Benefits please

So I'm trying to sell a machine without just presenting a dry set of specifications that are superficially indistinguishable from everyone else's. I want to stand out in the market. I want people to have a clear idea about my product that makes it different.

You can get there with features: "We have the most RPM." The problem, of course, is that this territory is too easy for others to move into. Every machine builder is getting its core components from the same few global suppliers, which means you almost never have an actual technological advantage. You might make design tweaks that allow you to make a claim of technological superiority, but, if you are successful, it is easy for others to make the same tweaks and quickly say "Me, too."

The machine builder's real strength is in his design creativity and his ability to understand manufacturing problems and make equipment that pulls together a million variables to present the best solution to those problems. It is almost impossible to quantify those elements by simply naming the features. You can say you are all about providing solutions, but what does that mean, exactly? That your machine is infinitely customizable? Now you are a special machine builder and not a brand name machine tool manufacturer. Different businesses, very different price points, and your customer knows it. What you want to say is that you have come up with a superior solution to a general category of manufacturing challenges. That solution is contained in the features of the machine, but is greater than the sum of its parts. If an engineer reads all your specs, goes into a sensory deprivation tank and meditates on the interplay of your design elements, he may arrive at a place where he can agree that your design is the most elegant and functional. But what are the chances he's going to do that?

The solution is to talk about the benefits of your design directly. Machinery manufacturers try to do this, of course, but here is where their courage fails them. Because they are engineers themselves, they hate vagueness. They fear that unless they back up their benefit claims with a raft of technical data, no one will believe them. This is true, to a point. The technical data has to be there, somewhere. Preferably in a box on the back page of the brochure. What you need to understand is, the brochure (or ad, or trade show sign) is never going to accomplish the whole selling process itself. It is there to create demand. It is there to build your brand. These are capital equipment purchases. At some point, the engineers are going to get a complete specification for your machine and spend hours poring over every detail. The marketing communication is there to get you to that point, not to take them past it. You have to have the courage to say "My product is the best," without going into an immediate song and dance about why.

The next area of great fear for machinery builders is making specific claims about the actual production capabilities of their equipment. There are good reasons for this. Just because you build a great machine does not mean the customer will use it properly, and just because he doesn't use it properly doesn't mean he won't sue you if it doesn't do what you said it would. U.S. machinery marketers have to be exceedingly careful in this area because everything is so litigious there. And Canadian distributors tend to rely on marketing communications material prepared for the U.S. market. But here in Canada, lawsuits are almost never worth the time and expense. Going to court over over competing, subjective interpretations of productivity claims in a machinery ad is just about always going to cost the end user more than he gets awarded, and he stands a good chance of losing outright. Of course, he can tell his friends you suck, and you will probably have to try to make him happy somehow, but if your message is getting your machinery out there and most people are using it properly and obtaining the benefits you claim, he will quickly become a voice in the wilderness. Canadian machinery distributors often miss this opportunity to be more aggressive in their claims than their U.S. counterparts. What if the ad headline said, "The SUX 2000 will make 45,000 widgits per shift." (Where 45,000 is, obviously, a high number the competition can't beat.) How could any engineer making widgits deny this message? What vector does he have for ignoring or discounting it outright? If he has any budget for equipment, doesn't he have to at least engage you in conversation?

Another overlooked way to talk about benefits is to go to secondary or tertiary benefits. Why does the company want faster equipment? To save time and make more money, of course. How about, "This machine will save you time no matter what production method you are using now"? Time saving messages are not uncommon, but they are often buried under a pile of blather about the marvelous technological features. But why not go even farther? What could your company do with more time and money? What could you do? How about a guy on a boat with beautiful women on it sailing past his competitor who is sweating over a broken machine? Cheesy, I know, but you get my point. You want your customer to have a specific feeling about your product. If you can become the product that might give him the life he wants, you are in the driver's seat.