Salespeak

Close 'em

24 October 2011

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When push comes to shove, most professional salesperson knows the difference between a feature and a benefit. Or do they? We have a twist on how to present them more professionally in today's consultative selling environment. To learn how to persuade and get customer buy-in, read on.

First of all, think of a feature as a "fact". Examples include:

"We have 24/7 customer support."

"Our factory is the largest in the world."

"This product has a lifetime guarantee."

 

All of these statements are facts. Now what about the benefits? Most salespeople explain benefits like this:

"Since our customer support is 24/7, you never have to wait for a representative to answer your questions. For example, your technical staff may be working at 2 a.m. and they can still call our customer hotline. What a great advantage this is to you! No more waiting in the que during peak business hours for you...yada, yada, yada."

 

Hey, why insult your customer's intelligence? He checked out a long time before you got to the third sentence, anyway. Why? Because most salespeople tend to, as the songwriter Randy Newman sang, "Talk too much."

 

So your strategy should be to add a brief benefit after the feature. Here's what that would sound like:

"Because our customer support line is open 24/7, you'll never have to wait when there's a problem--saving you valuable time and reducing your stress."

 

Now the customer has heard two benefits he can sink his teeth into! A benefit is the "What's in it for the customer" positioning statement. The customer's actually listen to those--if the benefits aren't't too long. (After all, customers have short attention spans, remember?)

 

Third step is what I refer to as the "check in". During this step, you ask your customer how he feels about the feature followed by a benefit. This is when you find out how important the particular idea is to him, proactively avoiding any upcoming objections that may be thrown your way.

 

After you have stated your benefit to the customer, ask the customer a question, such as:

"How important is this to you?" Now wait for a response. If the customer says he likes the feature, you can now wrap his quote into your value-closing proposition. If the customer tells you that it's not important, than you can focus on the next feature-benefit you have to sell, do a check-in again, and repeat the process.
 
There's no such thing as a "trial close", but keep in mind that your customer is creating an invitation for you to either "continue with interest" or "shut up about that feature". By asking the check in question after every feature, you are keeping your customer more involved and are able to focus on what's interesting to him/her.
 

Now, go close something!

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