You Don't Have to Be a Shark by Robert Herjavec

Author:Robert Herjavec
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250092243
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

2. They know the differences among features, advantages, and benefits—and the power of emotion.

Features are qualities of a product that distinguish it from the competition. In many cases, the primary feature is the reason the product was developed in the first place. Apple’s iPod, for example, stores thousands of songs in a small package for near-instantaneous access. That was the basis of its creation, and continues to be its key feature.

Advantages describe the connection between the product features and the benefits they provide the owner. The big feature of the iPod, remember, is its ability to store an entire music collection in a pocket-size device; its advantage is that the owner has his or her entire musical library always at hand.

Benefits are whatever the buyer understands he or she will enjoy from owning the product. They measure the product’s appeal and value. Compare the iPod’s features and advantages. The benefit it offers is the ability for owners to listen to their music anytime and anywhere—which, in the final analysis, is all that owners really care about.

While a salesperson rhymes off a product’s advantages, the customer listens for its benefits. Once music lovers of a certain age grasped the iPod’s features, they made the leap to the benefits all on their own. Products that are less revolutionary demand a more complicated sales pitch. Going back to car sales: anyone selling hybrid cars would comment on its most obvious feature, explaining how it uses both gasoline and electricity for power. The advantage of this, of course, is better gas mileage; the benefit is lower fuel costs.

The path from feature to advantage to benefit is not always so smooth; sometimes it can be challenging to follow. While I’m still on cars, imagine trying to sell a vehicle whose key feature is the engine, which develops five hundred horsepower and can go from standing still to sixty miles an hour in less than five seconds. An impressive feature, right? But what’s the benefit, and to whom does it appeal? Many people would not see such massive power as a benefit; they might consider the car dangerous to drive.

When the benefits of a product or service are not immediately obvious, salespeople need to tip the buying decision in their favor by confirming that the customer understands and appreciates the benefit.

If the product is a cell phone with a feature that includes linkage to the newest design generation, the salesperson can point out how this offers faster access to Web applications than other, less expensive models. Some technology freaks may be sufficiently impressed by this feature alone to make a purchase. Others will respond to the faster speed with “So what?” That’s when the feature and the benefit need to be explained in basic terms, pointing out, for example, that the faster phone will more quickly connect with the GPS function if the owner gets lost.

That may sound like a relatively minor benefit, but it carries something all benefits need: an emotional quotient. Here is a hard-and-fast rule: When it comes to completing a sale, emotion trumps logic every time.

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