Selling the benefits
If you speak to someone who is successful in sales about their process of getting somebody to buy a product or service there’s a high chance that they will mention that they ‘sell the benefits’. They don’t say ‘this heater will heat your house to twenty eight degrees’, they say ‘when you walk in from a cold winter’s day you will be welcomed by a comfortable summer-like heat that will make you feel relaxed and help the stresses of your day melt away’. Selling the benefits has been used for years in all types of marketing and sales work.
One of the best industries to embrace selling the benefits is the fitness industry. I was on the internet the other day and I saw a 1940’s newspaper ad for Charles Atlas’ exercise programme. For those of you who don’t know who Charles Atlas is - he was an early pioneer of Bodybuilding. The ad implied that ‘skinny guys’ would pick up hot chicks if they got his programme and started building muscle, now that’s selling the benefits.
Through the years the fitness industry has got better and better at selling you the benefit of the service or product that they want you to buy. These benefits can be easy results, a healthier you, a happier you and you may even become more sexually attractive. While some of the benefits can be stretched slightly to entice you to buy the product, exercise does provide you with a lot of results that are good for your life.
But sometimes there’s a benefit that sales completely forget about...
The other day I was out having a great run. I’d set some targets to focus on in that session and I was nailing them, my ipod had my favourite music on which made me want to go faster. At this moment nothing could stop me, I felt like I was an olympic runner going for the gold metal, it felt amazing! While there would be physical benefits from me working at this intensity it wasn’t about that. The feeling of running fast was the best feeling I had that day, the movement itself was the buzz.
When a lot of people think about the movement of exercise they think about pain, about how hard it is. Sure when you first start exercising there will be discomfort but if you stick at it you will learn about the buzz of your body moving in ways it enjoys moving. Watch out, it may even become addicted. Now that’s a benefit!
If you enjoy my pieces you can get them emailed to you when I put them on the internet. This way you won't have to come back to my website to check when a new piece is out. Don't worry I won't spam you. If you want to join up just put your details in here: