Jean Roberts

Understanding and predicting human behaviour in a specific environment is a key factor in determining the success of a business.

People in any business spend a great deal of their time selling and buying. They need to sell and buy with the best possible results in terms of cost, benefit, quality and service. Being able to consider and anticipate behaviour enables a business person to develop a range of strategies and options in selling and buying. Along with investing/borrowing, security and access, selling and buying are major factors in business survival.

These are the nine traditional steps in selling a product: the product can be a tangible object, a service or an idea:

1. Approaching the customer/client
2. Establishing customer needs
3. Product knowledge
4. Presenting features and benefits of the product
5. Relating the product to customer needs and wants
6. Handling objections
7. Negotiating price, terms and conditions
8. Closing the sale .. getting the order or the payment
9. Handling complaints through customer service

However, there is a difference between left-brain selling and buying, and right-brain selling and buying.

As a business, you have something to sell and you need people to buy or to make the decision to buy. Always remember that organisations don’t buy – people buy.

When we talk about features and benefits, we can relate them to left-brain and right-brain values. Left-brain people value features: right-brain people value benefits. Why? Because the features are concrete, tangible, measurable and can be subject to cost, delivery and service negotiation. Benefits are personal, intangible, emotional and can be imagined. In short, left-brain dominant people will base their buying and selling style on features: and right-brain dominant people will base their buying and selling style on benefits.

Features and benefits analysis

A feature is a component of a whole which can be described in terms of its contribution to the satisfactory performance of the whole.

Each feature should carry a benefit to the buyer and benefits can best be described by asking ‘What will each feature do for the buyer?’ In order to market, advertise and sell, you must identify a number of features within the product or service and match each feature with one or more benefits for the buyer.

For example, a feature of a fountain pen is that the ink flows consistently through the nib onto the paper as the person writes. The benefit to the owner of the fountain pen is that there will be no ink blotches on the paper or the fingers, and the writing can be done in confidence that the words will appear as the pen moves across paper. The writer can therefore relax and concentrate on the message.

The following ‘Features and Benefits Checklist’ demonstrates the movement between left-brain and right-brain characteristics in identifying features and benefits. This information is invaluable in preparing copy for publicity and promotion for both general and targeted audiences.

Features and Benefits Checklist

Left-brain questions:

1. Exactly what will people get for their money – what are the product or service components and how do they fit together?
2. What can people do with it – how can it be used?
3. What are you promoting and claiming that it will do?
4. What need or want is going to be stimulated or created as a result of its potential?
5. What steps are you taking to ensure that the product will do what you claim it will do?
6. What are you going to do if it won’t do that: what is your service, your follow-up, your warranty, and how much will it cost you?
7. What is your legal protection and moral obligation?
8. How much will it cost to get it into the hands of the buyer?
9. Can you anticipate and therefore remedy any possible faults, malfunctions or discrepancies before they occur?

Right-brain questions:

1. How will people feel when they own it, and when they don’t own it?
2. What need or want is going to be met or partially met by its use?
3. When and where can it be used and not used?
4. Why should it be used or not used?
5. Who should use it or not use it?
6. What are the alternatives to your product/service?
7. What are people doing without it?
8. What and who is your existing and potential competition?

Now, a case study in the art and science of selling:

A sales team consisted of equal numbers of left-brain dominant persons and extreme right-brain dominant persons. There is no need to emphasise that their selling styles were dif-ferent. More importantly, their success levels varied.

The left-brain dominant persons excelled in the administration, structure and rou-tine associated with selling. They weren’t too good on customer relations, but were tops in product knowledge and promoting and explaining product features. Their sales figures were below target.

The right-brain dominant persons excelled in customer relations, building team spirit, being enthusiastic about the product, generating leads and promoting product benefits. Their heart was not in administration, structure and routine. Their sales charts resembled a roller-coaster ride.

The sales manager, strongly left-brain dominant, was new into the position. When confronted with the orientation scoring, we were able to understand the differ-ences and the strengths of the salespersons, set about rescuing the team and improving sales performance.

After being introduced to orientation and analysing the team’s scores, the left-brain dominant persons saw value in adopting right-brain behaviour in their customer relations, and quickly learned to recognise the difference between left-brain and right-brain customers and left-brain and right-brain buying styles. They also understood the difference between left-brain and right-brain selling styles.

Each person became confident about their natural styles and the strength of their natural styles: each person began to value the natural styles of the other orientation and how the two orientations together made up one dynamic sales team.

Person to person selling

When selling directly, or person-to-person, it is wise to remember that the left-brain style of buying and selling will focus on features and the right-brain style of buying and selling will focus on benefits.

For instance, when selling jewellery, the left-brain style is to focus on the price, any discount, technical features of the item, how long it will last – everything that a right-brain oriented person doesn’t want to know.

The right-brain style is to focus on what it feels like to touch the product, how it looks on their dress or body, how beautiful it will look and how wonderful it will make the wearer feel, how the light brings out the brilliant colour and the names of famous people who wear similar pieces of jewellery.

The right-brain style of buying is to try it on, feel it, stroke it: the left-brain style of buying is to hold it under a strong light to check for faults, ask about the components, perhaps even the re-sale value.

If a right-brain dominant customer tries a piece of jewellery on, they enter into their own fantasy-land about how grand they will look and how wonderful they will feel when they own it and wear it. It is wise for the salesperson to sell the emotion, personal appeal, excitement rather than the actual piece of jewellery.

If a left-brain dominant customer tries a piece of jewellery on, it is wise for the salesperson not to enthuse but rather to indicate that the value of the piece can be immediately recognised as it is being worn while im-pressing them with the price, the discount, the quali-ty and the guarantee.

Similarly with car salespersons. When a person who comes in to look at a car is left-brain oriented, they will have been everywhere: they will have looked at every kind of car in their preferred engine size and price ranges, and will have checked out prices, discount rates, delivery dates, engine detail.

Right-brain dominant people? They just want to smell the leather. They want to look at the colour range, the style, get the feeling of being in it and driving it immediately. When they have their feelings sorted out, then they’ll talk price and detail.

That’s the difference between selling to left-brain and right brain dominant people.

In business, every one is a buyer and seller of something: it can be ideas, information, opportunity, knowledge, programs, products, services, buildings, equipment, machinery, etc. It is wise to remember the effect of orientation on buying and selling.