How to Sell Anything to Anyone – Feelings first, Facts later.

The foundational class is often the advanced class.? Mastering the fundamentals of selling is a lifelong practice, and balancing features and benefits is one of the most fundamental yet poorly understood concepts in sales.

It's simple yet powerful: Features are your product's characteristics; benefits are how using the product makes your customer feel.

The primary benefits we sell are Confidence, Safety, and Certainty.?

I was reminded of this lesson by a sales master I worked with a few years ago in San Diego.?

We were in a high-pressure RFP scenario, and she knew this would be rough. This was her first time meeting the CEO in a deal almost a year in the making, and it was not going well.?

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Though unconventional and innovative, our product ticked only 40% of the rigid RFP boxes. As the CEO meticulously compared feature sets among competing products, the room's energy shifted from hopeful to tense. He was getting visibly annoyed and frustrated.

My colleague interpreted, stating, "Can we pause for a second? There’s been a misunderstanding. I don't sell features; I sell Confidence and Certainty. Let’s try this again.”

There was a long, awkward pause, and the CEO laughed, “That’s one of the best things I’ve ever heard a salesperson say. Please, let’s try again. The floor is yours.”

Thirty minutes later, the meeting ended without discussing a single feature. Later that week, the email we were waiting for arrived: we were the vendor of choice.

Three non-negotiables when selling:

1. One step at a Time: Before diving into features, ensure your prospect wants to be more Confident, Safe, or Certain in whatever context she is in. This alignment is crucial for the conversations you will have down the road.?
2. Ladder Up: Every feature you discuss must ladder up to one of these core benefits. For instance, every security system's features provide the benefit of Safety.
3. Practice, Practice, Practice: Mastering this foundational principle through continuous practice and role-play is the ONLY way toward sales excellence. It's not the class you take but the application that matters.

If you compare features in a sales call and haven’t reached an agreement on the benefit, you’re probably talking to yourself. Nobody cares about features in a vacuum—customers must have context.

The most classic example is selling on price.? The cost of your product or service is a feature, not a benefit.? Aligning your sales narrative to feelings of Confidence, Safety, and Security is game-changing and emotionally connects you to the human on the other side of the table.?

Let’s coach our teams to own the feature-benefit conversation, ensuring every feature discussed maps back to these foundational benefits.

This concept is not just Sales 101; this is the groundwork for sales mastery and the core of sales excellence.

Want to discuss the best practices that will separate you from the competition and grow your market share? Let’s connect.

Click here to book an appointment, and let’s unlock the full potential of your sales team.

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