BY JOE SMITH
Special to the Record
What are you selling? How are you selling it? Are you focused on marketing the features of your product or service or is there something else you should be considering to make the sale?
In today’s world it is not enough to simply list your product or service attributes and hope that the customer makes some kind of connection. You need to be able to show the customer how your product or service solves a problem or makes life easier for them.
In other words, you have to sell the benefits of how all these features will tap into the customer’s desires and will fulfill their needs. To use an old adage, you need to focus on selling the sizzle and not the steak.
The best way to start is to look at all the key features of your product or service and ask yourself what benefit each feature delivers to your customer. Selling a solution can accomplish more in making a sale than providing detailed product descriptions.
Top salespeople know that when it comes to making a sales pitch the first order of business is to find out what the customer’s problem is and then offer solutions as to how the product or service they are selling can help the customer achieve his or her goals.
The reality is people don’t really care about your product or service; they are more interested in what it can do for them. As a result, the most successful sales strategies should always be focused first on uncovering those needs and how you can satisfy them.
Here are a few more questions that can help in developing a strategy.
How does your product or service make life easier? How does it save your customer time, how much and what can they be doing with the time saved? Will your product or service save them money now or in the future? Will your product or service make your customer feel or look better, influential, successful or credible? How will the sale of your product help build a long-lasting relationship with your customer?
Selling the sizzle and not the steak is not something new in the world of advertising and marketing. For those interested in the history of marketing, the first person to coin the phrase has been attributed to Elmer Wheeler, one of the pioneers of persuasion and at one time deemed America’s greatest salesman, who built his business’s philosophy around the concept. He explained it this way, “Don’t think so much about what you want to say as about what the prospect wants to hear – then the response you get will more often be the one you are aiming for.”
Just remember what they should be hearing is how you can help them and answer their question of, “What’s in it for me?”
Joe Smith is a communications consultant and an accomplished fine artist. He can be reached via email at joesmith@shaw.ca