Colorado Agriscience Curriculum
Section: / Advanced AgribusinessUnit: / Agriculture Sales
Lesson Title: / Recognizing Product Features and Benefits
Colorado Ag Education Standards and Competencies / AGB11/12.06 - The student will demonstrate teaming skills through problem solving activities in agriculture business management.
Identify situations where compromise is necessary.
Give and receive constructive criticism.
Conduct a sales/promotion activity.
Prepare and present a group presentation.
Colorado Model Content Standard(s): / English Standard 1: Students read and understand a variety of materials.
English Standard 2: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
English Standard 3: Students write and speak using conventional grammar usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
English Standard 4: Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing
English Standard 5: Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.
Student Learning Objectives: / As a result of this lesson, the student will:
1. Understand the difference between features and benefits
2. The student will understand how to perform a successful demonstration of a product, including features and benefits
3. Understand the methods to get the customer involved in the feature/benefit demonstration
Time: / 50 Minutes
Resource(s): / Agriculture Sales, Yorke, 2004
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/us_ag/layout/productivity_traits/rr_alfalfa/features.asp
Instructions, Tools, Equipment, and Supplies: / Italicized words are instructions to the teacher, normal style text is suggested script.
Projector and PowerPoint capabilities or transparencies of slides
Jerky samples in original package, one per group of four.
Note-taking material for each student
One copy of assessment per student
One copy, per student, of activity, pages A and B
Interest Approach: / Students will be role-playing with a partner for this exercise. They are going to play the part of the “used car salesman”, and try to “sell” their partner a vehicle that their family owns. Give them three minutes each to make the successful sale.
How many of you are feeling a little…sleazy today? Do you think you have what it takes to sell ice to an Eskimo? Are you a wheeler-dealer type of a guy or gal? Do you have the gift of gentle coercion? If so, today is your day! We are going to learn how to successfully sell a product. Before we begin, I would like you to find a partner that you haven’t worked with in this class for at least a month. When I say “sell that junker”, you are going to work as hard as you can to sell any vehicle that your family owns to your partner. Of course, no property will actually change hands, but that’s just a minor detail! Think of the most broken down, most dilapidated, most hideous vehicle that sits behind your house or in your lineup of farm equipment. You must tell your partner the five best points, or proven physical features of that vehicle, and then expand on each feature to tell them how it will help them when they own the car. For example, if I try to sell you my old farm pick-up, I may say that the floor boards are rusted out. That is the feature because I can prove it. The benefit is that your feet will have automatic air conditioning all year long! Any questions? Oh, one more thing…when the first partner is finished, switch roles and complete the same activity!
“Sell that junker!”
Objective 1: / The student will understand the difference between features and benefits
Great job my favorite used car salesmen and saleswomen! I do truly believe you all could sell ice to an Eskimo now! Believe it or not, we already have a head-start with this lesson. As I project the following notes on the board, please capture them in your notes.
Display slides 2 and 3.
What is a product feature?
• Product features are those characteristics of a product that can be proven.
– Sight
– Heard
– Touched
– Smelled
– Tasted
– Proven in tests by an outside source.
What is a product benefit?
• Product benefits are direct advantages that customers will achieve by using a product.
• They are usually specific to a feature.
• Example:
– Feature: T-Shirts made in America with American cotton
– Benefit: Support American families and farmers.
Objective 2: / The student will understand how to perform a successful demonstration of a product, including features and benefits.
Great job salesmen! We are ready to move into a product demonstration, which is the heart and sole of selling. Go ahead and pull out your note-taking paper as we learn the steps of a successful demonstration.
Project slides 4 and 5
Guidelines for the Feature/Benefit Demonstration
1. Prepare for the demonstration in advance
1. Be prepared and practice
2. Learn how to use the product
3. Understand the product warranty
4. Be prepared to answer questions
5. Don’t make up answers…reply with “I’m not sure, but I’ll look it up and get back to you.
2. Match your products benefits and features to the customer’s needs
3. Point out the most apparent benefits first
4. Involve the customer
5. Keep communication positive
6. Close the sale
Objective 3: / The student will understand the methods to get the customer involved in the feature/benefit demonstration.
Students are going to use jerky samples in their first real sales project. They are going to team up with another pair of students, and work together their buddy from the interest approach to sell the other pair a jerky sample. Hand out one jerky sample to each group of four students. They need to find four features and four corresponding benefits (ex. Low sodium= feature, benefit is a healthier snack. They can sample the jerky via smell, sight, touch, and taste, but they need to leave enough for the next group as well.)
Write the following things on the board:
4 features of jerky
4 corresponding benefits of jerky
Involvement of the customer (remember the five senses)
Is anyone hungry? Have I got a deal for you! There are many kinds of jerky on the market these days, and all of them claim to be the best! Using the package, I want you and your partner from the introduction to “sell” your jerky to another pair of students. They will be grading you on the following: Use of four features of the jerky, four corresponding benefits, and involvement of the customer. You can use any means necessary to “sell” this jerky, but today we are really focusing on the features and benefits. When I say “Jerky”, the first group will have three minutes to sell their product. When I blink the lights, the other group will take over as the seller. Be sure to save enough jerky for both groups to use in their demonstrations.
Was anyone successful in their sales? Great! You have just learned a few great ways to get the customer involved in the sale of your product. Please capture these notes on your paper:
Project slides 6 and 7.
Methods to Create an Interactive Demonstration
• SIGHT: Show your product in an interesting, colorful, and even 3-D way.
• HEARING: Appeal to their ears by loud, soft, or soothing sounds.
• TOUCH: Get your customer involved in handling a product.
• SMELL: Appeal to their noses, or bring back smells that remind them of home. Smell is very strongly linked to memory.
• TASTE: People are motivated by food! Offer food samples for tasting.
Review/Summary: / Students will complete a hieroglyphics E-Moment, whereby they will draw, next to their notes, figures or simple drawings that will help remind them of features, benefits, and methods of getting the customer involved with the demonstration process.
Application--Extended Classroom Activity: / Fill out the Roundup Ready Alfalfa activity, by reading page A and answering the questions on page B.
Answers to activity:
1. What is the product being sold?
Roundup Ready Alfalfa
2. What is a product feature?
A proven fact about the product
3. What is a product benefit?
The translated benefit to the consumer because of
the specific benefit.
In the space provided below, use the left column to find the features of the alfalfa, and use the right column to find the corresponding benefits.
PRODUCT FEATURE / PRODUCT BENEFIT
Roundup Ready Alfalfa eliminates poisonous and low-quality weeds / Better feed product
Higher yield with cleaner forage / Opportunity for greater
profit
RRA provides for healthier, faster-growing stands / Less injury and faster
Growth rates
30 year history of safe use / Roundup is a trusted
brand
Unsurpassed weed control / Contributes to better
quality alfalfa hay earlier
in the season
Flexibility and simplicity of application / Reduced time spent in
the field
Earlier established plants / Fewer weeds and cover
crop growth with time
Application--FFA Activity: / Prepare a team in the Ag. Sales Competition
Encourage students to use their features and benefits skills in your annual fund-raiser, such as fruit sales.
Encourage students to write two features about themselves, create a benefit for each, and use it in your live member sale auction.
Application--SAE Activity: / Encourage students to fill out an Ag. Sales and Service Proficiency
Evaluation: / See assessment.
Evaluation Answer Key: / Answers to assessment:
1. F
2. F
3. B
4. B
5. B
6. F
7. F
8. B
Name:
Date:
Features and Benefits Assessment
Next to each number, write “F” for feature or “B” for benefit. Remember that features are proven facts, whereas benefits are the results of the feature for the consumer
___1. The mower is quieter than any other model on the market.
___2. This bull has offspring with proven lower birth weights.
___3. This bull throws smaller calves, resulting in less time assisting the
first calf heifers.
___4. This heater offers a propane back-up, resulting in less down time in
the greenhouse.
___5. This accounting program allows you to do a payroll summary by
month, allowing you to spend less time at the computer.
___6. Ethanol is cleaner burning in most new pick-ups.
___7. The new roping gloves are seamless.
___8. The new seamless roping gloves are more comfortable and longer
lasting.
Activity, Page A, Info Sheet
· Roundup Ready® Alfalfa allows you to improve management practices that can lead to better quality hay.
· Fewer weeds - In trials against competitive systems, Roundup Ready Alfalfa, with a proven weed control system, had more consistent, high quality hay. Effective weed control has a positive impact on alfalfa purity from stand establishment forward. / / /
/ /
/ Weed Control Recommendations /
/ /
/ RRA Technology Use Guide /
/ /
/ Roundup Ready® Alfalfa Brochure /
/ /
· Better feed - The Roundup Ready Alfalfa System can help eliminate poisonous and low-quality weeds, producing a better feed product.
· Superior crop safety - Built-in tolerance means healthier, faster-growing stands when sprayed with Roundup® agricultural herbicides. Other commonly used herbicide treatments can cause visible injury and growth reduction at labeled rates and timings.
· Trusted Brand - Use of an environmentally sound weed control system and a herbicide with a 30-year history of safe use. Roundup agricultural herbicides have favorable environmental characteristics, such as binding tightly to soil particles and making it unlikely to move into groundwater. Glyphosate also degrades over times into naturally occurring materials.
· Unsurpassed weed control - When compared to other herbicide programs, the Roundup Ready Alfalfa System provided significantly improved control of more weeds present during stand establishment. Improved control at stand establishment reduces risk of stand failure and contributes to better quality alfalfa hay earlier in the stand life. /
· Simplicity and application flexibility - You may currently use a variety of herbicides and cultural practices to control weeds in alfalfa. Roundup Ready Alfalfa can reduce the time required and complexity of weed management in alfalfa.
· Enhanced establishment - The Roundup Ready Alfalfa System can enhance establishment and offer quick and effective removal of both weeds and cover crops for high quality first cuttings.
· Profit opportunity - The Roundup Ready Alfalfa System can provide substantially more profit opportunity than your current production system. You can produce cleaner, higher quality forage, so you get more hay yield. Your incremental profit opportunity in the establishment year alone can be $30 to $80 per acre
Activity Sheet, Page B
Name:
4. What is the product being sold?
5. What is a product feature?
6. What is a product benefit?
In the space provided below, use the left column to find the features of the alfalfa, and use the right column to find the corresponding benefits.
PRODUCT FEATURE / PRODUCT BENEFITUnit 6, Lesson 4: Recognizing Product Features and Benefits 1