Touting Benefits

Every profession has its chestnuts, maxims repeated so often that they grow stale.

Sales is no exception, and one of the oldest nuts in the orchard that benefits sell a product or service. Unfortunately, this marketing adage has been co-opted and misinterpreted by proponents of traditional selling. Which would be no matter, if touting benefits did not create sales resistance. If you doubt that it does, I challenge you to apply the Shoe Test.

To perform the Shoe Test, all you need to do is put yourself in a prospect's shoes and ask the following question: How do you feel when a salesperson touts the benefits of their offering with statements like, "you'll save time and money?"

If you are like most buyers, such assertions induce resistance, especially if they sound like a come-on.

By "assertions" I mean claims that might not apply to you personally. Benefit statements are presumptuous because they assume you will reap the same gains others have, and suppose that what is beneficial to some, is advantageous to all.

Which brings us to the main problem with benefits:

Like beauty, benefit is in the eye of the beholder.

Because benefit is in the eye of the beholder, it is best for salespeople to cite the features of their offerings and let prospects see the advantages for themselves. This makes sense because:

1. Virtues extolled by the seller might not be benefits a prospective customer wants.
   
   
2. Touting benefits creates sales resistance.
   
   
3. If the advantages of a product are obvious, prospects don't need to be told what they are.
   
   
4. Benefit claims are dismissed as hype unless a prospect concludes - in their own way, in their own time, for their own reasons - that those claims are true.
   

In reality, prospects buy benefits but don't like to be sold them. That is why a benefit touted is a claim to be doubted, and an advantage perceived, is a benefit indeed.

© Bradley P. Simpson 2009