WORLD’S SHORTEST SALES MANUAL

Products and services have features.

Features have many potential benefits.  

Potential, because not all benefits apply to all consumers!

Consider a fire extinguisher  

Feature - red color     

Potential Benefit - easy to see in an emergency

If someone is colorblind that benefit has zero VALUE.

To make sales, identify which features provide benefits with enough customer value.

Open-ended questions (those that need more than a one word response) help determine which features have benefits that provide value.

Finding out your client is colorblind doesn't mean they don't need a fire extinguisher.  Find other feature-benefits that this client values.

Reflect on your product (or service) and write down EVERY feature.  Then, discern all customer benefits that 'could' accrue from that feature, across all clients. If you have a problem identifying benefits, why is engineering spending money on that feature? 

If you can determine customer value, great, otherwise present the FEATURE/BENEFIT and ask how valuable a potential benefit is.

For insurance sales:  Start with a feature (reputation is a feature) and ask about value.

 "My company has been around for 105 years, how important is our long term stability to you?".  Let them tell you the benefit or value to them.

There is a general misunderstanding about the ratio of sales "pitch" to sales questions.  

Having your customer answer questions is the ONLY way to learn the value of your offering.  Speak of nothing until you know your audience is one you ought to be in front of, by asking open ended questions about things that might be valuable to them.  If they don’t see value, they aren’t a prospect!

Nothing builds a confident attitude (a "‘tude") better than knowing more than anyone else about the total value of your solution!

Sales is a helping profession.  They need you more than you need them.  

When they rely on your product, they rely on it 100%.  It must perform every time.  However, they only represent X% of your yearly revenue.  

They need you more, which is why you must show value, to get and keep them.



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