Dear small business owner, March is here, and I’m anxious for spring. It isn’t the warmth I’m looking forward to, as much as not having to bundle up

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Dear small business owner,

March is here, and I’m anxious for spring. It isn’t the warmth I’m looking forward to, as much as not having to bundle up my bleary-eyed five-year-old daughter, Liana, before we leave the house. Her hat and backpack often hide in random places, necessitating a house-wide hunt. Liana protests at having to put on her heavy snow pants every morning, and I look forward to days when she doesn’t have to wear them.

The warmth is a great feature of spring. Parents will understand the benefit I’m excited about -- taking less time to get out the door in the morning with children. This month I’m going to talk about features and benefits.

Here we go.

features n benefits2

What are You Really Selling?

Do you have an excellent offering, yet it seems difficult to sell?
Do you have the right solution, yet prospects just don’t get it?

You could be focusing on features instead of benefits.

As a small business owner, it is easy to get excited about your product or service’s attributes (the features) and forget to highlight the benefits. After all, you’ve been working hard on development. A feature is something a product is, a benefit is something it does.

You may sell widgets, but the customers buy the benefits provided by the widgets.

Highlighting your product or service’s benefits when talking to prospects will spark interest.

Some examples of benefits are:

Sales growth
Increased market share
Turnover reduction
Enhanced brand strength
Customer loyalty
Cost management
Increased profits
Lower costs

Make sure you clearly define how your offering serves the prospect’s business. An easy way to do this is figure out whose bonus will increase by the benefits your product or services provides. See last month’s newsletter to find out how to identify that person.

As the old adage goes – sell the sizzle, not the steak.

Read more about benefits in Components of a Startup Marketing Plan

Next Month – Pricing

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Wishing you continued business success.

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Alex Sirota
Director, NewPath Consulting
(888) 781-2539

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