EP339 How to Create a Benefits Ladder to Sell More This Year with Monica Sharma-Patnekar
“You’re not selling a product. You’re selling a lifestyle. You’re selling a movement. You’re selling the real feeling why people buy from you.”
This is one of the many insightful lessons from our podcast guest this week, Monica Sharma-Patnekar.
She has a Master’s in Business and over 16 years of experience
. She works in brand management, global marketing strategy, consulting with Fortune 500 companies like Google, scale-up tech, SaaS, and digital agencies that work with e-commerce businesses.
Monica helps them better communicate and connect with their real audience for predictable sales.
In this episode, she’ll help you dial in your customers’ key motivators and understand why people buy jewelry from you.
Monica unveils the secret to selling the benefits of your products to help you stand out in a saturated market as a timeless brand.
Your Dream Client Comes First
“If you don’t know who you’re speaking to, how are you going to sell your products?”
Monica says getting to know your customer is as simple as picking up the phone and having a chat with them. The 1:1 connection beats dry marketing surveys , and you’ll get to know your customer on a deeper level. This is especially crucial for lifestyle products like jewelry because you’re fulfilling a desire, unlike practical products that serve to solve a specific problem.
Monica adds, “We actually bring people in on emotions, but we urge them to buy on facts.”
She backs her strategies up with data. Rresearch done by a Harvard professor found that 95% of customer purchases are subconscious.
“We buy on feelings, and we’re unable to voice what that is.” Monica explains, “So, when you ask somebody, they’re not gonna want to tell you, they’ll give you all the logical reasons. They’re not lying. It’s just hard to voice that.”
Questions to Ask Your Customers
So what do you ask your customers if it’s hard for them to voice their emotions?
Monica suggests speaking to customers to get to know them instead of inventing them in your mind and making hypotheses about who they are.
She lays out four types of questions you need to ask them. These are what she calls the 4 Ds: Demographics, Desire, Do, and Delight. These questions ensure that you’re covering the important details about your customer’s life.
The Customer Benefits Ladder Explained
Monica uses this tool a lot with her clients, she calls it the Customer Benefits Ladder, which allows brands to shift their focus from product features to the emotions their brand evokes.
There are different levels of benefits: practical benefits, functional benefits, emotional benefits, societal benefits, and transformational benefits.
In the full episode, Monica gives in-depth examples of each, and talks about how to translatein-depth examples of each, and talks about how to translate your messaging and content to focus on the benefits of your products.
Why Should I Buy From You?”
Every small business owner needs to know how to answer one critical question: “Why should I buy from you?”
Position your content and marketing as an answer to this question. You can do this by highlighting the benefits of your product and hat makes it unique.
This perspectives shifts the narrative away from being problem-focused, and emphasizes the positive experience your customers have with your jewelry.
For example, you can market your jewelry as a timeless a keepsake. This isn’t solving a problem for people, but it’s adding something special to their life and fulfilling a desire.
You Are Not Your Own Customer
Monica runs into clients all the time who say they are their own customers. She she cautions business owners to avoid this trap. “You are not your own customer, because nobody is going to be exactly like you.”
“You can start with an idea that you have, and that is great. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she explains, . “But once you’re really running the business, and you want to grow it and you want to move out of being just a hobby, you have to find who you’re really speaking to. Who that person really is, because they’re never going to be just like you.”
Listen to the podcast episode above to hear Monica’s full interview and discover how to use the Customer Benefits Ladder to sell more in your jewelry business.
xo, Tracy
Links
Follow Monika Sharma-Patnekar on Instagram!
More Resources for Jewelry Designers
