Don’t sell cyber security. Sell “you’ll sleep better at night” (features vs benefits)

Ordinary business owners and managers don't buy the services you sell. They buy what these services can do for them *

Put another way, they buy the benefits not the features.

• Features are what something does

• Benefits describe why this matters to them

Understanding this and looking at the world from their point of view will change your marketing and sales for ever and ever.

Here are some examples

• They don't buy cyber security. They buy "you can sleep better at night knowing your data is safe"

• They don't buy password managers. They buy "you never have to think about passwords ever again. The software does everything so you don't have to"

• They don't buy network monitoring. They buy "if something goes wrong, we'll know and fix it before it affects you"

• They don't buy 'the cloud'. They buy "work anywhere on anything at any time, without any hassle"

• They don't buy backups. They buy "you'll never have that sick feeling of not being able to find that critical file"

• They don't buy email signatures. They buy "you can promote your core message in every single email everyone sends"

• They don't buy managed services. They buy "someone else is doing everything for you, so you don't have to think about it. If there is a problem help is seconds away. And it's a fixed cost every month so there's nothing to ever worry about"

* The exception to this rule is when you are selling co-managed IT. Here you are selling to people who understand and know about the technology concepts that are foreign to normal decision makers. It's why co-managed IT needs a completely different marketing and sales approach based more around building trust, credibility and a working relationship.