Now that we’ve developed a list of your “Ideal Clients”, including their characteristics, it’s time to look at the benefits those clients receive from you and your product or service. Remember, this is not a list of the “features” of your product or service. Rather it is the BENEFITS your ideal clients receive from doing business uniquely with you.
Think of the benefits in terms of:
- What problems are you solving or what aspirations are you helping them reach?
- What “keeps them up at night?”
- What are their most desired hopes and dreams?
- How are you improving their lives and businesses?
- How will they FEEL about it?
The benefits will fall into two categories:
Tangible benefits. i.e., the “things’ they receive.
- A house, a car, a new air conditioning systems,
- A retirement plan, an insurance policy, a loan for a home,
- Digital advertising, promotional materials for their event,
- Weight loss, etc.
Intangible benefits. i.e., the “emotions” they will feel.
- Confident they’ve got the best “home” for themselves at a great price.
- Worry free A/C system they “feel” will last them a long time.
- Excitement their digital advertising is going to make them look good and make money.
- The certainty of pain relief AND the feeling of connection a good doctor, dentist, chiropractor provides.
- The significance, pride, and sense of connection they feel when a great personal trainer “Gets Their Sexy Back.”
- Certainty they are going to make more money, save time, look good to others. Etc.
Of these two categories, the intangible benefits are much more powerful & valuable.
80-90% of any sale is emotional. Only 10-20% is logical. — Those are the often quoted statistics. However, I personally believe the formula is closer to 99% emotional, 1% logical. And here’s why ….
Imagine a scruffy looking, poorly dressed man runs up to you in the street. He has a set of BMW car keys in his hand and says
“I have a brand new BMW 7 series car around the corner. I’ll sell to you right now for $1,000. But you have to pay me right now in cash. Offer expires in one minute.”
Do you buy it? Probably not. Why?
Logically, $1,000 for a new BMW is the pretty good deal. BUT …. something just doesn’t “feel” right about the offer. No matter how much paperwork, auto registrations, or “stories” he produces as the minute is counting down; something just doesn’t feel right and you probably won’t buy. You just don’t trust him.
That “trust” is an intangible. It’s an emotion. (And it will probably keep you out of jail.)
Intangibles are much more powerful than tangibles.
Selling tangibles as key benefits has another potential problem. Tangibles can become “commodities” and therefore are subject to price competition. The intangibles are emotional and only subject to a feeling of “value” rather than price.
If price becomes an issue, particularly the main issue, in any sale or negotiation then enough “value” hasn’t been demonstrated or communicated effectively by the key benefits. Clients buy value, not price.
If your product and/or service is exactly the same as someone else, then of course price will become the issue. This is where the intangibles REALLY come into play. You have to focus on the benefits of doing business with you and your company that are DIFFERENT and BETTER than your competition. Those differences then become a big part of your “key client benefits.” And must be clearly highlighted in your marketing and sales systems.
The “Key Client Benefits” will likely be different for each of your ideal clients.
There will be some overlap, particularly in the tangibles. However, the intangibles are likely to be widely different.
Here is an example:
The KC RainMakers Business Development & Referral Group delivers the following Key Client Benefits to these Ideal Clients:
1. Business Owners & Entrepreneurs:
- Free business training in sales, growth and development systems, business organization, marketing, productivity, and employee management.
- Comradery with other business owners.
- Referrals to:
- New sales opportunities.
- Business services that can help grow their business.
- Potential new employees for their business.
- An organized time and place to work and focus “on” growing their business, rather than just working “in” their business.
- Access to an expanded network of both personal and professional contacts.
- An improved online presence and SEO opportunities through the KCRainMakers website.
- Opportunities for charitable contributions and exposure for themselves and their business.
- Etc.
Summary of benefits: Grow their business, increase their visibility, expand their network, and improve their company’s operations. Make more money in less time.
2. Sales professionals working at a company
- Free training in sales, time management, productivity, and peak performance and sales psychology.
- Scheduled weekly personal and professional development time.
- Referrals to:
- Potential new customers
- Potential new employers
- Comradery with other sales professionals
- Access to an expanded network of both personal and professional contacts.
- Opportunities for charitable contributions and exposure for themselves and their employer.
Summary of benefits: Increase their value to their company, make more sales, develop themselves, and have fun. Get a promotion and make more money.
The Key Client Benefits for each of these two Ideal Clients have similarities; however, they also have significant differences. The business owner is interested in growing their business and making more money through profits of the company. The sales professional is interested in make more sales and potentially getting a promotion.
The marketing and sales message will be different for each.
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