Software is being built faster than ever, which means it’s more difficult for companies to differentiate with their product. Any feature differentiators you offer (that matter) will be quickly built by your competition.
When products are equal, how you sell needs to become the differentiator. And small tweaks in how you present features will make a big difference.
You have to stop thinking about your job as “selling your product.” Your job is to translate the value.
Instead of saying:
“You asked about reporting, here’s our dashboard…”
Say:
“You mentioned your VP needs to spot trends early. Here’s how this dashboard alerts them before deals go sideways.”
Instead of:
“You asked about guarding your releases, here’s where you set the metrics…”
Say:
“You mentioned monitoring your releases over the weekend. Here’s how LaunchDarkly gives your weekends back by guarding the metrics you care about while you spend time with the people you care about.”
Instead of:
“You asked about highlighting the most likely accounts to buy, here’s where we stack rank your territory…”
Say:
“You mentioned 20% of your pipeline sits with accounts where you aren’t likely to win.
Here’s how we’ll flag accounts actively looking for solutions like yours – so you can reach out to them before they inbound to your competition.”
You could show nearly the same demo as your competitor. If they explain features while you translate value, your prospect will perceive that your product is higher quality.
And if you are explaining features while they translate value, you’ll lose.
I’ll give you a quick homework assignment (if you want to actually get better at this):
Write out the top 10 most frequent features you talk about/show in demos.
For each one, list:
- Problems it solves for your customers
- Value it provides (in their language)
- A customer story that proves the above
Then, next time you talk about those features, use that list to translate “what it does” to “why it matters.”
And you’ll see engagement on your calls skyrocket.
Here’s an AI prompt you can use do build this out quickly – the main gap will likely be surfacing a specific customer story that maps back to the feature. But it will still give you a head start on the exercise:
Prompt: (Fill in company, feature one, feature two, and feature three)
I’m an AE selling for [company]. I need to translate features that I commonly show to prospects into value.
Here are the features:
[Feature one] [Feature two] [Feature three]
Research these features using our website + websites of competitors that offer similar features. Analyze expected value of these features if used correctly/following best practices. Generate stories of how this feature would add value for the intended users.
Here are three examples to review before conducting the requested research and returning results:
Feature One: Deal trend dashboard
Value translation for feature one: “You mentioned your VP needs to spot trends early. Here’s how this dashboard alerts them before deals go sideways.”
Feature Two: Guarded Releases
Value translation for feature two: “You mentioned monitoring your releases over the weekend. Here’s how LaunchDarkly gives your weekends back by guarding the metrics you care about while you spend time with the people you care about.”
Feature Three: Highlighting buyer propensity in accounts
Value translation for feature three :“You mentioned 20% of your pipeline sits with accounts where you aren’t likely to win. Here’s how we’ll flag accounts actively looking for solutions like yours – so you can reach out to them before they inbound to your competition.”
Return results in this format: [Feature one]: [Value translation for feature one] [story of use case]
Let me know if you try this and if it’s helpful!
Kyle
