People do not buy things; they buy what the things can do for them. At Mattress Firm, Edith Botello realizes her customers do not buy a mattress; they buy a relaxing, comfortable, uninterrupted physically healthy evening of rest. Chief information officers do not buy computers or programming services, they buy timely, easy to access, easy to understand, economically priced information. Every product or service offers the customer certain benefits. The benefit might be ease of operation, greater comfort, security, feelings of confidence, or economy.

If you are selling Allstate insurance, for example, you should become familiar with the service features. One feature is well-trained employees and the convenient locations of Allstate offices across the nation. The benefit to customers is greater peace of mind in knowing that they can receive good service at a nearby location. Allstate salespeople understand the importance of selling the company, the product, and themselves.

After you state the feature and convert it into a buyer benefit, obtain a reaction from the customer by using confirmation or need-satisfaction questions (refer to Table 11.1). You should always check to see if you are on the right track and your prospect is following the logic of your presentation. Some examples follow:

The feature–benefit–reaction or, as IBM salespeople call it, the “FBR approach,” is used by many high-performance salespeople. Involving the customer with appropriate questions helps you maintain two-way communication.