3 useful phrases to avoid ‘feature dumping’
When selling technology, showcasing the capabilities of your product is one of the most important elements to your pitch. Inspiring high level vision has its limits as seeing is believing. But we’ve all experienced(and have also unfortunately given) product demos that quickly devolve into long-winded monologues with the seller listing feature after feature after feature! Often these calls compel the prospect to mute themselves, disengage, and mutter, “wow this seller hasn’t stopped talking”.
And we all know that selling features over value is a recipe for disaster. We also know that talking for 5 minutes straight is not engaging. We’ve even been professionally trained not to sell every last detail of a product in one breath.
But thousands of salespeople continue to ramble and feature dump. And whether it’s because of bad habits or nerves, in order to effectively sell products, tech salespeople need to stop walking through features alone. To hold effective product demos, go beyond showing what the features are and start getting into the habit of explaining to the prospect why they should care. In the spirit of making this thought actionable, here are a few phrases that have helped me and my teams rise above feature dumping:
“I’m going to walk you through the platform and as I do so, I’d like to focus on three main themes…”
By forcing yourself to group product features into themes or focus areas, you simplify the platform for the prospect. While the prospect understands they may see 20+ different features, before even diving into the details you’ve grouped features into digestable pieces of information they can actually absorb. This phrasing can also be used as a sort of mini-agenda for the demo so that the prospect understands the progression for which you’ll be showcasing the features. Here’s an example of how this phrasing can play out:
I’m going to walk you through the platform and as I do so I’d like to focus on three main themes. First, I’ll focus on how you can start tracking projects that today are maybe scattered across multiple tools. Then, I’ll show you how you can elevate those projects within your team through our collaboration features. Finally, I’ll end the product walkthrough by showing you how you can drive accountability of those projects through our intuitive reports.
“This is an important feature because…”
This is a clear verbal cue for you as the seller to stop running down your list of features. By using the word “important” directly, there is no way you can avoid telling the prospect why what you’re showing is relevant to them. This phrase also makes it impossible for you to move on to the next feature. Of course you can’t use this after every feature you show but when used strategically, you slow down and give space to highlight why you’re showing what you’re showing. Here are a couple simple examples of how this phrase can work:
This is an important feature because you mentioned earlier that you’re currently spending more than 5 minutes editing each photo. With what I’ve just shown you, you can imagine editing 50 photos in less than a minute.
This is an important feature to highlight because there’s nothing like this in the market today. We’ve prioritized efforts on this feature because as you mentioned toggling between multiple tabs is a huge pain point.
“So far what parts of the platform specifically have caught your attention or piqued your interest?”
Whether it’s an intro call, a negotiation call, or a demo, engagement with the prospect is super important. That being said, questions that invoke one word answers are not helpful as you don’t know if the prospect is paying attention (or texting their friend). By asking to engage on a specific part of the platform you’re showing, the prospect is forced to collaborate with you on the demo vs. just consuming the demo. There are other variations of this question but the main point here is to avoid “yes” or “no” responses.
There’s a lot to unpack in a product demo but by incorporating some simple phrasing frameworks like the ones above, you’ll be head and shoulders above sellers who are talking at their prospects and not with their prospects. Give it a whirl and put yourself in the best position to avoid feature dumping!
