Wrapping Up 2014 and Looking Ahead to 2015 in Australia and Spain

 

John and team traveled to the snowy East Coast last week to lead a workshop in Ithaca, NY. In this video, John previews our upcoming newsletter featuring a video from Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power magazine and long-time FSS partner and colleague. Flannery Sales Systems will be heading to Australia in January (Sydney and Melbourne) and Spain (Barcelona) in February. If you’d like to join us for a session, or meet John for a coffee if your city is listed on our calendar, reach out to john@drive-revenue.com.

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Everyone Knows Features & Benefits Selling No Longer Works…But Why?

 

featuresIf you’ve been following our blog or have attended one of our sales workshops, no doubt you’ve heard us talk about how a Features & Benefits approach to selling is no longer viable in today’s complex, relationship-based world. But have we taken a step back to explain why?

If not, here are some of our top reasons:

  • Features and benefits are used prematurely to create interest, rather than properly qualifying the prospect.
  • Features and benefits are used to differentiate a product from its competition, but everybody’s benefits (and often the features) sound the same (“we can save you time and money, and we’ll stand behind the purchase 100%”). When competitors look the same, buying decisions are made on price.
  • Features and benefits engage the prospect intellectually, and most buying decisions are made emotionally.   Research shows that most people don’t remember the features or benefits after a week or so, and if they felt any enthusiasm at all, it too had disappeared after a week.
  • Features and benefits are the seller’s bag of tricks (“we’ve got this, we’ve got that”), and may not be relevant to the prospect’s buying reasons. People buy for their reasons, not yours.
  • Once you’ve “dumped” your features and benefits, the only thing left to do is close and handle objections and, all too often, discount your price. From there, it’s all pressure, and you can’t go back and qualify further.

So as 2014 comes to a close, remember to work with your sales reps to avoid the temptation to dive into product features & benefits too quickly. Much more important is their ability to establish trust, ask intelligent questions, and thoroughly qualify each opportunity.

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Why Sales Process?

 

Watch Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power magazine and long-time partner and colleague of Flannery Sales Systems, discuss the importance of having a sales process to achieving company goals.

 

 

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Flannery Sales Systems in Barcelona

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John Flannery has been invited to lead a workshop as part of European Language Industry Association’s (ELIA) Expert Training event in Barcelona, Spain.

This learning opportunity includes a series of in-depth workshops designed for all professionals who believe in personal and business growth. The event will focus on business-critical topics such as sales, creativity and conflict management.

John’s workshop is entitled “How to Win Business from New and Existing Customers”, and in it, he will work with attendees to help them differentiate themselves through the conversations they have during the sales process.

For more about the ELIA expert training, take a look at their event page. We hope to see you in Barcelona!

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