Whatever you’re selling – a product, a service, even an idea – you need to communicate its value.
But value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. That’s a universal truth. Value is only meaningful in context.
To someone dying of thirst, water is the precious nectar of life. To the cleaning lady it’s a tool for the job. To a fish it’s home and to a drowning person it’s the deadly enemy.
That’s why the first step in communicating the value you’re selling is to know what your customers really want. And the more specific you can be, the more effective your approach.
When a prospect answers your cold call, they’re very likely thinking, “What’s in it for me?” If you can deliver a Benefit Statement that’s relevant, specific, and potent, you’ve got a great chance to spark a reply that says, “Yes, that sounds like just what I want.”
First Make It Relevant
Without the chance to probe for specific pain or dissatisfaction, your first words have to be based that on what you can rightly assume from similar businesses that you already sell to or serve.
Your benefit statement needs to address issues or challenges that prospects actually care about. That makes it relevant and personal. The advantages you offer will fall into one of the three basic arenas of competition: price, product, or service.
What do your prospects care about most? Where does your advantage lie?
Once you decide what to focus on, how will you best communicate that advantage?
Specific Over General
It takes more than vague generalities to capture people’s attention and spark their interest. Promises of great service and saving money are like dull wallpaper. No one pays attention.
Specific benefit statements use examples, metaphors and statistics to paint a vivid picture of why the people doing business with you are better off. With that in mind it’s easy to understand which of these two statements is more compelling.
Oil changes while you wait
Oil changes in 20 minutes or less
Add Real Potency
The most effective benefit statements are not only relevant to the prospect and specific in detail – they’re also powerfully motivating.
By including social proof and leveraging endorsements from recognized authority like ‘marquee’ clients in the same industry or affinity groups like trade associations, you can add more momentum to galvanize prospects.
Here’s an example of a strong and pithy benefit statement with a four-fold impact. It leverages the authority of numbers, it’s specific to their industry, it addresses a particular problem as well as their certain desire to lower insurance costs, and finally it nudges them towards scheduling a meeting by almost casually including that idea at the very end.
We’re consistently able to reduce work comp rate increases for 4 out of 5 construction companies we meet with.
Crafting a great opening benefit statement isn’t easy. But once you have one that communicates real value that’s relevant, specific and convincing, you’ve got a carrot that will magnetize prospects and make them want to learn more.
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