for them with out forwards and backwards e-mail communication.
• Instance Profit – You can attain extra leads, guide extra conferences, and shut extra offers with much less admin work.

Subsequent, let’s take a dive into options vs. advantages to higher perceive the distinction.

Characteristic-Profit Promoting Examples

Listed here are two few feature-benefit examples that appeals to clients with totally different wants.

Characteristic: “Our platform routinely data your conferences. The enhancing instruments make it straightforward to take away background noise, clip pointless sections, and flag key sections of the recording. When you’ve completed enhancing, you possibly can ship the file to all of the assembly attendees with one click on.”

Profit for Purchaser #1: “Since your organization values transparency, I’d like to indicate you our recording characteristic. Each assembly is routinely recorded. On the finish of your day, it’ll take two seconds to ship the audio recordsdata to every group of attendees and add them to your organization server. Everybody in your staff may have full readability into your conferences.”

Profit for Purchaser #2: “You’ve talked about how a lot time you spend after each assembly writing a abstract on your stakeholders. With our platform, you may get nearly all that point again. Each assembly is recorded. You’ll be able to ship the audio file as is, or simply clear it up, minimize it down, or name out essential sections, with our enhancing instruments. Your complete course of will take 5 minutes moderately than half an hour.”

Each of the advantages described present an emotional significance that is tied to the precise characteristic. Through the qualification course of, you may get to know your prospect’s pains intimately, so a part of the problem will probably be mapping these options into advantages to drive the purpose dwelling.

You are able to do that by figuring out benefits, which bridge the hole between options and advantages (extra on that later). Nevertheless, the excellence between benefits and advantages is trickier.

In essence, benefits are why the options matter, and advantages are why the benefits matter.

As a result of options are the nuts and bolts of the factor and other people make selections based mostly on emotion, promoting on options alone isn’t sufficient.

It is the advantages that persuade them to purchase.

How you can Promote Advantages Relatively Than Options

Reps can’t correctly clarify their product’s advantages with out figuring out their purchaser’s objectives, challenges, and needs. Because the above instance exhibits, what appeals to at least one prospect won’t resonate with one other.

Asking the correct discovery questions is important however not enough. As soon as salespeople have correctly assessed their prospect’s scenario, they have to map every characteristic to their prospect’s wants. The hyperlink between functionality and drawback or need turns a characteristic right into a profit.

It might be useful for reps to ask themselves, “So what?”

For instance, let’s say a salesman is pitching her person analysis agency’s companies to the pinnacle of product at a startup.

Her authentic assertion is likely to be: “We deal with each stage of the person analysis course of, from discovering members and designing inquiries to analyzing the outcomes and making a report.”

She asks herself, “So what?”

That query leads the salesperson so as to add: “You’ve talked about how shortly your staff wants to maneuver. By outsourcing the person analysis course of, you possibly can take merchandise from concept to launch no less than two weeks quicker — which provides you with an enormous aggressive benefit.”

Answering the silent “So what?” of their clarification forces salespeople to personalize their messaging.

When explaining advantages, high quality beats amount.

Salespeople are sometimes tempted to elucidate each characteristic of their product. Sure, prospects need to get their cash’s price — however they often don’t equate extra options with greater worth.

When a rep throws the kitchen sink on the purchaser, two issues occur. First, the client feels just like the salesperson doesn’t really “get” him or his scenario. He’s invested time and vitality into answering the rep’s questions, so why is he getting a one-size-fits-all clarification?

Second, the salesperson inadvertently deemphasizes the main points that actually matter to her prospect. If she spends 5 minutes on two factors, she will be able to spotlight why these gadgets are so essential. But if she spends that very same 5 minutes on 4 factors, she will be able to’t discover them to the identical diploma. Relatively than studying about two issues that actually curiosity him, the client will get a rushed dialogue of two issues that curiosity him and two issues he doesn’t care about.

The takeaway? To efficiently promote advantages, salespeople should pass over the data that doesn’t pertain to their prospects. Earlier than they supply a brand new element, they need to ask themselves, “Will this facet of the product assist the client obtain their objectives or alleviate their ache?” If the reply isn’t any, they need to skip it.

Promoting the Sizzle, Not the Steak

Well-known salesman Elmer Wheeler, coined the phrase “promote the sizzle, not the steak” within the Twenties. Greater than 100 years later, that phrase nonetheless applies. What Wheeler meant by that is that the sizzle is simply as engaging, if no more so, than the steak itself as a result of it contributes to the expertise and emotion that comes with consuming a steak.

Mentioned in immediately’s phrases, prospects will not sometimes make a purchase order until they’ll see how the product will enhance their lives. The acquisition ought to clear up a ache level for the shopper that makes their general expertise higher. To convey this previous saying to life, reps ought to concentrate on promoting advantages as an alternative of options.

Editor’s observe: This submit was initially printed in October 2016 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.