The Art of Communicating Value to Your Customers
When everyone thinks something is true, it's time to dig deeper. "Everyone" (whoever they are) says a smart business sells its products by touting benefits -- not features.
But this just isn't always true.
In my blog post last week I laid out a ridiculous situation where a customer buys a computer, and the salesman tries to sell them strictly on benefits: improve relationships with your family, understand your finances, and explore the world of the Internet.
There we talked about the "Will I?" and "Which one?" decisions customers make.
Expertise Matters
Here's a different take on that point: The less expertise your customer has, the more you need to sell benefits. The more expertise they have, the more you sell features.
Have you ever had someone tell you a bunch of things you already knew? It gets boring, and it's a waste of time. This is how many experts feel when salespeople talk to them about benefits. Experts have learned to quickly translate features into benefits. For example, higher CPU speed and a powerful graphics card make my gaming experience more fun.Experts not only don't need to hear about benefits, they probably don't want to.
Then there's the opposite case: Have you ever had someone talk way over your head? Imagine a first-time computer buyer comparing CPUs and hard drives. This novice needs someone to translate features to benefits. The less they hear about details they don't understand, the better.
Of course most of us are in the middle. We know enough to be dangerous and probably think we know more than we do. So great salespeople sell the feature differentiation and then translate that to benefits. Most customers love this approach because they can learn about new features and their associated benefits. If the salesperson finds himself in front of a genuine expert or a true novice he can modify his approach.
What does this have to do with pricing?
Pricing is about capturing value, and value comes from perceived differentiation. In order to capture the best price we must communicate value to our customers, in language they can relate to and understand.
What is your marketing material emphasizing? Features? Benefits? Both?
