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Benefit Statements Answer the Question So What?
What an incredible demonstration of the power of WIIFM. It really doesn’t matter whether you’re in sales & marketing or management or just trying to convince your child to change her behavior, the key question is “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)
So when you want people to seriously consider what you are proposing to them, speak to them in terms of their interests and concerns. In sales and marketing jargon, talk or write about the benefits. When I first got into selling as a profession, the trainers smart enough to talk about benefits used the example of nobody buys a drill to have a drill. People buy drills to make holes.
I propose that as a soft sell salesperson or soft sell marketer you can go a step further in discovering their motivation. I think they buy a drill to mount something, like the marlin in one client’s office, for a reason, such as pride of accomplishment or to show off his fishing skill at having caught one. They might also buy the drill to build cabinets so as to organize their kitchen or workshop or office because they are more comfortable in an uncluttered office or because they are tired of wasting time trying to find things.
Use your knowledge of your ideal customer profile to help you ask questions that will encourage your prospects to reveal what problems or desires, what wants and needs, have them looking for a solution. (See my 4/28/09 blog post, Trust by Your Customer Begins with Your Understanding, and my 5/3/09 post, Build Trust by Digging Deeper to Understand What Your Customer Wants, for more insight into this.)
While the potential reasons are numerous, discovering the specific reasons shows you care about them. You can then focus your presentation on the benefits your products and services provide that mean something to them. In some cases, getting better information from them will change the product you intended to suggest. Answering “What’s in it for me?” for your prospects and customers means that you can help customers buy. Moreover, you will find it leads to relationships that make sales fun, fulfilling and mutually rewarding.
Join me on Facebook. I’m building a community of friends who believe in soft sell sales and soft sell marketing as the way to a fulfilling, fun, and mutually rewarding business.
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