Are you really selling your benefits?

One of the most useful phrases I ever had directed at me when I was a graduate trainee in sales and marketing was “So what?” Sounds a bit offensive, but actually it was great training for roles in both marketing (which I wanted to do) and sales (which the company wanted me to do).

We were asked to present specific products to pseudo-customers. We read the brochures and we read the data sheets, and we prepared for action.

“This computer has xMB of RAM and operates at yGHz” we said.

“So what?” said the pseudo-customer. “That’s a feature of the product but what does it mean to me?”

“Well, it means it runs programs faster than your old computer”, we said.

“So what?” said the pseudo-customer. “That’s an advantage of your product but what does that mean to me?”

“Well, it means you can get your work done faster”, we said.

“You’re getting there,” said the pseudo-customer. “And does that benefit me in any other way?”

“Well, you could spend more time doing other business-critical tasks, such as planning, marketing or chasing payments. That might relieve you of the need to sub-contract some work, for example. If your work time is more efficient you can use the spare capacity to build sales and cut costs.”

“Now you’re talking”, said the pseudo-customer (although he thought we might have gone a bit over the top at the end and we were in danger of losing him again).

Today’s moral: don’t leave your potential customers to work out the benefits of buying your products for themselves. Ensure that what you think is a benefit really is – not just a feature or even an advantage.

Will potential customers find you through searching?

Every industry and every business has its own language. Very often it’s not the same language as its customers. So if your web site and keywords are full of corporate-speak rather than customer-speak, you won’t be getting the hits you deserve.

Here’s an example. Content expert Gerry McGovern carried out research on how consumers in the US and the UK search for cheap flights. "In the United States, over 80 times more people search for ‘cheap flights’ than for ‘low fares’. In the United Kingdom, 6,500 times more people search for ‘cheap flights’ than for ‘low fares’". That’s an astonishing figure. The travel industry may like to use the term “low fares”, but it’s not the way that consumers speak. Just imagine how many more hits a travel agency could achieve it if gave up industry speak and spoke the language of its customers.

What can you do to bring your language closer to that of your customers? You can ask them, although long-established customers may already have become accustomed to using your language. Find out how new customers found you. Read what journalists say – they have to use a generic language to speak to all readers. Take advice from your marketing agency and copywriters. Whatever you do, don’t get together in a closed room and ask each other. You might come up with the answer you first thought of.

That word “solutions”!

Have you ever found yourself sitting behind a truck on a clogged up motorway and idly wondered just exactly what service they’re advertising splashed across the rear doors? You’ve been looking at the slogan for the last half hour, but you’re none the wiser as to what they’re actually offering. What a waste that slogan is for that business.

There’s a very strong possibility that you’ve been flummoxed by the word “solutions”. It’s one of the most overused words in industry. It’s used to sell entire businesses or individual products and services. Business solutions, global solutions, rapid solutions, end-to-end solutions, total solutions … But what is the point of the word, and how does it help tell people what a business is actually selling?

Take “printing solutions”. Can this business design and print the business cards and letterheads you know you need? Or does it sell inkjets and laser printers? Or is it a printing plant for newspapers and magazines? Or is it the local photocopying shop? Will you bother to take their phone number or url and find out?

The moral is - if you’re setting up a business, or naming a new product, think hard about what you are actually offering to your potential customers. Who are the people you want to attract? What is the benefit you can provide for them? And make the few words you have available really work for you. Avoid the word “solutions” and you’ll have to work much harder to describe what you do - but you’ll make life a lot easier for your audience. And by the way, that goes for the word “systems” too.