How “3 F” Strategy Works in Sales And How To Use It Better?

‘Feel, Felt, Found’ technique could be a simple yet workable solution in sales, especially meeting the objection issue in sales.

What is‘Feel, Felt, Found’?

The standard formulation of the objection handling skill goes like this:

1. Tell your customers“I understand how you FEEL.” This statement avoids being argumentative and takes prospects’ objections seriously. It tells them you were listening and shows that you do indeed have their best interests at heart. This is intended to tell the customer that you have heard them and can empathize. This step really matters. This will let your customers consider you are with him. Then they are more willing to hear what you are going to say next.

For example, the customer thinks the price is higher than he expected. Here are two versions of replies. The first reply is like this “actually it’s not expensive...” and you then give your reasons. What do your customers feel? They feel you are denying their feelings. You are not with them. And they even feel offended. So, the better answer could be “You are right. And I thought it was expensive before. But later I found it is worth the money. ”

Note: You can deny one’s common sense, experience or anything, but never try to deny one’s feelings. No matter what sufficient reasons you can provide, it can only lead to one result: feeling offended. Thus, the key to using ‘Feel, felt, found’ is to admit the feelings your customers have are reasonable.

2. Tell them about someone else who FELT the same way initially. As with any example of ‘Feel, Felt, Found’, the ‘felt’ implies that although they felt that way in the past, they feel differently now. You’re telling the customer that they are not alone and that things can change. For example, you can tell your customers many of our clients FELT that way before they invested in our services. “For instance, Mr. White is in your line of work [church, age group, or other categories].” This shows prospects that their concerns are valid and the fact that you name other customers they can relate to who had the same concern builds trust in you. “He worried about that but…”

3. Then tell them how that person FOUND that when they did what you wanted/bought the product, they got what they wanted. What he FOUND was that… [your answer] there were lots of people with [concern]. However, his family enjoyed the club facilities, the contacts were valuable to his business, etc.

The similar experience from others tells him that what is being said is relevant to him. Telling other people feeling the same also reassures him that he’s not the only one, which is more likely to make him relaxed and open, rather than defensive.

 The Importance of ‘FOUND’

In order to better make use of ‘Feel, Felt, Found’ approach, you have to accurately find out what it is that the person is feeling or believing and find out something else they want or believe that is more empowering or useful for what was‘found’. The more convincing ‘Found’ actually lets your customers focus on more useful expectation rather than the objection they had before. The ‘Feel, Felt, Found’ technique only works unless the belief or desire in the ‘found’ section has to be important to the person. If they don’t value it, if it doesn’t carry some kind of emotional charge, the 3 F will have no power.

Conclusion

The general form of ‘Feel, Felt, Found’ is “Yes, you feel X, and some other person/people felt that way, and (or ‘but’) when they did Y they found Z”. This is only powerful, and it’s only going to speak to the person, if the Z is something they want, or care about, or believe in.

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