What Not To Do: Show & Throw
“Show Up and Throw Up” happens all the time.
Show Up and Throw Up is when the sales person shows up to a meeting or presentation and heaves up everything he/she knows.
It almost always happens when the sales person doesn’t understand the difference between “Features & Functions” and “Benefits”… which unfortunately happens too often. Knowing the difference between “Features & Functions” and “Benefits” is one of the most important fundamental skills for every sales person. (We will discuss the fact that everyone is a sales person in a future post. Yes, we can hear you arguing already.)
Features & Functions are often drummed into the heads of new sales people by their companies or a well-meaning manager. The thinking goes like this... “If the prospect understands everything that our solution does, the sale will be easy. Of course, they have to buy from us. Our solution is wonderful.”
So, the new sales person memorizes everything - every big thing and every little thing – the company purports the solution can do. They work hard to secure an appointment; they Show Up to the meeting; and then regurgitate (Throw Up) everything – including every little thing – every little Feature & Function - they know. For some reason the other person’s eyes glaze over; they start thinking about next week’s golf game, or their planned run after work. And guess what, the sale doesn’t happen.
Why? Because the sales person talked about what his/her company cared about… not what the other person cared about.
What the other person cares about are the “Benefits” of the solution – the things that the solution will do for them.
And this brings to mind what may be one of the most ignored facts in the world: People buy for their own reasons, not yours. And while this may seem obvious to everyone, it isn’t. The actions of many sales people proves they simply have missed this important perspective. In many cases they have actually been trained and encouraged to ignore it. Or as a high level (and super smart) software engineer recently said to us, “If we build it, they will come”. And he actually meant it and believed it.
We will do a deeper dive on the critical skill of understanding the difference between “Features & Functions” and “Benefits” in future posts… but in the meantime, please don’t Show Up and Throw Up. Talk about the things that matter most to the other person.
