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Written by Staff
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 09:27 AM America/New_York |
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- by Pat Odom
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 Training your sales team to identify the difference between a feature and a benefit of a product can boost your ministry results. Someone taught me this easy-to-remember tool using the sale of facial cleansers. One product's feature was that it was a pink cream; another was that it felt rich. Did those facts make the sale? No, its benefit was that the cream moisturized the skin while cleansing, reducing the appearance of aging. Saving a youthful look was the personal gain that put the cream into a shopping cart.
- Hope of gain, assistance and help sends books home. First, learn that features are not benefits but they are the most easy to identify. Every specific title will have several distinguishing features. They may include the fact it is on the current best seller list, maybe even that it is recommended by your pastor. Their ease to rattle-off makes overuse frequent.
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- Benefits for the same book will sound more personal. Thoughts like "Since Pastor said this book helped him move through grieving the death of his mom, perhaps it will provide help for you." "The weight loss plan in this book looks like one simple to follow." "This children's bedtime book will make scripture memory easy for your granddaughter."
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- Print out a Thesaurus search for the word "benefit". Keep it easily visible to your staff. Play games with each other to sharpen differentiation skills. Emphasize that listing features is not bad when followed by a personalized gain. Often it's easy to talk about features while your heart and brain are determining what benefit the customer is really seeking.
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- Learn what will fulfill specific needs. One experienced reader may be influenced by knowing the name of the author; for her it communicates trust. When that trust allows her to relax in her purchase, it has become a benefit. For an inexperienced reader, the author's name may hold no meaning. Mentioning it risks information overload.
- Pat Odom is a retail coach with more than 35 years of retail experience.
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- Read the complete article at http://www.thechurchbookstore.com/a.php?ArticleID=13024
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