Numbers vs. Stories

One thing that Coach D brought up in class on the 2nd is the idea the Features Tell Benefits Sale. This is very true and a very useful thing to remember for all people, not just sales people.  When you dive deeper into this you get the the question of what’s the best way to present and show the benefits. People like evidence presented to them in different forms and different ways. For instance, some people prefer to hear of numbers taken from a large sample size of study. This is normally seen in pharmaceutical and other health products, this is normally seen with statements like “95% effective in adults” or ” 85% of patients reported positive affects”. This kind of evidence can be seen in other fields as well. Another for of evidence used in both advertising and sales is story telling. This form of evidence is not focused on big overarching themes and data but more focused on anecdotal stories of other people who have used the product. This is normally used in hygiene or non-essential medical products. Most of these story go something like “this person used the product and thought it was amazing and so will you” or “(random famous person): I like this product and it worked great for me”. Normally, which type of evidence is used depend on the product however, I believe which type of evidence should be used to support a product should be dependent on who you are selling to. I believe some customers prefer to here stories about specific clients whereas other prefer to hear about overall trends associated with the product. I think the best way to discern which for of evidence to use to talk up your product is to give the buy a piece of each kind of evidence and see which one they responds most positively to and then keep moving from there.