Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Benefit Statements

We all know that networking is one of the most powerful ways in which to grow a business. One of the ways to make your networking opportunities much more powerful is through the development of benefits statements. I believe that everyone should have at least 6 unique benefit statements prepared for whenever someone asks you “so what do you do”.

This sounds very simple but I meet so few people who have mastered the concept. Very simply, a benefit statement gives your listener a reason to care about your product or service and shows them why they would get value out of it. The most common mistake is using features rather than benefits. The difference is often subtle but, in business the subtle differences can be the difference between a sale and a non sale.

One of the product lines I distribute is a series of oil and gas additives for cars and trucks. One of the many features of the product line is that it reduces fuel consumption in a car. Creating a benefit statement for this product line I would use statements like:

“I help people go to the gas pump less often”
“I provide a fuel savings of 20 cents per litre”
“I show people how to get every 5th tank of gas for free”

You will notice that each of these allow my listener to receive a tangible benefit to using my product. I would recommend everyone come up with a number of one line benefit statements around your product or service offering, so when someone asks you “so what do you do” you have an answer that will pique their curiosity.

Happy Selling,

Chuck

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