321: Understanding Features and Benefits

<p style="font-weight: 400;">Most salespeople are very good on the detail of their solutions.  The more technical the solution, in order to be able to explain it to the buyer, the more expert level of knowledge is needed.  The only problem with this expertise concentration is that buyers don’t buy features.  They have a problem which they need solved and the features are a necessary tool, but it is the outcome produced through the tool, which is what attracts the buyer’s attention. If we spend all of our time in the weeds of the features, we are missing the one thing which causes the buyer to purchase from us. </p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"> </p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">We don’t get unlimited time with the buyer and usually an hour is allocated to our meeting and we need to cover a lot of ground in that hour.  In fact, the solution component of the sales call is often the second visit to the buyer.  In the first visit, we did our best to understand what their issues were and to see if we have what they need to provide the necessary solution.  During the second visit, we go into how what we have will fix their problem, how it works and we deal with any pushback and ask for the order.  So the sales call is an exercise in two parts.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">One of the problems may be that the buyer themselves don’t fully understand how this solution will impact their business.  They are working in their own little section, but the solution may have ramifications across the whole business. We need to get other section representatives involved too, if possible, because otherwise they could become blockers behind the wall and we don’t even know what their issues are, let alone be in a position to help them too.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">There may be a number of benefits which our solution delivers, but some will have more potency for the buyer than others and we need to zero in on these.  Presumably we will have a reasonable idea which ones will resonate more strongly than others, if we did a goo