Sales techniques: Feature, Advantage, Benefit

I was reminded of sales techniques this week after a trip to the WeBuyAnyCar website.

“We have a dedicated payments team, so you’ll have the cash within 24 hours and can get your new car the same day.”

That was their pitch once I’d valued my ageing Volkswagen.

While I declined the price, I was very nearly tempted into the sale.

The salesperson reminded me of something I learned a long time ago.

Something that if we all get right, can lead to increased sales, better virtual calls and more effective emails.

It’s called Feature – Advantage – Benefit, or FAB for short.

It’s something we explore in more detail in our business writing courses.

Here’s how it works.

FAB techniques

Let’s use the WeBuyAnyCar pitch as our example.

The Feature is a thing (in this case, a dedicated payments team).

The Advantage is what that thing helps the user to achieve (cash within 24 hours).

And the Benefit is how it improves the life of the person using it (get your new car the same day).

Knowing the difference among the FAB techniques can be the key to an impactful presentation.

As well as writing an engaging report that actually gets read.

Universal benefits

Read through your last sales email, or your last PowerPoint where you were asking someone to do something new.

Is it clear how the user’s life will improve as a result?

If the answer’s no, you’re asking the audience to do the interpretation for you.

To join the dots up and calculate: will this improve my life?

That’s a lot to ask someone do to when there are financial ramification or possibly even human costs to your proposal, such as job losses.

So ask yourself: what’s motivating my audience?

And place these motivations into your headlines.

In boldface CAPITAL LETTERS if you really need to.

The reader’s eyes should be drawn there immediately.

It removes the interpretation and allows them to absorb the rest of your message.

Maslow’s needs

Human behaviourist Abraham Maslow found that we’re motivated first by basic needs to keep us alive.

That's food, water, rest, and safety.

If we realised those, we then had psychological needs, such as love, friendship, respect.

And finally, if we had those, that allowed us to approach “self-actualisation”, or the need to fulfil one’s potential.

(According to Maslow, only 1 person in 50 achieved this).

When we present in a corporate setting, we forget that businesses are made up of people all trapped in this hierarchy.

It’s one of the reasons people have been struggling with virtual calls.

Sitting next to someone in person, even for a meeting, makes us feel good and satisfied our psychological needs, therefore finding it easier to do business.

Ask yourself: does my product make people safer, or at least, reduce risk?

Does the service I’m offering help make people happier, or at least, build better relationships?

Does it help us all to achieve our potential?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you’ve found your benefit, so let the audience know that too.

Basic wants

Some products and services, of course, are focused on solving more complex problems.

But the same rules apply.

People’s wants in the workplace can be boiled down to some very simple desires.

Making more money. Reducing costs. Saving time. Improving quality. Retaining staff. Hitting targets.

Some argue that these are just subsets of our needs (security, happiness, fulfilling potential), but many environments require “let’s make a million dollars” rather than “let’s be friends”.

Back to the feature

To be clear, each product has different features.

And each of these features gives the buyer an advantage, which in turn benefits them.

So if I was selling presentation skills courses, I’d discuss that they’re going to:

• Build confidence (benefit) because they’re delivered by experts (feature).
• Generate income (benefit) because the techniques are market-tested (feature).
• Create better relationships (benefit) because they’re focused on people skills (feature).

Get to the point

Now I’ve figured out the benefit of each, I can turn that into a sales pitch:

“Today is about building your confidence, generating more income for your business and helping you create better relationships.

“All through market-tested presentation techniques, focusing on people skills.”

The benefits come before the features to hook the audience in.

If I was writing a proposal based on the above, my headlines would be simple:

Build confidence / generate income / create better relationships.

The reader’s eyes are drawn to things that actually matter, rather than just a description of how it’s done.

We can help

Read your last email or watch your last webinar.

Was it clear to the audience how they would benefit?

Or do you need a Feature – Advantage – Benefit makeover?

If so, get in touch with us at Pink Elephant to arrange a training session.

Or if you need instant help, our e-learning Business Writing course is available to buy right now at our Pink Elephant Academy.

And if you’re reading this, Mr. WeBuyAnyCar, if you can put an extra £500 on it, I’ll use faster payments so you have it in your bank tomorrow so you can hit that monthly commission target.

Andrew McFarlan is Managing Director of Pink Elephant Communications.

You can read more about him here.

Photos in Sales techniques blog by Pink Elephant Communications / JESHOOTS.com from Pexels / Simple Psychology / Oleg Magni from Pexels /
Sales techniques blog edited by Colin Stone.

Sales techniques blog