Selling Value Beyond Benefits – The New Paradigm
The times are gone (atleast for now) when people would do the “what the heck” purchase of a discretionary item. It doesn’t matter if it’s a conference registration, a new wellness program or a new gizmo.
People are now holding themselves accountable for what they purchase. And even more importantly, companies are holding their employees responsible for what they purchase. The standard is the same — whats the real value of the purchase item?
Most companies we’ve come across in our web strategy practice have incorporated benefit selling into their business strategy. The problem is that not all benefits are important to all buyers. And these days people are looking as hard for reasons not to buy as reasons to buy things.
So what’s the trick? It comes in three parts:
1) Recognizing that benefits have to be presented from the visitor’s angle. Avoid spending time on things you think are cool about your product. Focus on what visitors will find is valuable about your offering.
2) Customer Segmenting: Always an important strategy — now its critical. Consider the ways that your customers can be divided into sub groups. But remember, its not about their industry or demographic, its about identifying groups with common pains with respect to your product. The goals is to be able to create customized messaging that excludes things that are not contributor to the perception of value for each segment.
3) ROI not Convenience: Focus on tangible and important value, not nice-to-haves. Companies and people alike are working with fewer dollars and higher standards for spending. Products or services which make their lives easier are no longer on the list for many buyers. Ensure that your benefits are tied to meaningful and longer term ROI (value) for the buyer.
In the current economy, valuable products with strong benefits will still do well. Companies which sell them will just have to work that much more precisely to communicate the value to each of their customer segments.
