Sell the Benefits not the Features

Matching benefits to customers' needs

You need to match benefits to a customer's needs when you're:

• having conversations with customers
• preparing a sales proposal
• making a sales presentation
• researching sales literature for a target audience

Find out what the customer wants and don't try to bend their wishes to suit your product or service. Ask questions to find out what they're hoping to achieve from the purchase. Encourage them to ask lots of questions, too.

Ask more general questions about the customer you're dealing with, don't just talk about their needs needs in relation to their use of your product or service. The answers may give you clues to unexpected benefits.

Do homework beforehand on the customer and their marketplace so you can ask informed questions and make them confident you have some understanding of their needs.

Use this information to analyse your product and identify what factors are most likely to make the customer buy.

It helps if you can quantify any benefits in money or time terms, especially where the advantages of a particular product or service outweigh the costs. Let your customer know if buying your product now will help them make cost savings or boost their own turnover.

And remember that businesses in particular can feel more confident about buying if you can show how other businesses have benefited from what you're selling.