In sales visits, there is one thing that is almost mandatory: to praise your company, your products, your services, and your clients. But what you say may not be what the customer cares about, and what the customer cares about, you may not be able to articulate well. More importantly, no advantage is innate. For a company, no matter how good the product, how big the company, how excellent the service, or how many clients, none of these count as advantages unless the customer believes they are meaningful. Before advantages, there must be relevance. Whoever connects more customer needs has the advantage. Between the product and the customer's needs, someone must establish a connection. If the customer does it, they need to understand product features; if the salesperson does it, they need to understand customer needs. Who should do this? Suppose the customer has 20 needs, requiring 20 product features to address. For example, if the customer often drives on highways, and your car has a turbocharger; if the customer is not a skilled driver, your car has an automatic transmission, etc. This is the correspondence. If this connection is left to the customer, it's quite unreliable. First, they may not fully understand their own needs (some are hidden). Second, even if they do, they may not understand your product features. Third, even if they fully understand the features, they may not match them correctly. For instance, few customers truly understand what a turbocharger does. If the salesperson does this, they must fully understand the customer's needs. These needs include not only what the customer expresses but also what they might have but haven't said. For example, if the customer has a child who tends to urinate anywhere, they might need leather upholstery, which they might not have thought of. The more customer needs you discover, the more powerful your product becomes. This requires you to understand the customer, so having business knowledge about the customer is the most important skill in sales. Whoever connects greater customer interests has the advantage. In complex projects, especially solution selling, multiple people often make decisions, leading to another issue: whose needs do you connect? The higher the level of the person you connect with, the greater the interest, and the stronger your product. In complex sales, there are at least six different interests you can connect to:

  1. Functional benefits: customers like the benefit from a specific product feature, e.g., turbocharging saves fuel.
  2. Operational benefits: e.g., user-friendly software interface, less input effort, simple operation.
  3. Financial benefits: helping customers save or earn money.
  4. Cultural benefits: unifying management, implementing the boss's philosophy, educating employees, tightening discipline, etc.
  5. Political benefits: e.g., helping government officials achieve performance, helping procurement staff get praise from leaders, or even helping the boss get rid of a vice president.
  6. Strategic benefits: e.g., your product or solution helps senior management achieve their annual goals or board requirements. These six benefits are arranged from low to high. Not all products can connect to all needs, but the basic principle is to climb as high as possible. Whoever establishes the connection first has the advantage. Human nature has a trait: people tend to believe what they hear first. The famous "positioning" and "marketing warfare" theories in sales are based on this trait. In sales, this manifests in two ways: first, you discover customer needs earlier than competitors; second, if you are the first to discover a hidden need, the customer often believes you are more capable of meeting it. Imagine a scenario: you have a small lump on your back. Initially, it doesn't hurt or itch, so you probably ignore it—this is the hidden need stage. Soon, it starts to hurt a bit; most people wait to see if it heals on its own—this is the explicit need stage. After a while, the pain becomes unbearable, and you must go to the hospital—this is the solution vision stage. This is the customer's decision-making mindset. "Going to the hospital" is essentially the customer's purchasing behavior. Most salespeople prefer customers in the final stage because it's easier. But at that stage, why would the customer choose your hospital? But what if we intervene from the first stage? You tell the customer that the lump on their back is serious, that it will grow and become painful, and needs to be removed early. The customer may not decide to remove it then, but once they reach the unbearable pain stage, they will think of you first. So establishing the connection early also makes your product more powerful. Don't just connect to your product. Sales requires emphasizing different advantages to different people at different times. Therefore, the presentation of advantages should consider a broader scope, not just the company, product, and service. The following aspects are also reference points for presenting advantages:
  7. Industry positioning: Customers are not looking for the best but the most suitable. What is most suitable? The industry is the most powerful weapon to show suitability. Whatever industry the customer is in, you should highlight your advantages in that industry.
  8. People and organization: Your company's experts, R&D strength, and organizational structure can reveal things customers like, e.g., how you provide dedicated services to key accounts.
  9. Partners: Your technical cooperation with a global giant, or having a service agency near the customer's location.
  10. Corporate positioning: "Focus," "high-end," "niche," etc.
  11. Tools: R&D tools, production equipment, design processes, etc. Three-step method for stating advantages: Step 1: Position the advantage. First, state your company's advantage in plain language. For example, "Our company is the national leader in mining excavators." It's important to note: when introducing advantages to customers, you must be the leader, never second, and certainly not in the top three. The reason: choosing the leader requires no justification! If not national first, then provincial first; if not first in an industry, then first in a niche. The region or industry mentioned should be where the customer is located and their industry. "Largest," "best," "most excellent," "optimal" are all expressions of being the leader. When stating such advantages, it's best to have proof, e.g., "In 2011, we were rated as the best supplier for SMEs by XXX." The award date must be recent. If you say you won an award in 2009, the customer's first reaction is: "It seems you haven't been doing well in the past two years." Step 2: Describe the advantage in detail. Some advantages are simple, others are complex and need detailed explanation. For example, if you say your service is good, you need to explain the service architecture, system, geographical coverage, etc. Explain what the advantage looks like or how it works. Step 3: Connect with the customer. No matter how many advantages you mention, the customer will always wonder: "What does this have to do with me?" So, you must answer that question. For example, if you say, "Our service network covers everywhere," and stop, you're leaving the customer to make the connection, but they may not be capable. Instead, say: "Our service network covers everywhere, even at the township level. Think about it: if your software has a problem, the finance department can't keep books, the warehouse can't ship, production can't mix materials. How long can you endure? If your service personnel are far away in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, how long will it take them to arrive? But we are right beside you; maybe we can be there in twenty minutes." This solves the "what does it have to do with me" problem. Don't overestimate the customer's understanding; you need to make that connection. Selling excellently this way:
  12. The counter-question method. Customers often ask: "What advantages do you have compared to that brand?" Many salespeople, upon hearing this, immediately start praising themselves or disparaging the competitor. But if the customer asks this, they've likely already met your competitor. They may have a good impression of them; insulting the competitor is insulting the customer. Second, what would your competitor say to the customer? Most likely, they'd also praise themselves like a flower. Suppose the competitor mentioned five advantages, and you mention three of your own (which is quite a few). What do you think the customer's perception of the advantage ratio is? Is it 8:5 or 3:5? The answer is the latter. Yet many salespeople think that after mentioning a few advantages, the competitor's advantages automatically become their own. Why would that be? So, answer this question differently. If the customer asks, immediately counter: "Sir, have you learned about that brand? What advantages do you think they have?" If the customer answers, what they say is what they care about. After listening, calmly explain how you address those concerns. Then add: "Besides those aspects, we have several outstanding points. Let me introduce them..." At this point, you can tell them what you originally wanted to say.
  13. The exploration method. We've discussed that advantages are only meaningful when connected to the customer. Many salespeople know they have advantages but don't know if the customer needs them. In this case, follow these steps:
  14. Know your product well, especially its standout features.
  15. Understand what problems these features solve and how, e.g., a turbocharger increases car power.
  16. Understand the benefits these solutions bring to the customer, e.g., increased power, fuel savings, better for highway driving.
  17. Don't state directly; instead, ask questions to find out if the customer has these problems. For example, ask "Do you often drive on highways?" rather than "Do you need these features?"
  18. If the need exists, ask questions to understand its impact on the customer. Reply with the following keywords to search and read related professional articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Stagnation, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Channel Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing, Market Visit and Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Cross-region Sales, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Franchise Recruitment, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Stock Pressure, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Work Report.