How to Learn and Recall Features and Benefits of Your Products and Services
Let’s start with a need the customer could have. We’ll make this one easy so think of a very general need that many of your customers or prospects want your products or services to fulfil. Now recall the best feature of what you sell to meet that need. Then give a very brief explanation of the benefits the feature supplies that will match the needs of the customer.
Now try another of these linking chains. You can use a new customer need or stick with the same need and link a new feature to it that gives a benefit that will meet the need. You could also use the same need, keep the same feature of your product, but use a different benefit that the feature can supply.
This idea of mixing and matching the features in you chain of connections from need to feature to benefit is part of the accelerated learning built in to this sales training technique. As you use the technique in spare moments throughout the day you can fix the links around one need and see how many different features you can find for just that one need.
You can fix the feature and see how many different benefits that feature will give. Or, you can start with the benefit and work backwards to see how many different features can supply the one benefit.
When you train yourself in this way always complete the chain, If you start with a benefit and work back to a feature always add the need it meets on the end of the chain. Doing this builds up mental connections in your memory and will work towards giving you automatic recall of the full chain no matter which link you start from.
Practice the Chains Sales Training Technique
Practicing the chains sales training technique has two positive benefits for sales people:
1. It organises information into logical chunks that can be easily remembered and recalled.
By repeatedly practising the chains you organise your knowledge of features and benefits into memorable chunks of information connected to a customer need. When you practise the chains backwards, or start with a feature, you are again strengthening the connecting links and making the connections memorable from more starting points.
So whether a customer presents a need and you want to instantly recall the feature and associated benefits of that need. Or you want to present the features and benefits of your products or services and the needs that they will meet. Practising the chains will help you to think on your feet.
2. Practising the Sales Training Technique Increases Your Knowledge
Select a need and exhaust your knowledge of the features and benefits that can meet that need. Then continue searching for ways that your products and services can fulfil the need.
When you ask yourself a question your mind will come up with the best answers it can. Some of these answers will show you features and benefits, that will meet the customer’s need, that you hadn’t considered previously. You will start looking at the links between needs – features – benefits through a new frame and that will lead you to new links and connections.
For example, a customer has a need to save money. Once you have exhausted all the features that come to mind, offering the benefit of reducing costs, you could change your viewpoint to search for more. You could move on to features that instead of saving money will improve productivity or increase efficiency and therefore save money in a different way.
This creates new links and new chains and new possibilities for presenting your product, meeting customer needs, and overcoming sales objections. The chains sales training technique can also be used as an exercise in meetings and training sessions, and an ice breaker game, It’s also a great way of learning a new product from a sales angle, and a way to test the knowledge of your sales team. There is also another link that you can add to the chain that will increase your conversion rate as you close more sales.
