Give The People What They Want!
I’m a great believer that we should give the people what they want. Let me explain. I was recently looking for a camera for a specific purpose on a holiday. I walked into a shop ready to buy. Just ten minutes later the salesperson drove me out of the store and into the arms of a competitor, losing the sale. His mistake? He bored me with masses of technical jargon and lists of features he could have read from a user manual. It’s a crass, yet common, mistake.
Motivated And Competent are often involved in sales and performance related learning programmes. As many of us know ‘people buy from people’ (they like and trust). So why alienate potential customers by talking about your product (read ‘yourself’) rather than about customers and their wants or needs? Yet this is exactly what too many sales people and so many marketing materials do! They literally repel their potential customers – like my, would-be, camera salesperson did.
Companies get over excited about features of their products. All sorts of businesses fill their brochures, web sites and adverts with them. And sales people talk too much about these features. Yet the truth is: nobody cares about your features! People don’t care about lists of product features. Nor about the advantages of those features (which you may be excited about, especially if they’re your company’s USP).
So, it’s pointless my camera salesman talking solely about:
- Aperture speeds
- Zoom statistics
- Megapixels
- ‘Unique’ features, using techno-babble.
People really care about the pay-off or benefits they gain from your product or service. What will it mean to them? How will it transform their lives? Tell them about why they want your offering.
People care about themselves, their busy lifestyles and their loved ones – not your products’ features. While it’s fine to discuss features and advantages; do it in the context of the benefits. So, don’t talk about what it is (features). Nor about how it works (advantages). Talk about why someone will want it and what it will mean to them (benefits)!
Please, focus on things such as:
- Ease
- Convenience
- The lifetime’s pleasure of fantastic pictures and memories
- Why I’ll get, more, great pictures of the subjects I want
- The flexibility to get long distance shots
- That my pictures will be better in bright light conditions
- I’ll experience less frustration from blurred or out of focus pictures
- How pictures can be blown up and cropped really closely.
In short, the solution to transform your sales is to be customer focused. Please, don’t lecture people with irrelevant information. First; find out what they want. Use appropriate questioning. Listen! Then, present your recommendations linking back to their needs and wants, using some of their own words to confirm you’ve focused on them, and understand them. Concentrate on benefits.
Give The People What They Want!
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