There is a famous saying that goes, "Features tell; benefits sell."
To effectively pitch the benefits of your product, and not solely it's features, you have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Think. What keeps them up at night? What motivates them? What would make their life easier, happier, more meaningful?
Often, we see companies like Dell bombard prospective customers with the specs and features of their products rather than honing in on the functionality or the benefits of their products.
Rather than being sold on the specs, customers are most often sold when companies do a good job in communicating the functionality of their product. Or, in other words, how their product or service will fulfill a need of theirs.
For example, imagine you are a business traveler who is in search for a new laptop, and you see the following description of a laptop on Dell’s website:
Yes, it's great that a laptop can support a 34mm Express Card via a USB interface through a PCMCIA adapter. It is also great that it has modular options such as 24X CD-ROM, 8X DVD +/-RW5. But if you are a business professional or even the average person who isn’t in the world of IT you might sit there and think, what does this really mean? Does anyone really care about 256 GB — or do they care about what those 256 GB allow them to do or store?
A Better Way to Pitch Your Product
In contrast, imagine you see this Apple commercial promoting their all-new Macbook Air:
Apple didn’t have to say, hey look, this laptop is 0.5 inches. They showed how this feature translated in real life. They said, hey look, it fits in an envelope.
If you are a business professional who is constantly on the go, you might be more inclined to purchase this laptop because you can clearly see it is leightweight and perfect for business professionals on the go. Apple successfully showed you how this could make your life as a business traveler much easier.
Of course, if your target audience is an audio engineer or an IT professional, the specs might be more crucial for them to know. This is not to downplay the fact that specs are vital when promoting a product. However, as marketing and sales professionals, we must seek to pitch our product in such a way that it does a solid job in explaining how it's features will empower your customer to fulfill a specific need.
You don’t know anything about the docking ports, the PC card, or even the number of inches it is. But what you do know is that the laptop is thin enough to fit in an envelope.
When Pitching your Product, Aim to Answer the Following Questions:
How will my product or service make my prospective customer’s life easier?
How will it make them feel more fulfilled?
How you will your product or service meet their specific needs?
When you’re able to answer those questions successfully, only then will you be successful in selling your product. As 9 Clouds puts it, all purchasing decisions are emotional. Even the most logical people buy based on some level of desire or fear. Don’t exploit your prospective customer's emotion, but do use it to show them how your product can help.
Don’t exploit your prospective customer's emotion, but do use it to show them how your product can help.
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