MBS

AI and Advanced Technology Plus Human Competence: The next level of sales.

The Future of Sales – Dreamforce 2017 I'm excited to be attending Dreamforce in San Francisco next month because technology is changing everything and many of the best minds on the planet will be there. Is technology creating a bright future for salespeople or could selling 'devolve' into a series of decision trees from natural language

The Sales Navigator is looking good.

The Definitive Business Case For Sales Navigator Business is done at the speed of trust and this is why relationships still matter. LinkedIn is the #1 platform for building a strong personal brand to show insight and value.

What are the Differences among Product Feature, Product Advantage and Product Benefit?
What is a Product feature?

It is the superficial descriptions of your products as to what it can do, how it does it, its dimension, specifications, and so on.

Features are most of the time described, and by the time the attempt is being made to show or demonstrate them, they must have changed into advantages or benefits. Feature-based sales or marketing are not effective and evoke the question, “and so what”?. For example, this car is a four-wheel-drive (4X4). The possible question is “and so what?”. This feature requires a further explanation of the specific results it can produce. After these explanations, advantage or benefit will have developed, presented or demonstrated.

What is Product Advantage?

The product advantage is what the feature does. It is also the results envisaged by the product developers, marketers or salespersons on behalf of prospects, customers or clients. It is the transition from a feature to a benefit; in other words, it is what the feature does to satisfy the customer. Advantages could be presented, spoken of, shown or demonstrated. It could be correct or wrong expected satisfaction of the prospect or customer. That is where marketers miss it most of the time because they are not in continuous touch with customers like the sales force. According to Philip Kotler, Niel Rackham and Suj Krishnaswamy in their article entitled "Ending the war between sales and marketing" published in 2006 Havard Business Review, salespeople are most of the time talking with prospects and customers. They are also attuned and know what customers will buy and which feature will fly or die. It is essential to discuss with the prospect or customer to be sure of what they are expecting.

Features don’t necessarily have to become advantages before becoming benefits.

What is a Product Benefit?

It is the result a product can give to a prospect, consumer, customer or client.

So the product benefit varies according to the need or want of a specific prospect, customer, consumer or client.

That is why it is essential to communicate, question and determine their need or want before benefits can deliver to them. Benefits talk directly to the wants or needs of a person, it affects their emotions and therefore evokes an action to own or invest in a product.

Generally, it is easier presenting, demonstrating or speaking about benefits because of its relevance to the needs and wants of prospects.

To practice this skill, list your product features, advantages, and possible benefits after talking to a prospect, customer or a client. Try to be flexible to adapt and change potential benefits when they appear not to match the want or need of the prospect.

It is worth noting that there is a thin line between a product advantage and a product benefit.

That thin line is a question of how it meets the need or want of the prospect, customer or client.

So an envisaged benefit is a product advantage, but when the prospect or the customer accept the advantage as an answer or a solution to her need or want, then it becomes a benefit.

In his article, "Is your value proposition strong enough?" Jill Konrath defines the value proposition as a clear statement of the tangible results a customer can get using your product.

So it stands to reason that, a correct product benefit is equivalent to a strong value proposition.

The Importance of Differentiating among Product Feature, Advantage and Benefit.

Knowing the correct product feature is important because that is what defines its quality.

Good knowledge of the feature also puts the salesperson or marketer in readiness to convert it into an advantage or benefit.

It also motivates the marketers to align and integrate their functions with the salesforce to come out with correct product benefits and strong value proposition.

The stronger the value proposition, the more closed profitable sales you have, a prerequisite for business profitability and success.

It has become all too obvious that mobile is the way computing is happening and likely is going to continue to exist, even in the corporate world...... John Laskaris

The next generation of e-learning which is mobile learning is already with us due to the upsurge of mobile internet users. How ready are you to take advantage of this in our part of the world?