When it comes to selling, you’ll want to go beyond highlighting the product features. Consumers don’t simply buy a product primarily because of its features. They do so because they perceive some “benefit” found in those features.
Sadly, many of the marketing and sales messages present in ads talk about the features — and let customers figure out the benefits on their own. This is equivalent to asking your shoppers to do the heavy lifting for you.
Rather than simply enumerate the features, communicate the benefits of your products. You’ll get more customers quickly when you do this.
If you need further assistance in persuading your customers to buy your goods, take note of these strategies:
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Make Your Benefits Concrete
Consumers ignore benefits that are abstract and expressed using vague adjectives and adverbs. You want the benefits of your product to be specific and concrete. This way, they sound more convincing and memorable.
Let’s say you’re running a reliable used car dealership franchise. If you’re selling used vehicles, you don’t simply say that you’ll save money. Provide a percentage. Here’s an example: “You’ll pay x percent less sales tax on a used car.” Make sure you do your research to find out the actual cost savings.
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Be Natural When Talking to Your Customer
If you’re going to provide the features and benefits of your product, you’ll want to do so naturally. Otherwise, customers will just log on to your business website and read the features and benefits on their own.
When you’re talking to a customer over the phone or in person, never rely on ready-made conversation scripts. This pre-written stuff will sound unnatural to a customer and make them think that they’re just a sales figure. Customers are more willing to purchase if they can form an emotional relationship with their sellers.
Building such a connection won’t be possible if the seller reads aloud or recalls a prepared conversation scenario word per word. If you want to convince your customer to purchase your product, make sure that you sound natural and act like a human being.
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Highlight What’s Unique About Your Company or Product
What sets you apart from your competitor? What makes your brand or product unique?
Figuring out your uniqueness can be difficult, but it’s not something that you should skip. If you don’t identify your unique selling point or proposition, you could put your sales team in big trouble.
So what can you do about this? You can, for starters, put on a detective hat and find what makes your business or product special. Begin by coming up with a list of things that your product can do. Then, pick a trait that you think is the most important (or something that your competitors don’t typically have). Consider this your unique selling point.
Once you’ve identified your unique selling proposition, keep on promoting this in your ads.
Take Domino’s Pizza as an example. This pizza chain has said repeatedly that the pizza you’ll order will arrive in 30 minutes or less. If the order doesn’t arrive on schedule, it’s free. Even when the company has been around for decades, they still repeated the unique selling point on every pizza box and commercial.
Follow what Domino’s Pizza is doing and repeat your uniqueness to prospective customers.
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Show Your Brand Authority
According to the principle of authority, people tend to comply with individuals holding positions of authority, such as law enforcement personnel, government representatives, professors, attorneys, doctors and other perceived experts in different fields. If Michael Jordan gave you valuable advice on improving your field goal percentage, you’ll be more inclined to follow the guy compared to an average but knowledgeable basketball player in your local community.
Likewise, businesses displaying expertise and authority are trusted more. You can show authority by:
- Showing imagery and symbols of authority
- Referencing authoritative and governing bodies
- Backing up facts and claims
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Avoid Jargon and Biz-Blab
Some businesses use overly technical terminology or business clichés to sound smart in front of the customers. Don’t do this, as the customer won’t understand the product you’re offering. Instead, explain the benefits of your offerings in layman’s terms.
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Keep Your List of Benefits Short
Most people can only old two or three thoughts at a single time in their short-term memory. If you’re going to provide benefits, don’t bombard your customers with information all at once. Long lists will just cause confusion.
Instead of stating all 10 advantages of using your product, just provide one or two of the most important benefits. If the customer wants further information, give them a brochure or direct them to your website.
Persuading customers to purchase your product means providing them with the information they need to make an informed choice. If you want to sound persuasive, highlight the benefits of your goods and take note of these six best practices.
