Prospects always have one thing on their mind when something is being sold to them. They want to know what’s in it for them. We must be careful not to get engrossed in talking about features of our product instead of benefits to the prospect.

Therefore, we should have this three-step approach to selling anything,
1) Talk about the features, this causes interest
2) Talk about the benefits, this arouses desire
3) Explain how the benefits apply to the prospect’s current situation, this gets them to take action.

When talking about features; first of all you shouldn’t sell of the top of your head, you need to have a memorized sales presentation. This is because you need to stay outside yourself as much as you can. Always going within to look for what to say would distract you from providing creative solutions for the prospect’s needs when you’re listening. Remember that excellent selling requires that you spend most of your time listening. Hence, you should have mastered your product so much such that you can easily match the client’s needs with the specific features of your product. You don’t need to talk about all the features of your product, only what addresses the need of the client; you’re like a doctor so listen, diagnose and recommend.

After mentioning the features, state the benefits to the prospect to arouse desire. If you sell real estate for example, one of the features could be the location. You need to understand that there’s a lot of psychology involved in selling so It’s not enough to just say your property is located in Ikoyi, so what? How does that benefit the prospect? You might say, “but the prospect knows that Ikoyi is a great location.” Yes, but tell him or her, and give reasons why. You must position yourself as a consultant to your prospect. Provide great statistics and information. Such that a single benefit explained by you can close the sale.

Use scenarios creatively. Create a scenario to paint pictures in the mind of the prospect; pictures of pleasure they’ll get and pain they’ll avoid by owning your product. You can only know the client’s pain and pleasure triggers during the listening phase of the sales process. Remember to project your product as scarce because it is; then ask for the money.

Iyore Ogbuigwe, Sales Coach.