"K" wrote in message
...
"David (Normandy)" writes
A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap
you
mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course
my
detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software
works
and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have
"bored
the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy
because
of "what it can do for them".

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get really
frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state when you
have to resort to review sites and other users to find out factual info
that the seller should have told you.
--
Kay

Sorry, I don't think I was clear. Allow me to elaborate. I'm not saying
there should be no details or facts and information, it is a case of where
they are positioned. Take the following scenario for example:

A lady goes into a computer shop and says "My son's family live in
Australia. He says if I get a computer I will be able to talk to him free of
charge on the telephone, send something called "e-mails" and read something
he's got called a "blog".

What the lady wants to buy is not really a computer but a means of
communicating with her family. A good salesman would realise this and
appreciate from her description that she is not computer literate. He would
not just plunge in with something like "Well you've come to the right place,
we've got the latest hardware with choices of Vista, XP, Macs and even
Linux. Pick AMD or Intel processors 32 or 64 bit with anything from 500 mega
bytes to 4 giga bytes of RAM, internal or external or external high capacity
hard drives with fast seek times and more USB ports than you can shake a
stick at!

While the detail should be given if necessary or required, the above would
just confuse the hell out of the lady. If I was the customer my requirements
would be entirely different and a detailed technical discussion would be
appropriate.

With software (or anything else) it makes sense for the opening page (or
sales pitch) to say in a very short summary what it is for and what benefits
people would get from buying it. There can be links (or discussion) to
deeper and deeper levels of technical details. The person viewing the site
(or talking to a salesman) chooses the level of information that is relevant
to them. A good salesman has both detailed technical knowledge of his
products (often lacking in many stores) and the ability to listen to what
the potential customer actually wants and help guide their buying decision.

I think there is a saying something along the lines that a good salesman
uses his ears more than this tongue.

David.