We all buy things, all the time.  We buy jeans, cars, insurance, website design, ecommerce platforms, marketing agencies…  These are high value purchases – things that we invest time in evaluating and think carefully about before buying.

If you think about a successful sales pitch you’ve been on the end of I bet that on some level – emotional, rational, whatever – an evaluation of some sort went on in your head that led you to decide that you wanted what you were being sold.  If asked afterwards, I’m sure you could give good reasons as to why you needed what you bought.

I did a straw poll today – I asked everybody I encountered who had bought something why they bought it.  I got some interesting answers, but there was one common thread – The reason people buy things is because they clealy know what’s in it for them.  Not what it does, but why they like it, it feels good, it tastes nice, how much it saves them, how much it makes them…

One of the things I always realise when I’m not selling well is that I’ve stopped talking about benefits.  It’s a tiny little thing, but consciously using language like “this saves you money by doing x…” or “this will make you more money because it does x”, or “this will make you feel good because of x” puts me in my prospects shoes and makes me thing about what’s in it for them.