| Sell the benefits, not the features |
 Many experts agree that when it comes to selling products, it is the benefits that should be sold and not the features. Features of the product are specific components that it possesses. It could also mean the person or the company associated with it. What is the car seat made of? Is the house you are selling close to the school? Who is the chef of your restaurant? What is the main ingredient of the shampoo? Who wrote the travel guide e-book? Benefits on the other hand are what these features can mean to the consumer. What they can get out of it. How it can meet their needs and how would they feel when they buy it. Will they feel comfortable when sitting on the leather seat? Will the children be able to walk to school and in turn save the parents some gas money? Will they be able to taste sumptuous meals in the restaurant? Will they see their hair shine after shampooing? Will they get real facts and learn something after reading the e-book? Consumers want to know if they can get something out of the product or service they are buying. They want to get value for their money. If you keep on ranting about the features of your product while your prospective consumers do not know what they mean, your sales pitch will not be that effective at all. Now, how will you find out about the benefits?
When you sell, it should not be about you, the business owner. It should be about the customers. When you talk and talk about the features, you are just emphasizing how good your company is in making this product. But, when you talk of benefits, of what these features can do for them, then you put the customers as your priority. Customers are after what they can get out of the product. Of course, they also study the features. But what influences them to buy is what these features mean to them, what it would make them feel. The more benefits that appeal to the emotions of the consumers, the better your sales pitch will be. However, you should not put everything in it; otherwise they would also lose their appeal. Find out what is the strongest benefit. Make this your USP. Two to three benefits in your sales pitch would suffice. Moreover, you should bear in mind that the truthfulness of your pitch is very important. You just don’t emphasize the benefits of your product that aren’t there at all. Soon, customers will find out that your product and your pitch is nothing but a fraud. When you sell the benefits, make sure that your product delivers them and that people get what they pay for. When you sell the right benefits that match the customers’ needs and wants, then, you have hit the right button. When you emphasize what your product can do for them, then they know that they are your company’s priority. And that is what business should be. Whatever the industry is, customers should come first.
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