The 3 Levels of Selling - (don't bother with level 1 & 2)

I love refillable water bottles.

I sometimes spend a significant amount of time hunting down the right one. I don't buy or own many of them, so getting the right one is crucial.

When I enter a water bottle shop, I am faced with the three levels of selling.

Level 1 is 'Show Selling'

Show Selling is usually simply done by having the bottles displayed on the shelves: "Here's a bottle, it's black, it holds liquids." Nonetheless, Show Selling sometimes occurs through an unshrewd sales assistant. Our fear of the uselessness of Show Selling is the reason behind our aversion for help, our "I'm okay thank you" automatic responses.

Level 2 is 'Feature Selling'

Feature Selling is slightly more useful, although it remains a shot in the dark: "This bottle is 350ml and has a large hole for easy cleaning, it is made of magnetic metal." Feature Selling is the next level up, but it remains in the realm of the "what" - what the product is or does. Crucially, it is blind to its audience: it highlights features that could be irrelevant or useless, it is a spinning wheel.

Level 3 is 'Benefit Selling'

Benefit Selling is the level you want to be aiming at: "You will never be out of water as this bottle fits in your small bag". Ironically, benefit selling is less about the product and more about the person, the recipient of the value this product creates, the buyer. Benefit selling is found at the intersection between a relevant, contextualised feature and an identified person. It is the beautiful green found where blue and yellow mix.

The common difference between level 1, 2 and 3

The key difference between each level is the amount of information about the client used. Level 1 selling is blind, it attempts to strip as much of itself as possible to fit the maximal amount of clients. By definition, it loses what makes it interesting, unique. Show selling is the cheap, irrelevant display advertising of sales found in between the lines of casual blogs.

Feature selling might hold more information. It might have an idea of the features that tend to be liked or noticed. It might have asked you about your industry, job role, demographics. You're a woman? Here's a pink bottle. You're a man? Here's a robust one. Feature selling is your uncle from the 80s. It has information, but it is often at a stereotypical category level.

Benefit selling understands that to leave the cheap realms of the 'what' inhabited by Show and Feature Selling and enter the prized realm of the 'why', you need more information about your client. Entering the door of the What's In It For Me starts with a close look at the 'For Me' and pairs it back with the 'What'. Benefits do not exist on their own, they're relational, only found with a wedding ring at their fingers. This pairing requires information.

How to move from level 1 to level 3

Now that we have established that the difference between the three levels of selling is information, we need to know how to obtain that information.

In the business to business world, or B2B, this is done through effective questioning. It is impossible to find benefits without information, and the information is found when clients give it to you. They give you the information when you ask relevant questions, and stay silent to let them answer and give you that information.

For example, it is impossible for you to discover that I mainly value the shape and size of my water bottles above everything else. This is because I need my bottle to fit into my tiny day-to-day bag. If you do not ask questions and discover this fact, you will wander in the realms of Show and Feature Selling, highlighting features that I am sure a majority of your clients appreciate, but that are utterly irrelevant to me and my situation.

The demonstrated value will remain marginal, a strike of luck.

Likewise, if you start Feature Selling directly after obtaining a few pieces of category level information about the client, you might alienate your path towards Benefit Selling. You might get lost in discussions about features that miss the point, technicalities that do not add value to your client, or case studies and social proof that would be nice if your client cared the slightest about what you're trying to prove works.

Gathering information takes time. This is particularly true in complex B2B sales environments. Too often, the gathering of information is cut short, and the salesperson jumps into feature selling based on a few pieces of information they acquired. If only they kept collecting and refining the information they're gathering, they would reach the door of benefit selling and all the value it unlocks.

Value is Relational

Products do not have any value of their own. They're created to solve problems. They're created for humans.

In business-to-business settings this truth is heightened. The value has to be proved across departments and decision makers. Nobody subscribes to a platform or buys a piece of technology because 'they liked it'.

You cannot demonstrate the true value of your product without a contextualised understanding of your client. You cannot understand your client without having information about them. You cannot have information about them without asking relevant questions and staying silent to hear the answers.

If you find yourself doing show or feature selling: stop!

We cannot be spinning wheel salespeople, sprinkling features and putting the cognitive burden of linking them and finding their benefits on our clients.

We cannot just display, we must match.

Our value is demonstrated when we become the great matchmakers of the business world. Selling benefits is the reason buyers buy.