How to sell a fabulous hot tub

by Sally Bouorm | October 1, 2010 12:14 pm

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By Marco Longley

Are you familiar with FAB (feature, advantage, and benefit) statements as they relate to your sales presentation? They are an incredibly powerful sales technique that can substantially increase sales if used successfully.

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When selling products, such as hot tubs, the primary focus is to make it absolutely clear what you are offering is of value to the prospect. To do this you must explain to the prospect how they will benefit from the ownership of what it is you are selling. The most effective way of doing this is with FAB statements.

These statements help paint the picture as to why your hot tub is the most effective at meeting the prospects’ needs. They connect the physical features of your product to the benefits your prospect wishes to receive. The product’s benefits are the reason why the prospect must own it.

Why use FAB statements?

• They build value in your product and increased value justifies the asking price;
• You control the direction of the discussion and presentation;
• You can better understand the prospect’s needs;
• They reduce the chances of you data dumping (putting off a prospect by giving them more information than they actually need);
• The prospect will often reveal buying signals; and
• You will address their WIIFM (What’s in it for me?).

What’s in it for me?

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When presenting your products, always remember to translate its features into advantages and then its advantages into benefits. The product’s benefits are the reasons why the prospect will buy from you; the WIIFM will be what they remember most. With practice you can turn the benefit into a hook and follow it up with a trial-closing question. This is used to connect all of the dots. Your hook gets the prospect to confirm they find the benefit to be important. For example:

• Feature: actual components of the product (What is it?);
• Advantage: what the result of having the feature is (What does it do?);
• Benefit: how your prospect will benefit by having the feature (WIIFM?); and
• Hook: ties the benefit into a trial-closing question.

It is not uncommon to have a variety of benefits associated with your product, so simply adjust your benefit statements to reflect the prospect’s specific needs. You should follow every feature and/or advantage you mention with a transition into what the benefit is to the prospect. In other words:

1. “What it means to you is…”
2. “Providing you with…”
3. “What this does for you is…”
4. “Which means you will benefit by…”
5. “Therefore you will be able to…”

FAB statements

The following are a couple of examples of how you might use an FAB statement in selling a hot tub.

Built-in steps

“Our ‘easy entry’ cascading steps (feature) make spa entry and exit much safer and easier (advantage). What this means to you is no matter who uses the hot tub, you can be assured they will have the safest, most stable and secure way to enter and exit your hot tub (benefit). Do you think safety is important to your family? Do you think they would use and enjoy the spa more if they felt safe getting in and out of it (hook)?”

Waterfalls

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“Mr. Prospect, one of our most popular options is our ribbon waterfalls (feature). They mimic the sound of a babbling brook (advantage). What this does is put your mind into an incredibly relaxed, stress-free environment. By simply closing your eyes and listening to the waterfalls, your mind will drift a thousand miles away to a tropical beach with the

rolling waves in the background. The massaging jets will relax your muscles, while the waterfall will relax your mind (benefit). Relaxation is important to you, isn’t it (hook)?

“Mr. Prospect, please close your eyes for just a moment and listen to the sound the waterfalls create. How would that make you feel after one of your long stress-filled 12-hour days?”

Keep in mind that a detailed description will help your customer make an emotional connection to your hot tub rather than simply saying, “We have three waterfalls.”

Building value

In the absence of value, every single selling situation degenerates to one thing—price. The more value you build into your presentation, the more valuable your product becomes to the prospect.

The price we ask must be equal to, or less than, the value we are able to establish. A prospect will spend more money for your products and services if they feel the value you built justifies the price. In the absence of value, all that remains for negotiation is the price.

Justifying the price

My passion, outside the world of selling, is scuba diving. I use this example because many are not familiar with technical scuba diving and the comparison to hot tub sales is deliberate.

Try to see the parallels between a novice purchasing dive equipment to a prospect walking into your store to purchase your products. The prospect may be as unfamiliar with hot tubs as a novice with scuba diving equipment.

Imagine walking into a store intent on purchasing diving equipment and seeing the ‘MARCO1606’ dive helmet priced at $6,999. A prospect would probably fall down after seeing the exorbitant price being asked. The reason for the ‘sticker shock’ is two fold.

Firstly, there is no ‘anchor price’ or anything to compare the asking price to and secondly, the prospect doesn’t see the value in spending $6,999 for a dive helmet. As the salesperson begins explaining the features, advantages and benefits of the dive helmet, the prospect will begin to see its value increase and the price justified.

At this point, the seasoned sales professional will have gathered all the information needed and will have moved into their product presentation phase. Their FAB statements, relating to the dive helmet’s features, might go something like this:

1. “Mr. Scuba Diver, this is an ‘LPN’ connector unique to our helmets (feature). It provides you with instant two-way communication with the surface (advantage). You will be able to easily talk with your surface crew in real time and get instant feedback (benefit). Constant communication and guidance from the surface crew is important to you, isn’t it (hook)?”
2. “All our dive helmets have a double-neck seal (feature), which means the fit between your helmet and dive suit will be exact (advantage). The benefit of our double seal is less cold water will seep in around your neck, keeping you warmer and drier (benefit). Would being warm and dry when you dive be of interest to you (hook)?”
3. “We have a ‘B56’ mixing chamber (feature), which will allow you to confidently mix different dive gases (advantage), resulting in an increased bottom time (benefit). Being able to dive for a longer period of time is important to you, isn’t it (hook)?”
4. “The ‘X7’ helmet offers a unique bail out system only found on our helmets (feature). It allows you to immediately jettison your gear (advantage) and safely return to the surface in the unlikely event of an ‘out-of-air’ situation (benefit). Is safely returning to the surface something you would be interested in doing (hook)?”

Keep in mind, these FAB statements will have been tailored to each particular prospect and their individual diving needs. Also remember, the more value the salesperson builds into the product, the more justified he/she is in asking $6,999. In addition to justifying the price, he/she substantially increases the prospects’ desire to move forward with the investment.

After reading the FAB statements regarding the ‘MARCO1606’ and understanding all of its features, advantages and most importantly, the benefits, the price of $6,999 will not seem all that outrageous to the prospect as they now understand the value of their investment.

 

Marco Longley is president of Top 10 Sales and Consulting in Langley, B.C. He is a seasoned hot tub sales professional who has been involved in many aspects of the business—from retail to senior sales management with several major hot tub manufacturers. Longley provides swimming pool and hot tub sales/marketing training seminars and is the author of The Ultimate Hot Tub and Pool $ales Book—a guide on how to increase sales. He can be reached at marco@top10salesandconsulting.com[5].

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/how-to-sell-a-fabulous-hot-tub/

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