Night of the Living Features

David Sandler & Professor Sweet continue to spit fire.

Don’t spill your candy in the lobby, says Sandler. Funny name for a rule, isn’t it? Entertaining imagery is invoked. But wait, how do you relate candy to sales?

Easy, my friend: the features & benefits of a good are its ‘candy.’  Customers buy benefits, not features, and it is all to easy to forget this. If one ignores the customer’s unique needs and instead focuses on their super-duper offerings, the customer will be dissatisfied and you will lose a sale. You have ignored their unique buying needs and instead imposed your solution. They want to hear about themselves, not you…one must listen more than they speak.

Nobody tells you this in retail sales training! It would’ve been an excellent heads-up to receive. At Rue21 I got away with touting random features, as I treated my job as an improv comedy act and customers liked it. I sold based on humor. For example, I’d tell a teenage girl that a particular perfume was actually an enchanted love potion for wooing boys. I’d tell a guy he’d move up the corporate ladder quicker if he wore our cologne.

At Sunglass hut, however, I did not do well reciting features. I would list off these memorized facts as though chanting them were the magic spell to instantly securing a sale. I pouted in confusion as the customers consistently didn’t give a darn about my features. I sat in awe as my highly personable and inquisitive coworkers surpassed my numbers.

Lesson learned: focus on the customer, not the sale. Close focus is a monetary focus, which is a selfish ME focus. As for the features list – wait until you’ve diagnosed the customers needs! At that point, if you selectively convey the correct BENEFITS, not features, you will help the customer and subsequently secure the sale. Win-win.