Avoid Dangling Features

As a professional salesperson, you know all about features and benefits. It’s just like everyone knows that you wash your hands after going to the bathroom. So, you would never have a dangling feature—saying a feature without immediately including a benefit—would you? Of course not. So, are you doing the feature → benefit → check-in process (referred to as the F-B-C formula)? The check-in is where you find out how the customer truly feels about what you have just said and you learn the significance of your particular feature to the client.

A feature is a fact, such as: “We have 24/7 customer service,” or “Our company has won nine product excellence awards,” or “We deliver to your doorstep within twenty-four hours.” Any feature may represent a benefit to most of our customers. And customers usually aren’t listening as closely as we’d like on the other end of the phone. That’s why it’s critical that we include a very specific benefit (or benefits) to the customer after each feature is presented. That’s why we must always include the benefit statement (what’s in it for them) after each feature.

The Five Benefits

Here is a shortcut for you; there are basically only five benefits in the business world, regardless of what you sell:

There might be specifics related to an industry, such as reducing head count or handling waste, but they can all translate into one of these five benefits. Resist the urge to talk too much when presenting a benefit to a customer. It’s easy for a customer to get lost in the verbiage and tune out, even when what you’re saying is correct.

Last, every time you mention the benefit to your customer, include a phrase such as: “And what this means to you is . . .” or “And the benefit to you is . . .” or “What you’ll get out of this is. . . .”

In the case of resellers, though, we have to use a two-layer approach for stating benefits. For example, if an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) makes cell phones for a cellular service company, the OEM has two levels of need he must satisfy. Level one is the direct operational or market advantage benefit. If you are selling a scratchproof plastic for the cover of the cell phone that is inexpensive and easy to fabricate, the benefit to the OEM is lower operational costs on the manufacture of the phone.

However, the level-two benefit is the market advantage he can offer to resellers with the scratchproof case, something the reseller’s customers will appreciate. The true sales pro will recognize and capitalize on the opportunity of meeting two levels of need, thus cementing the benefit advantage in the eyes of the customer and making it easier for him to buy.

To us, some benefits of our products may seem to be dramatic differentiators from our competition. However, we must find out how they help the customer we are on the phone with at that moment. Start moving away from plain vanilla, generic benefits and remember to check in with your customers.