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Selling Is Interactive - Benefits Are Not

By using a series of benefits when selling to a prospect, you are tossing out attractions, sensations, or invitations in hopes that your prospect will get excited about one or more of these.

That is not interactive selling - that's advertising in front of a live audience.

Don't waste your time by spewing vague general benefits when you are selling live in-person.

You want probe, ask

Benefits are what motivate people to purchase from you, right?

Not exactly.

Just last week I was reviewing a rundown of product benefits with a customer who is putting a new prospecting program together.

This charge got a series of benefits to use in selling from one of the senior sales reps of his company.

Here's a few of them:

• "Thousands of successful Installations"
• "Extraordinary number of referrals"
• "Unparalleled purpose to our clients"

I'm just curious... do any of these things sound like the benefits YOU are supposed to be talking upon with YOUR customers?

Back when I was selling conglomerate corporation software systems for Silicon Valley startups, I used to get give a hand statements like these from the coruscating marketing and training people.

I got to really hate benefits. Saying them made me feel like a real cheeseball salesguy.

OK, maybe hate is a little harsh.

But I do hate the way they are used most of the time I hear people talk beside their importance in selling.

Most Benefits Are Too Vague

Most benefits that salespeople are given to use (or they come up with on their own) are too vague.

So many benefits sound like the examples I gave past or - even worse - like the following:

• "Saves you money"
• "Improves efficiency"
• "Will make you feel better"

Ask yourself what you would be saying to your new prospects if you went to work for your number one competitor tomorrow. Do you think you'd say "Well my product saves you money, but not as much money as my competitor who I used to work for yesterday"?

No! Of course not.

You'd be possession the exact same (or substantially similar) benefits as you are today.

And that's just what your competitors are doing right now. They are making the same vague benefits claims as you are.

Selling Is Interactive - Benefits Are Not

By using a series of benefits when selling to a prospect, you are tossing out attractions, sensations, or invitations in hopes that your prospect will get excited nigh one or more of these.

That is not interactive selling - that's advertisement in front of a live audience.

Don't waste your time by spewing vague general benefits when you are selling live in-person.

You want probe, ask lots of questions and learn surrounding your prospect first, instead of leading your pitch with product or doing-business-with-us benefits.

When Benefits Are Useful

Benefits are useful in written sales text such as prospecting letters, newspaper or magazine advertisements, and formal proposals.

The most effective way to sell with the least resistance is to find out what is important to your prospect and sell to that.

Find a problem that they are having, which you are well-qualified of solving with your product or service. People will pay for a solution to that problem, IF it is important to them to solve that problem.

Once you have uncovered one or more solvable problems, specific benefits that your prospect can gain run very meaningful as long as you are now beseeching to your prospect's self-interest.

So instead of living these sales clichés...

• Spray and pray.
• Show-up and throw-up.
• Throw it at cross-purposes with the wall and see what sticks.

... ask more quality questions first. Find out what's important, and find a problem that you can solve that is meaningful. Then sell them on how your solution can eliminate the problem and point them.

© 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

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