Sales Skills Exercise: Name the Benefit

Exercises, Customer Services, Sales Skills, Telephone Skills, Marketing

:::: 131 Ratings :::: Monday, April 16, 2012

Purpose

This is a quick exercise in getting the delegates to think about the “benefits” of a product for a particular feature. The emphasis is to quickly convert a feature to several benefits on the fly and learn to do this effortlessly. Benefits are free of jargon and are centred around the customer so they are always better understood.

This exercise is ideal for delegates in sales and marketing roles where they have to describe a product to a customer.

Objective

Name a benefit for a particular feature of a product.

What You Need

Three of four Index cards. Before the exercise, write the name of a product on each index card and list a series of features of that product underneath it. Ideally, you should choose a product that delegates are familiar with or it is their job to sell and market it. You can even ask the delegates to suggest this product themselves.
A soft ball.

Setup

Ask the delegates to stand in a circle.
Explain that you are going to name a feature and the person who receives the soft ball should state a corresponding benefit for that feature.
To start, choose one of the index cards and name the product so delegates know what product is under consideration.
Name a feature and then throw the ball to a person in the circle. That person should state the corresponding benefit.
Next, the person should throw the ball randomly at someone else.
The person who receives the ball should state another benefit that corresponds to the same feature.
Continue several times until 3 to 5 benefits are stated for that feature.
Now stop the throwing sequence and state another feature of the same product.
Resume ball throwing and expect delegates to state the corresponding benefits.
You can then continue to other index cards to cover other products.
Continue the exercise until you feel everyone has become comfortable in naming a benefit as soon as they think of a feature.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

Activity: 10 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes

Discussion

How difficult was it in the beginning to name the benefits? Did it get gradually easier to quickly come up with benefits? How much better does it sound when you describe the benefits of a product to a customer as oppose to its features?