Talking About Features, Advantages, and Benefits

Nobody wants to be sold. That’s well established from your own personal experience. But people do want to buy, and you will be able to sell effectively to the degree that you are in control of the sales interview. You do not want to push people. You do not want to twist peoples’ arms. But you should have a formula, track, or outline in mind guiding you as you act in a sales environment. There are all sorts of tricks or techniques you can use, and one of them is talking about Features, Advantages, and Benefits.

Features, advantages, and benefits. It’s a simple, memorable formula that will help you stay in control of the process. Here’s what it’s all about. Salespeople have a tendency to get caught up in features. When you’re talking to a customer, it’s very easy to get so caught up talking about what your product does that you don’t get around to actually talking about the benefits a person gets from using it. While you should include features in the conversation, you also need to talk about the advantages of those features, and the benefits that your customer derives from them.

It’s an approach that works for any kind of product. Take a copy machine, for example. A feature would be how many copies per minute this particular model can make. The advantage is that you’re getting more copies per minute, which turns into a benefit by saving you time and saving you money. A different feature might be that it will print higher quality copies. The advantage is that you’re going to look more professional, giving you the benefit of creating a better atmosphere for people dealing with your business.

To utilize the features, advantages, and benefits approach, apply it to all your products and services. You need to know them. For all the top features of your products, think about what advantages those features correspond to. Know why it is an advantage, and be prepared to discuss how your customers will benefit from those features and advantages.