Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Attract with benefits

Probably the biggest single flaw in most sales communications that I see is that they promote the (no-doubt) amazing features of a product or service. It seems like a natural way to go - after all, the R&D folks spent of ton of time and money pimping that better mousetrap; why not brag about the whiz-bangs?

The reason is simple - customers could care less about the mousetrap whiz-bangs themselves. What they care about is getting rid of mice as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So while touting your mousetrap’s highly superior bait-action and completely enclosed trap might seem like the way to address these concerns, its still indirect: in effect, you are making the prospect translate from “superior bait-action” to “gets rid of mice quickly” and from “enclosed trap” to “disposal is a breeze”.

Instead, tout the benefits directly: "Works quickly, and disposal is a breeze."

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