I’ve never been a fan of the Cheesecake Factory. The menu is enormous — every type of food imaginable. I always struggle to pick what’s best because it’s overwhelming. You don’t know where to start, and you end up wasting time just trying to figure out what matters most to you. In contrast, a few years ago, I went to Morimoto’s in Las Vegas. I told the chef, “Make me whatever you think I would enjoy.” He asked a few quick questions about allergies and preferences, and then prepared a meal that was perfect for me — exactly what I wanted without me having to wade through hundreds of options. It hit me immediately: this is exactly how we often sell. We give customers a huge menu of features, hoping they’ll pick what they need. But without guidance and framing around outcomes, they’re overwhelmed and unsure how to prioritize. When we lead with the right questions and context, we can craft a solution that hits exactly what matters — the business impact they care about.

Why Feature-Focused Selling Fails

Feature-focused selling is comfortable for engineers and SEs. It’s safe, technical, and allows us to stay within our comfort zone. But for executives and decision-makers, features are often meaningless until they’re translated into business impact. Customers hear the feature, but they try to guess at the outcome. Excessive detail can delay decisions or dilute attention. Feature-heavy presentations often miss opportunities to uncover pain or align to priorities.

Shifting to Outcome-Focused Selling

Outcome-focused selling flips the approach: instead of showing what the product does, you start with what the customer needs to achieve and explain the outcome others have achieved with your solution. Lead with business context: start by highlighting the customer’s goals, KPIs, or pain points. Translate features into outcomes: show how the product has delivered measurable business impact — revenue, cost savings, efficiency, risk reduction. Frame the conversation around decisions, not capabilities: focus on what the customer can do differently, not just what the product can do.

Example

Instead of saying, “Our platform automatically segments data across workloads,” say, “By segmenting workloads automatically, your operations team can reduce downtime by 25% and free up 15 hours a week previously spent on manual management — allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives.” Notice the difference: the second statement connects a technical capability to a tangible business result.

Storytelling & Mental Anchors

Stories are powerful in outcome-focused selling. Consider sharing how another customer achieved a similar outcome: who they were, what problem they faced, how your solution helped, and the measurable business impact. Stories also serve as mental anchors: they make outcomes memorable in a human way and allow your message to travel beyond your presence. A customer who hears a story will remember it and share it, effectively extending your influence.

Practicing Outcome-Focused Selling

Here’s a personal exercise to practice: pick a feature or capability of your solution. Write down at least three business outcomes it could enable, using real numbers or estimates. Role-play explaining the outcomes to a colleague, emphasizing why these outcomes matter. Ask for feedback: was it clear, relevant, and tied to measurable results? This exercise helps you translate technical features into outcome-focused narratives before client meetings.

What to Do When You Don’t Have Customer Stories

Not every solution has a library of customer stories. In those cases, interview peers or colleagues: ask them to recall successful outcomes, even small wins. Create expected outcomes: estimate the results your solution could deliver based on prior knowledge or similar deployments. Document continuously: capture outcomes from every engagement to build a growing library of stories over time. Even hypothetical or projected outcomes can be powerful when framed logically and clearly, giving executives a reference point to understand potential impact.

How to Practice Telling Stories with Outcomes

Start by selecting one customer or engagement, real or hypothetical. Write a short narrative that describes the challenge, your solution, and the measurable business result. Include numbers, metrics, or percentages if possible. Then share the story with a peer and ask them to retell it back in their own words — this shows if the outcome is memorable and understandable. Repeat this process for multiple features or capabilities, gradually building a set of stories that can be used in client conversations. Over time, you’ll develop the skill to tell short, compelling, outcome-focused stories on the fly, even in unscripted situations.

Closing Thought

Outcome-focused selling is not just a technique — it’s a mindset. By connecting product capabilities to real-world business impact and using stories as human anchors, you create trust, credibility, and engagement. Features alone may impress engineers, but outcomes win decisions — and stories ensure your impact is remembered long after you leave the room.