Sales is a critical part of any business, including non-profits. Sales is not complicated or difficult, but requires preparation, consistent action and a plan. Before completing any preparatory work in sales, consider asking yourself some tough questions.

• Why are you in this business?

• Do you believe in your product/service?

• What are you trying to accomplish?

When you believe in your product and understand why you're doing what you're doing, the rest of the sales process is much easier.

The first step in the plan is for the salesperson to know the features and benefits of the product or service (let's say product). For example, let's say your product is office furniture. Describing the features of your product and your company might look like this:

• Been in business 18 years
• Lots of variety - including home office
• Free delivery
• All price points
• 7 day guarantee

While features are very important, it's even more important to identify the benefits of your product. This process involves more thought - you need to put your feet in your customers' shoes and ask, "What's in it for me? (wiifm)" For example, "Why should I care if you've been in business 18 years? How does that help me?"

To fully understand the benefits of your product, first list the features, and then answer the wiifm question for every feature. There are no rules for this exercise and there will likely be more than one benefit for some features. Getting back to our office furniture example, here are some benefits:

• Longevity - we'll be here for you when you need us. We will remember you! You don't even have to come into the store when you need something. Bottom line - a relationship, convenience and peace of mind.
• Variety - one-stop-shopping. No matter what you need, we have it or we will get it for you. We save you time.
• Free Delivery - save you money.
• All prices - you will not be disappointed. When you come to our store, you will find what you want within your budget! We save you money and minimize stress at the same time.
• Guarantee - If it doesn't fit or doesn't look good, we'll take it back - no questions asked. This gives peace of mind and freedom in making your decision.

If you get stuck determining the benefits, ask your customers! Why did you buy from us? If the answer is vague, be willing to go deeper and deeper until you get something tangible. For example:

• "I bought from you because I liked the furniture."
• You go further - "What did you like about it?"
• "It matched my existing office furniture."
• "So, you appreciated the variety we offer? Did you look anywhere else? What did you find there - good and bad? Were there any other reasons you bought from us?"

This may be stressful for you, and you may feel like you're bugging your customers. Again, put your feet in your customers' shoes - do you think your customers want you to succeed? If your vendors called to ask you to help them, would you? If you're still uncomfortable, offer an incentive or gift to customers who help you to do this research.

Another way to define benefits that are important to your prospects is to determine their needs and define their problems. By fully understanding your potential customers' needs and problems, you can better give them what they want. Sometimes your prospects don't fully understand their needs and problems, so doing this research in advance and being prepared with this information, you can help them even more.

Now you can talk to anyone about your product!

About The Author

Audrey Burton, Business and Life Coach. Audrey is a caring, but no-nonsense coach. Audrey's ultimate goal is to help women to be happy with their work and life. She keeps you focused and motivated by helping you set priorities according to only your agenda. To sign up for her free, monthly email newsletter and to better understand how she works, visit her website at http://www.audreyburton.com. You only live once - love your life today! coachaudrey@audreyburton.com

RELATED ARTICLES Success Reloaded: The Matrix So the other day I'm watching the movie The Matrix, again. For some reason I can't get enough of the great special effects. Breaking Through The Comfort Zone Barrier After completing a workshop on personal productivity or time management, we usually find participants react to the instruction on goal-setting in one of three ways:1. Some workshop attendees really don't want their lives to change nor does a greater level of achievement appeal that much to them. Nine Keys to Make your Sales Copy Convincing Would you pay $12,500 to discover the keys to great sales copy? Maybe not, but Brian Keith Voiles did. And he put it to use for Fortune 500 Companies. Mindset Over Materials: The Secret Weapon of Sustainable Sales Success Long-term sales success has less to do with skills or knowledgethan you might think. Nor are stunning brochures or excellentproducts guaranteed to make one iota of impact over time. A Stupid Question, but it has to be asked This is a stupid question but it has to be asked.Does your sales letter create as many sales as you would like?What proportion of them respond to your advert?What is just as important, how many of those that respondedactually purchased your product?How can you improve the response rate?How many new email addresses did you capture?Do you have an 'opt in' strategy so that you can mail them later with more offers without being accused of spamming?Let us look at the sales letter first. Increasing Short and Long Term Profits "I was at your site for all of two minutes before I bought one of your manuals. I'm impressed!" I love to get emails like this one sent by Vicki from Tucson, Arizona. Six Simple Steps for Getting More Applications When I first started out as a loan officer, one of the things I found to be the toughest, was taking an application over the phone. I just didn't seem to have the skills, nor did I have a plan. Flea Marketing Lessons A few days ago, I was signing copies of my book - Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness - at the flea market. Nobody expects an author to sign books at a flea market. Getting Referrals ReferralsA substantial part of your business can come from referrals. The key is to provide extraordinary customer service and educate your clients and influencers to this fact. Whats So Special About You? Defining Your USP Your prospect is in the market for a widget, just like the one you sell. She surfs over to Google (or picks up her Yellow Pages) and looks up "widgets. Selling: an art of a skill? Selling is as much an art as it is a skill. The basics of the selling process can be learned by anyone, but the practice of selling is something that the super star sales people have brought to an art level. How Can Fundraising Consulting Help Us Raise Money? If you need to hold a fundraiser and don't know where to begin there is help out there for you. It is time for you to seek fundraising consulting advice especially if your fundraising event is going to be on a larger scale. Why Executives Wont Take Your Call Do you hang up on telemarketers? 9 times out of 10 I do. Why do we do this? I hang-up because I am afraid that they are going to waste my time. When Selling, Keep It Simple Stupid! After our first half-hour telephone coaching session, when asked what he thought about our training, my client felt the learning process we had undertaken together earlier in the week, "was a bit too elementary." As a Branch Manager with over 18 years of sale experience, a supervisor who must also produce sales over and above the five representatives reporting to him, when he purchased our training, he thought that he would receive and then drill-for-skill some new and yet undiscovered selling process that would magically change his ability to produce sales. Sell More Products and Services with Testimonials Testimonials are all-important to sell anything. You may already have testimonials for your new book and service, but do you have testimonials for other promotional pieces? Next time you check out a Web site, notice the testimonials. 10 Tips To Overcome Your Fear Of Selling Ahh. Selling. Solution-Sell is a Myth! Who among us is not already up to here with the omni-smarts who wax poetic the benefits of "Solution Selling." Now it may seem strange for me, the author of the book "Up Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitability" to cast aspersions on the merits of this approach. 5 Ideas for Writing Effective Sales Letters Sales letters, sent via e-mail or snail mail, are an effective and inexpensive way to get your message out. Even if your letter goes out to thousands of people, it can give the feel of a personal communication - IF you write it in a direct and conversational tone. Count Down To An Advert There are hundreds of books available to teach you how to write a good sales letter/advert. If you were to read them all it would be possible to distil all of the recommendations into a 'What to do list' similar to the one below. Going Global: Communication Across Mental Boundaries A completed communication consists of a sender and a receiver. If there is just a sender - like in a pitch, or a lecture, or a commercial, or advertisement, or even a newsletter - it's not a communication, but an assertion, or a monologue, or an opinion.