Introduction
This is going to be one of those long rambling posts (well long for me anyway) about different approches to selling firefox. I use the term selling as a euphamism for convincing a user to switch. While there is no financial transaction there is some cost in terms of time and hassle of setting it up, time involved in learning the new interface, getting used to it and handling ‘objections’.
There’s an old retail process for selling and the demonstration part has the acronym FABG.
- Feature
- What the product has
- Advantage
- An advantage given by that feature
- Benefit
- The benefit of the advantage for the user
- Grabber
- Gets postitive response about the benefit
Firefox a lot of advocates don’t do the demonstration well and it is to their detriment so I though I’d jot down my thoughts. By demonstration I don’t mean that you necessarily have to be showing them firefox running, just that you demonstrate concepts, although some people find it easier if you do actually show them what you are talking about.
Selling by fear
This is probably the biggest technique used by antivirus vendors to sell to the technophobic. Essentially they convince the user that if they don’t use the latest ’superjapasonic2008 software’ that a ‘virus’ (I use the term loosly, most users don’t understand or care about wheter it’s a virus, worm or whatever) will take over their computer and empty their bank account, steal their pets, drink their beer etc.
Most followers of technology know that IE is the door through which windows nasties get in, because IE is tied to the OS, so this is frequently used to convince a user to switch. While at face value this offers obvious benefits to those in the know with internet stuff, it’s not to the average user.
While this can be an effective sales method for antivirus software the scare-sell is a not an ideal way to build trust and credibility for a browser. The first time a firefox vulnerability is announced the trust goes out the window.
Instead, try pitching it like this:
- Feature
- Firefox is a stand-alone browser
- Advantage
- The advantage of it being stand-alone is that it is not inherently tied to the operating system
- Benefit
- Were the browser to be compromised, the integrity of your system is more likely to remain intact
- Grabber
- The integrity of your computer system is important, isn’t it?
To which the response is (hopefully) positive.
Selling by features
By ’selling by features’ I mean giving the user a long list of features that mean absolutely nothing to them. “It has xyz and does abc while making you a cup of coffee” is all very well, but not everyone drinks coffee. Most ‘average’ users would just switch off. Blah blah blah blah…oh are you still paying attention?
It is important that you understand the users needs (that’s the probing part of the sales process, but that’s another story) so that you can demonstrate the features that offer them benefits. those benefits don’t have to be tangible either: emotional, ethical or other influences can be benefits too.
- Feature
- Firefox has tabbed browsing
- Advantage
- the advantage of tabbed browsing is that you only have to have one browser window open even if you ar looking at lots of pages
- Benefit
- This means that you can keep you desktop and taskbar less cluttered
- Grabber
- Don’t you prefer an un-clutterred workspace?
Again we hope for a positive response
You can continue with as many or as few FABGs as you feel necessary
Closing the sale
Once you have demonstrated a few features (including advantages, benefits and grabbers) it’s time for the ‘trial close’. This is where you test if the user is receptive to your sales job. Try something like: “So would you like me to install a few different themes when I install firefox?” To which the response will be either “yes”, “no, just firefox” or some objection. Unless you got an objection you proceed to install it, congratulating the user on their wise choice. You don’t have to keep going with the features, but it can be good to give positive reinforcement for their decision.
Handling Objections
This is a whole topic on its own. The one point I will make is that the stated objection is not necessarily the real objection. So go back to your probing and demonstration.
So there you go. Hopefully you get something out of this and can convince more users that firefox is the browser for them.
