What is Your Product, Really?

Nearly all of us—whether we’re salespeople, business owners, or professionals—love the products and services we sell. We take pride in their quality, reliability, accuracy, versatility, speed, appearance, safety, and effectiveness. We can talk about the features and benefits of our products and services all day long. We believe they are among the best—if not the best—in the marketplace.

But our prospects think of our offerings in a very different way. To them, our products and services are a means to an end.

Think about that for a moment.

People don’t buy our products and services because they actually want them. People buy them because they want something else, and they hope our wares can help them get that.

I’m a keynote speaker and seminar leader. But nobody ever wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, “Gee, I wish I had a seminar to go to today!” No CEO in history has ever said to their team, “What we need around here is a good keynote speech!”

When people attend my seminars or hire me to speak, it’s because they want to boost their sales and profits. I’m just the means to that end.

So what are the ends your prospects want? What are their needs? What makes them happy? What are they worried about? What goals are they trying to achieve? What problems are they trying to solve? What do they want more of or less of?

The key to boosting your sales lies in the answers to these questions. Because that’s what your prospect really cares about. Focus on those answers in your marketing, prospecting, presentations, and closing.

Your product or service is only a means to an end. Spend more time talking about the end and less time talking about the means, and you’ll end up with more sales.