Yowsie! - Yowsie Marketing Course

marketing

Selling the Benefits

Meeting fundamental needs.

You could say that, in essence, all that The Outwith Principle does is re-interpret the marketing maxim "promote the benefits". There is nothing new in suggesting that we should focus on what is in it for the customer rather than on the features of our product or service.

But it's worth saying two things about that. First, it is amazing how often marketers and salespeople fail to use that method. Take a look through a dozen random web sites, street posters, television advertisements (we are talking here about the "high-power professionals") and see how many are promoting the features.

Second, applying The Outwith Principle encourages us to go deeper and closer to what the customer really wants.

Imagine I run a garden maintenance business in the city. I have horticultural qualifications; I am fully insured; I carry a full range of equipment; I pride myself on my reliability. But I know enough not to begin by promoting those features.

So I put out flyers proclaming, "Say good-bye to garden back-ache and hello to colour and beauty." Now I am advertising the benefits.

But think again. My target clients are not focused on their gardens, if they were they would relish doing the work themselves. Applying The Outwith Principle reveals that these busy, stressed people are really looking for a bolt hole. If I am really inside their situation and looking at it from thier perspective my pitch will begin with something like "Escape from the stress to your oasis in the city".

It is worth saying that the more detailed benefits and the features do still need to be spelled out. What we are focusing on here are the few words at the start on which people base their decision whether or not to look at us further.

As the next section explains, The Outwith Principle implies a new model for marketing.

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