Every sales trainer or training manual will teach you that value building comes from presenting features and benefits. Some use FFB - Feature, Function, Benefit; others use FAB - Feature, Advantage, and Benefit. At Auto University, we've taught the concept of FBT, which stands for Feature, Benefit and Tie-down.

Recently, however, we've decided there may be another value added component that can help a customer make a good decision. This isn't a new idea, just a rarely used one in conjunction with a Feature and Benefit presentation. It's called Consequence, and it can make the difference in the sale when used appropriately and in the customer's best interest.

F-B-C-T

Take a very common circumstance that occurs in a service drive. The customer has uneven wear on his or her front tires, indicating the need for an alignment or a tire rotation. Using a typical approach to selling, you might present the need like this:

"I'd like to recommend a 4 wheel alignment (Feature). This adjusts the angle of the wheels so they are perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other (Function). In other words, it's designed to give your tires maximum life and it makes your car track straight and true on a level road (Benefit)."

Now you can add the Consequence:

"When you don't align your wheels, you get the type of wear you're beginning to see here. And it will continue to wear more quickly; it will cause poor handling, and require you to replace your tires more often. And that will cost you more money"

"which doesn't make good economic sense, does it? (Tie-down)"

Please remember that using this strategy is meant to be coupled with a customer focused and professional sales approach. We never recommend using these tools to sell something that a customer doesn't need or won't benefit from. It's always customer first at Auto University.