It is easy to just be focused on the product you are selling, and trying to get your clients to purchase your fantastic product. You know how great it is, and perhaps you think everyone needs your product , too!
Clients, buyers and potential customers aren’t concerned about how great you think your product is. The question that the potential clients are asking themselves is “What is in this for me?”
What’s in it for me?
How can this fabulous product improve my life? How can it make my life easier? How can it make my life less complicated? How can this product help save me money? It’s about thinking about the benefits of what your product brings that is the selling point.
At the time, your product might be solving a problem that is totally off the radar of the potential clients you happen to be talking to. You may be raising awareness of your product , which is great, but when people meet you for the first time and hear about your amazing product, they are unlikely to buy. The purchase process takes a number of “Touch-points” before people buy – this is also dependant on the type of product and assuming your are connecting with people who potentially will need your product.
So what will get your potential clients – the ones who you are meant to serve who now know about your fabulous product – what will get them to buy?
1. The Benefits
Marketers and business coaches will talk about selling the benefits, not the features, of your product. This is because talking about the benefits explains to your potential client:
a. What is in the product for them, and
b. How they will solve a problem they are experiencing by using your product. They are interested in knowing how the product will change their lives for the better.
You should be able to clearly define your benefits for your clients if you want to sell your product successfully, and understand how these benefits impact the end user.
There’s four benefits – the financial, emotional, physical and spiritual benefits. So let’s see what these four benefits look like:
Financial: On first thought, everyone may think that this is the most important benefit, but actually it is much lower on the Importance Ladder. The financial benefits come after all the hard work is done, but may be what brings the purchaser to you first.
Emotional: This is what makes people buy – on emotion. How does you product reduce stress, help people overcome nervousness, improve people’s happiness and bring joy to people’s lives? The product has to make people’s lives easier in the areas they are emotionally attached to.
Physical: How does your product help physically? By giving some sound approach, this gives a framework either figuratively or actually. How does the product make people’s lives better in a constructive way.
Spiritual: This is about the feeling of community, support, belonging. This benefit is about engagement. The spiritual benefit is what raises the attention first and then the other benefits follow.
The question really is how does your product enrich and help your client to improve the issues they are facing? The product is just a means to bring the results: the benefits the purchasers are wanting to achieve.
Take some time to think the benefits through of your product because its the benefits of the product that will sell the product or service you are keen to sell.
2. Trust
If you have just met someone , you are unlikely to believe or want a product they are trying to sell to you. Purchasing is really dependant on the relationship the buyer has with the seller – the more trust that is built up over time, the more you have kept your name and business on the front of the buyers mind for that product. Then, when the client is experiencing the problem that your product solves , when the buyer understands the benefits that your products brings from a Financial, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual perspective plus you are on “front of mind”, then the client will give you a call and you can have a sales conversation.
But its essential to be connecting and building the trust. People buy from people they trust.
3. Timing
Buyers are not likely to buy until they have the need. The more urgent the need the more likely they are to buy, and if you have been keeping in touch, and have been building trust and a relationship with this potential buyer, the buyer will come straight to you when there is an urgent need, because they know the benefits your product brings, and that your product can solve their problem.
When the time is right, you have appropriate pricing and you can discuss your client’s options clearly and assuredly, you will be able to book the business because you have educated your potential client on the benefits of your products or services.
So , in summary, you might have a great product with many bells and whistles, but to sell the product, it’s all about the benefits it brings to the buyer. Work out what’s in it for the buyerand what benefits your product delivers, because at the end of the day, that’s the purpose of your product.
Featured image via Pixabay via Creative Commons CC0
Adrienne McLean
Adrienne McLean is the Founder of The Speakers Practice, which offers Presentation Skills training program for business people, individuals, teenagers and groups. Adrienne is an Internationally Accredited SpeakersTrainingCamp Instructor and is a Distinguished Toastmaster. Adrienne has studied marketing with Michael Port the author of the Top Business and Marketing book – BookYourselfSolid.
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Adrienne, with her experience of growing up in a family business, working in the corporate and small business sector plus building her own business, gives an enthusiastic and practical approach to the benefits of presentation skills development, learning to promote yourself and building a successful business. She is a regular presenter, blogger and a contributing author in four recent business publications.
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