Comments on: No. 5 – ARE YOU REALLY SELLING VALUE OR JUST BOMBARDING YOUR CUSTOMER WITH MEANINGLESS FEATURES?

By: backlinks

backlinks — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:25:08 +0000

I just wanted to comment and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I’ll be back to read more in the future

By: Glee

Glee — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:06:34 +0000

I just wanted to comment and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I’ll be back to read more in the future

By: Ian Farmer

Ian Farmer — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Good point Jamesey. We tend to talk feature, function, benefit. You could define a benefit as some thing that is “advantageous” or “of advantage”. Then the sales person explains the feature and function (advantage) and they think they have explained the benefit when they haven’t. Then as you point out the customer does not see what’s in it for them. There is a simple way to avoid this. Explain the feature / function (advantage) / benefit and then explain (using this phrase) “…..and this means to YOU”, if you are not doing this you are not selling benefits that the customer wants. I like the way you explained it.

By: Jamesey

Jamesey — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:19:00 +0000

Ian, I believe the Feature and Benefit belief has a third stage:
ADVANTAGE, it is true that each customer may place a value on a feature that is of benefit to them, hence it becomes a benefit. It is also true that a good salesperson identifies an unperceived issue for the customer to obtain the customers agreement that it is now a perceived issue. This new perceived issue can unlock the middle point: Feature/ADVANTAGE/Benefit. The advantage stage is the value a client puts on a feature to calculate if it will ever become a benefit. If the salesperson does not SPIN the customer correctly and cover all the bases, then the ADVANTAGE reverts back to being a feature and not a benefit and makes the sale more difficult.
Stu James