Tilt the Scales in Your Favor

In training and observing salespeople over the past twenty-five years, I have had the opportunity of working with some of the best–and some of the worst. Among the top producers, I have always watched for those common threads woven among them; i.e., those techniques which seem to have the highest degree of success.

Laying aside the obvious value of a good personality, proper grooming and communicative skills, I will concentrate this writing on the one basic skill I find among all the top producers and find blatantly missing in the low volume salespeople. The top producers have learned to speak the right language, the only language a customer understands–customer benefits.

Before you jump to any conclusions, let me tell you what I invariably find while observing salespeople in action. Ninety-nine percent of them think they talk in terms of customer benefits–about 10 percent of them actually do it. Scores of times I have had to prove this point to a sales representative. They are often shocked when they realize how few benefits were actually presented to the customer. Implying a benefit and stating a benefit are not the same.

Let me share a simple model I use in my sales seminars to help salespeople conceptualize the how and why of benefit selling.

The Sales Scale

The “sales scale” helps us understand what goes on in a customer’s mind when he is considering a purchase. And this understanding is essential to the selling process, for it is in the customer’s mind that a buying decision will be made.

In essence, the customer is mentally comparing two things–what he will have to pay for the product (or service) versus the benefits he will gain from owning or using the product. He is simply questioning whether it’s worth the exchange.

If the customer feels the price outweighs the value, he isn’t going to buy. It isn’t worth it to him. If he feels the price and value are equal, he may decide to buy. If, however, he feels that the value outweighs the asking price, he’ll make the exchange and the sale will close. The salesperson’s job, obviously, is to get the value side to outweigh the asking price – and right here is where the majority of salespeople fail. They sell on the wrong side of the scale.

Think for a moment where a price comes from. It is an accumulation of everything up to the point of sale, including materials, labor, research, transportation, warehousing, handling and profit margins. The cost of every single feature of the product is packed into the price – at a profit. Feature selling does no more than justify the price. Benefit selling, on the other hand, justifies a purchase in the customer’s mind.

Feature selling, tells us how the product was made, what’s in it, what’s on it and how it is put together. Benefit selling tells us why the product was made that way, or in other words, what it is going to do for the customer. Benefit selling answers the most important question in all of selling, “What’s in it for me, the customer?” Benefits are the only things that add value to the right side of the scale. Features add to the cost–benefits add to the value and create desire in the customer’s mind.

Breaking Old Habits

There are several reasons why salespeople push features, leaving the translation up to the customer. In the first place, they feel more comfortable talking about product features. Frequently, features are stressed in advertising and product brochures. But there are two assumptions salespeople make that cause them to ignore the customer benefits. The first assumption is, “The customer already knows that stuff, and I’d sound silly if I talked about them.” To a degree, this is true. Most customers really do know most of the basic benefits a product offers.

But the deadly assumption is the second one, i.e., when the salesperson assumes the customer is thinking about the benefits. Those benefits are somewhere back in his memory bank and he has never been disciplined to receive them. Unless the customer is thinking about the benefits, they aren’t even on the sales scale. They weigh nothing toward offsetting the asking price.

The total amount of value the customer perceives in the product or service is mentally weighed against the cost when it comes time to make the buying decision. The total value perceived by the customer will be in direct proportion to the salesperson’s efforts in talking about the customer benefits.

A top producing sales representative never leaves it up to the customer to translate the features into meaningful customer benefits.

As a sales representative, you have two choices: (1) you can present the features and hope the customer will voluntarily put enough value on the scale to offset the price; or (2) you can take a professional approach and build a high perceived value by presenting as many benefits as time will allow. If you leave it up to the customer to make the translation, your sales volume will be determined by “buymanship,” not “salesmanship.” Don’t leave it to the customer to determine your income.

A customer doesn’t buy a product for what it is. He buys because of what the product will do for him – nothing more. A customer doesn’t buy a three-carat diamond ring – he buys an image of success, proof of achievement, a source of pride, the gain from investment, a source of conversation, one-upmanship, an ego trip. The customer doesn’t buy film. He doesn’t even buy pictures – he buys memories, the ability to capture a precious moment and have it forever. He doesn’t buy motor oil – he buys engine protection, longer engine life, less repairs, a better investment, peace of mind, greater resale value. He doesn’t buy theatre tickets – he buys entertainment, an escape from reality, the ability to forget the outside world for a couple of hours, relaxation.

Regardless of the customer’s motive for buying, e.g., gain, fear, pride, imitation, love, affection, appreciation, etc., that buying decision will be determined by the result he perceives he will get from the product–not what the manufacturer built into it. But he won’t perceive much value unless you, the salesperson, make him aware of the value by talking about the benefits, by discussing them, by “putting the benefits on the scale.” The customer simply won’t do it alone. That’s your job.

Influencing the customer’s mind

To prove this point in my seminars, I use a series of slides which present a variety of common products with one single feature of that product listed under it. I try to use products which are totally unrelated to the group. I want them to concentrate on the mechanics of converting features into benefits without getting hung up on the language they are used to.

One is a picture of a high-powered rifle which carries the caption, “It’s perfectly balanced.” Naturally, the rifle has many features, but the group discussion sticks to the one feature listed. At that point I ask the group, “What would good balance mean to me, the hunter?” Invariably someone will say, “greater accuracy.” Let’s stay with “accuracy”, and see what that means to me. The list seems almost endless, including such things as more meat on the table, more pride in hunting, more trophies, less cripples, cleaner kills, less misses, less wasted ammunition, more economical, less chance of accidents. Someone will mention that good balance means it will be easier to carry, less tiring, etc.

At this point in the discussion I abruptly stop and ask, “Do you feel the mental gymnastics you’re going through, thinking up all the customer benefits from a well-balanced rifle?”

The reply is always affirmative.

“What you are doing right now is the very thing a customer has never been disciplined to do. Those things were all in his memory bank–they were not on the scale at all–they were worth nothing as far as helping him reach a favorable buying decision.

I then ask the group, “When the slide first came on the screen, how many of those customer benefits came to your mind immediately?…Then what makes you think your customer is any different?”

“What brought the benefits to mind, put them on the scale so they were worth something and created desire in the customer’s mind? Talking about them–that’s all. And that is the salesperson’s job, not the customer’s job. The customer doesn’t want to buy balance.”He wants more meat on the table, more pride, more trophies, less misses, greater economy, etc. If that’s what he wants, doesn’t it seem obvious that’s what you and I should be selling?”

Don’t sell features to justify the price–sell benefits to justify a purchase!