Nov 13 2007 8:45AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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I just finished “shopping” some sales people in Florida … and I’m feeling like it’s time to revisit a topic … and possibly point out the obvious. But I guess I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s today’s rant.

Features and Benefits

Volumes have been written on the importance of features and benefits. And most “experts” would lead you to believe if you match your features and benefits to your customer’s needs, you’ll build value. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Matter of fact, when you’re selling products that “cost a lot of money” … the more you present features and benefits … the less value your customer perceives. I know this might sound crazy, but let me explain.

If you’ve spent any time at all in the homebuilding business you’ve been taught that a purpose of a presentation is to get your customer to go, “Oooo … Ahhh.” And what the heck, on the surface it seems like a great way to sell. But are “Oooo’s” and “Ahhh’s” the key to value building, or just a way to get your customer excited?

Maybe the biggest question of all is a question that’s hardly ever asked. Here it is:

“When you use features and benefits to get your customer excited, are you building value or just communicating your idea of what you believe value should be?”

In other words, are you using a technique that causes your customer to think, “I have to have that”, or are you using a technique that just allows you to “toss” some benefits out and see if they stick? Here’s the simple truth.

You don’t need to be very skilled if your strategy for selling is “excitement”. This method boils down to asking your customer one simple question, “What are you looking for in a new home?” And once armed with the information, following up with some memorized features and benefits. There’s only one problem.

If you’re using “excitement” as a strategy to sell, you’re “guessing”. Which brings us to our first rule for building value for products that cost a lot of money:

No guessing!

No Guessing!

That’s right, I said, “No guessing.” I know you believe that you don’t guess when you deal with your customers, but I want to ask you a couple of questions and then see what you think. Let’s start by talking about features.

Is a “feature” fact or a guess?

If you answered, “A fact”, you’re right … and have answered like virtually every other sales associate in the industry. Features are features … and they represent things your company does to enhance your homes, community and company. My next question is just as easy.

Is a “benefit” a fact or a guess?

And again, you’ve probably answered like hundreds of other sales people and said, “A fact”. But is it really a fact? Just because you’ve presented some benefits to your customer, does it make what you’ve presented a fact? If you present some memorized benefits to your customer, does it mean that they automatically “buy in” to your presentation? Research shows the opposite to be true.

On one hand you seek to be professional, but on the other hand are willing to present some features … and then make a guess about the benefits to your customer. All for the sake of trying to get them excited.

Think Like your Customer

Try putting yourself in your customer’s shoes by answering one more question. If you were buying a home, would you want some sales person telling you what the benefits of their features … or would you rather have them asking you if there’s a benefit … and what they mean to you?

Which brings us to the difference between selling a product that costs a lot of money and one that doesn’t. Building value in a product that costs a lot of money requires a whole different rule:

If you want to build value, get your customer to tell you what the benefit means to them, not vice versa.